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Modern Technology Unlocks Secrets of a Damaged Biblical Scroll

(New York Times) Nicholas Wade - Nearly half a century ago, archaeologists found a charred ancient scroll at the Ein Gedi synagogue near the Dead Sea. The lump of carbonized parchment could not be opened or read. Technology perfected by computer scientists at the University of Kentucky has unfurled a digital image of the scroll, making it legible. It contains the first two chapters of the Book of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible. Nearly 2,000 years old, the scroll is the earliest instance of this text. "We may safely date this scroll" to between CE 50 and 100, wrote Ada Yardeni, an expert on Hebrew paleography. "We now have evidence that this text was being used from a very early date by Jews in the Land of Israel," said Dr. Michael Segal, a biblical scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who helped analyze the text.
2016-09-23 00:00:00
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