En-Gedi: Ancient scrolls 'virtually' deciphered to reveal earliest Old Testament scripture

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/en-gedi-scrolls-'virtually-unwrapped'-old-testament-scripture/7866948

En-Gedi: Ancient scrolls 'virtually' deciphered to reveal earliest Old Testament scripture
Updated about 5 hours agoThu 22 Sep 2016, 1:05am
Photo: A composite image of the digital unwrapping of the En-Gedi scroll. (Commons: B Seales et a. Sci Adv. 2016: 2)
Related Story: Ancient scrolls scorched by Vesuvius may be read again

Map: Israel
An extremely fragile, ancient Hebrew scroll has been digitally unwrapped for the first time, revealing the earliest copy ever found of an Old Testament Bible scripture.

Key points

• Fire burned the En-Gedi scroll, rendering it into a small charred lump
  
• Micro-CT scan picked up traces of metal in ink from charred scrolls, revealing original text
  
• Researchers describe it as "a significant discovery in biblical archaeology"
  

Known as the En-Gedi scroll, it contains text from the Book of Leviticus, and dates at least to the third or fourth century, possibly earlier, according to a report in the journal Science Advances.
The scroll was discovered by archaeologists in 1970 at En-Gedi, the site of a large, ancient Jewish community dating from the late eighth century BC.
But contents of the En-Gedi scroll were long thought to be lost forever, because it was destroyed in a fire in 600AD and was impossible to touch without dissolving into chunks of ash.
"Each fragment's main structure, completely burned and crushed, had turned into chunks of charcoal that continued to disintegrate every time they were touched," the study said.
Now digital technology has enabled researchers to "virtually unwrap" the scroll to decipher its contents.
A micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scan was able to pick up traces of metal in the ink revealing the original text.
"We were amazed at the quality of the images," Dr Michael Segal, head of the School of Philosophy and Religions at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said.
"Much of the text is as readable, or close to as readable as actual unharmed Dead Sea Scrolls [the oldest scrolls ever found] or high resolution photographs of them."

Researchers hope techniques can be used on Dead Sea Scrolls

The scroll shows 18 lines of text in each column, which were originally 35 lines long.
Like other ancient Hebrew scrolls, it contains only consonants and no vowels, as symbols for vowels were not introduced in Hebrew until the 9th century.
Photo: The charcoal remains of the En-Gedi scroll which was destroyed in a fire. (Commons: Israel Antiquities Authority)

"We were immediately struck by the fact that in these passages, the En-Gedi Leviticus scroll is identical in all of its details both regarding its letter and section division to what we call the Masoretic text, the authoritative Jewish text until today," Dr Segal said.

Quote :

"The En-Gedi Leviticus scroll is the most extensive and significant biblical text from antiquity that has come to light since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls."

Researchers hope the techniques developed to read it will be used on other scrolls, including some from the Dead Sea Scroll collection, which have remained undecipherable until now.
Before the scroll was virtually unwrapped, experts believed the artefact may have been a Torah scroll.
But a look at the images showed it was the Book of Leviticus, from the third book of the Book of Moses.
This makes it the earliest Pentateuchal book — relating to the first five books of the Jewish or Christian scriptures — ever found.

The developments are described in the journal as a "significant discovery in biblical archaeology".
AFP