by Yori Yalon
A burned scroll from the first centuries C.E. is deciphered by Israeli and American researchers using unprecedented digital technology -- and is found to contain verses from the biblical book of Leviticus that are identical to later versions.
The fragments of the
Leviticus scroll
|
Photo credit: Professor Brent Seales, University of Kentucky  |
Cutting-edge digital technology has brought a
charred ancient Torah scroll dated to the first centuries C.E. back to
life, and revealed that the scroll contains chapters from the biblical
book of Leviticus.
The scroll was discovered over 40 years ago
during excavations by the Archaeological Institute at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem at the ancient Ein Gedi synagogue, on the shores
of the Dead Sea in southern Israel. The late professors Dan Barag and
Ehud Netzer, as well as Dr. Sefi Porath, were in charge of the project.
For decades, the scroll could not be opened,
for fear it would crumble when touched. About a year ago, archaeologist
Pnina Shor, head of the Lunder Family Dead Sea Scrolls Conservation
Center at the Israel Antiquities Authority, decided to conduct a CT scan
on the scroll and submit the results to an expert in digital analysis
of ancient texts, Professor Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky,
to see if any digital methods were available that could allow the scroll
to be deciphered without opening it.
Seales threw himself into the challenge and
successfully recreated the first few layers of the charred scroll. The
unprecedented achievement is the fruit of close cooperation between the
American team of researchers, the IAA, and a team from the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
"Seales' scientific achievement is of immense
importance, and we were privileged to receive a 'new' scroll from the
Judean Desert, which offers another way of understanding how the wording
of the Bible as a whole evolved, and how the wording of the Torah in
particular was handed down," said Professor Michael Segal, head of the
Hebrew University Bible Project.
The reconstructed Leviticus text is identical to the text in later versions of the Bible.
Yori Yalon
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=36661
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