Ancient Hebrew scroll reveals oldest scripture text

Sep 30, 2016

KENTUCKY, USA: Researchers have deciphered an ancient Hebrew scroll to reveal the earliest copy ever found of an Old Testament scripture, NPR reports.

Using specialised X-ray imaging, a team of computer scientists from the University of Kentucky created a picture of the writing inside the scroll without unwrapping or touching the charred scroll.

The writing, in Hebrew, reveals that the Ein Gedi Scroll is a section of Leviticus.

Radiocarbon dating suggests the document was written in the third or fourth century, after the Dead Sea Scrolls and before biblical fragments found in Egypt, NPR says.

The research team calls the image reconstruction technique the team invented “virtual unwrapping,” beginning with a non-invasive process known as “microcomputed tomography.”

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, the Guardian adds.

“We were amazed at the quality of the images,” said Dr Michael Segal, head of the School of Philosophy and Religions at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“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.”

However, the contents of the scroll were 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. -- Global Pulse Magazine