From David Hocking's newsletter davidhocking.org

BBC REPORTS THAT THE EARLIEST TEXT EVER FOUND OF THE OLD TESTAMENT HAS BEEN DISCOVERED IN THE ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE AT EIN GEDI IN ISRAEL!

By Joshua Tilton

 

Back in September, 2016 the BBC reported that a scroll discovered in the ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi "reveals the earliest text ever found of the Old Testament." Is this startling claim true?

While listening to the BBC news I was startled to hear a report announcing that a scroll discovered in the ancient synagogue at Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea "reveals the earliest text ever found of the Old Testament." This astounding claim was followed up by the bewildering statement that the scroll, dates "back to at least the third or fourth century." 

The BBC report did not specify whether the third or fourth century BC or AD was intended, a distinction of crucial importance in the present context.

As most readers of the Jerusalem Perspective are aware, biblical scrolls from the first century BC were among the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the caves at Qumran. One of the most spectacular of these finds was the Isaiah Scroll, which contains nearly the entire text of Isaiah. If the BBC is correct that the scroll from the Ein Gedi synagogue is the "earliest text ever found of the Old Testament," then this newly deciphered scroll would have to be older than the biblical scrolls from Qumran.

Baffled by the BBC's report, I wrote to Professor Emanuel Tov of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who kindly assured me in a brief e-mail that the scroll from Ein Gedi dates to the Common Era. Professor Tov also directed me to two publications that are freely available to the public, which describe the scroll and the means by which it was deciphered in accurate detail.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has also reported on the scroll from Ein Gedi in an article entitled, "The Most Ancient Hebrew Scroll Since the Dead Sea Scrolls has been Deciphered."

Several publications explain that the scroll, which was discovered was severely burned in the fire that destroyed the synagogue about 600 AD. The charred remains of the scroll were so fragile that they could not be unrolled, but a new digital imaging process has allowed experts to "virtually unwrap" the scroll.

This digital process has revealed that the scroll contains two columns of the beginning of the book of Leviticus on a single piece of rolled parchment. The first column contains Lev. 1:1-9 and the second column contains Lev. 2:1-11. It is clear that the scroll began with the book of Leviticus, but due to its damaged state it is impossible to determine what more the scroll may have contained beyond the portion that has been preserved. It may have included the entire book of Leviticus, and perhaps other books as well, but it was not a Torah scroll containing the five books of Moses.

In order to determine the age of the Ein Gedi Leviticus scroll scholars applied two methods: Carbon 14 dating and -paleographical analysis (i.e., judging the date on the basis of how the letters were written). The Carbon 14 analysis indicates that a third or fourth century AD date for the scroll's composition is the most probable, with a lesser probability of a second century AD date. Paleographical analysis, on the other hand, suggests that the scroll was written in the second half of the first century AD or possibly in the early part of the second century AD.

The synagogue in which the scroll was discovered was built in the third to fourth century AD and destroyed, as we have mentioned, around 600 AD. But it is not unreasonable to suppose that the scroll was older than the synagogue in which it was housed.

RABBIS URGE TRUMP, PUTIN TO HELP REBUILD TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM

Israel Today Staff

 

A group of leading Israeli rabbis see in US President-elect Donald Trump and Russia President Vladimir Putin echoes of King Cyrus of Persia, who 2,500 years ago assisted the Jewish people in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

Prof. Rabbi Hillel Weiss, a spokesman for the Sanhedrin, a modern effort to revive the ancient Jewish religious court, noted in remarks reported by Israel National News:

 

"The political conditions today, in which the two most important national leaders in the world support the Jewish right to Jerusalem as their spiritual inheritance, is historically unprecedented."

 

The Sanhedrin sent letters to both Trump and Putin urging them to work together to fulfill a project that will benefit all mankind - the rebuilding of the Holy Temple atop Jerusalem's hotly contested Temple Mount.

 

Both leaders have expressed support for Jewish claims to Jerusalem, though Trump has certainly been the most vocal of the two.

 

At any rate, Israel is "poised to rebuild the Temple," Weiss insisted.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Zechariah 6:12-13 speaks clearly that there will be a temple built by the Messiah (The BRANCH) and not by human hands. However, there is also a clear reference to a temple in the Tribulation period - the news note above is perhaps connected to that structure!