Page 7-THE NEWS-September, 1986
Newly Discovered Scrolls Exhibited at Israel Museum
JERUSALEM — Two silver
scrolls with the oldest Biblical
inscriptions ever found, more
than 400 years older than the
Dead Sea Scrolls, went on ex
hibition at the Israel Museum,
Jerusalem, on July 1,
The scrolls, from the Sev
enth Century B. C. E., during
the First Temple Period when
the kings of the House of
David still ruled Judah, were
discovered in a burial cave
overlooking Jerusalem’s
Valley of Hinnom, the “Valley
of Hell,” by Dr. Gabriel
Barkay of Tel Aviv Universi
ty, in a dig extending from
1975 through 1980. They were
deciphered in the Israel
Museum.
Nearly 1,000 archaeological
objects were discovered on the
site, from the First Temple Pe
riod through the Roman Peri
od, most of them in a single
below-the-surface repository
of a burial cave which man
aged to escape the eyes of an
cient grave robbers who had
looted the nearby caverns.
As important as the objects
found was the factual evidence
that Jews continued to inhabit
Jerusalem between the Exile
by the Babylonians in 586
B. C. E. through the Return
under the Persians in 538
B. C. E., many more than in
formation from historical
sources would indicate.
The inscribed silver scrolls
predate the Dead Sea Scrolls
by more than 400 years. Until
this new find, the Dead Sea
Scrolls were the oldest known
example of Hebrew Biblical
verses. When the Dead Sea
Scrolls were found in 1947
they, in turn, were 1,000 years
older than the then oldest
known Hebrew Biblical in
scription, the Aleppo Codex.
Peirts of the Aleppo Codex
were destroyed in Damascus
in December 1947, so the next
oldest known extant Hebrew
Biblical document after the
Dead Sea Scrolls is now the
Leningrad Codex, written in
Egypt in 929 C. E., and on dis
play in a Leningrad museum.
Over a two-month period,
the two small silver cylindrical
objects were laboriously
unrolled in the Israel Museum
Laboratories by Joseph
Shenhav, director of the
laboratories, and David
Bigleisen, who specializes in
archaeological restoration.
They had been silver
plaques, rolled into tight
scrolls, leaving a tiny space in
the center where a string could
be threaded, so they could be
worn on the body.
After the scrolls were un
rolled, one to a height of 97
mm. and the other to 39 mm.
(3.8 and 1.5 inches), ancient
Hebrew script was apparent,
especially the Tetragram-
maton, the ineffable name of
the Deity.
On further examination, 17
lines of writing were discerned
on the larger scroll, only a
small portion of it visible to
the naked eye. Further study
made it probable that both
scrolls originally contained 19
inches each.
The material was entrusted
to Ada Yardeni, an expert in
drawing First Century Period
script. She succeeded in de
ciphering part of the inscrip
tions on both pieces as
fragments of the Priestly Be-
nedition, which appears in the
Bible in Numbers 6:24-26. It is
translated customarily as:
The Lord bless you and keep
you;
The Lord make His face to
shine upon you and be
gracious unto you;
The Lord lift up His
countenance upon you and
grant you peace.
A modern translation is
found in the 1962 Bible
published by the Jewish
Publication Society:
The Lord bless you and keep
you!
The Lord deal kindly and
graciously with you!
The Lord bestow His favor
Lfter 20 years of crafting custom
furnishings, I know that tnie quality is
demonstrated in comfort and durability
you can feel, as well as in appearance...
in the deep glow of a solid rosewood
table, or the soft curve of a fine leather
chair.
That’s the heart of Kings Point
Furniture, where I have collected dis
tinctive ftimishings and accessories from fine
furniture makers around the world.
Come by Kings Point Rimiture. Talk
with me at my workshop in the stwe. And
touch the incomparable work of artisans
whose craft can ornament our lives.
Roger Goldman
KINGS POINT
furn ture
In the Old Pii« Office/212 Ntnth Trade Street
^^Mattf>ew», Ntnrh Can,4ina 28106 704^847-0700
up to you and grant you His
friendship!
In the Hebrew, the Tetra-
grammaton, the four letters
that signify the Diety,
YHWH, is the second word in
each line. The three lines are
composed of three, five, and
seven words, respectively. In
the Temple, the Tetragram-
maton was uttered by the high
priest; in the synagogue it is
pronounced “Adonai.”
The type of letters used
clearly indicates the time
period as late Seventh Cen
tury or early Sixth Century,
B. C. E. After the return from
Exile, in 538 B. C. E., the Jews
adopted the Aramaic letters as
their own.
The excavation of the nine
burial caves in the “Shoulder
of Hinnom” showed they had
been in use continuously, with
brief lapses, for the entomb
ment of the dead from the
First Temple Period through
the Roman Period.
“Of special interest are the
burials from the end of the
First Temple and from the
time after its destruction (the
Babylonian Period, Sixth Cen
tury, B. C. E.),” according to
Michal Dayagi-Mendels, cura
tor of the exhibition.
“Here,” she said, “assem
blages have been discovered
for the first time which afford
us a glimpse of a period
previously unrecorded in
Jerusalem....
“These tombs, in which sev
eral generations of the same
family were buried, contained
numerous funerary offerings
placed on the burial benches
next to the deceased. When
the burial benches were full,
the bones of the deceased were
collected and placed together
with the offerings in a deep
repository hewn in the floor.
“Fortunately, one of these
repositories escaped the
greedy hands of tomb robbers
and was found intact by the
excavators. It contained hun
dreds of offerings, including
personal possessions of the
deceased, pottery and glass
vessels, weapons, fascinating
epigraphic material and a rich
variety of gold and silver
jewelry, reflecting the lifestyle
of a wealthy Jerusalem family.
“The finds, which attest to
a continuous use of the cave
for burial in Babylonian and
Persian periods, throw new
light on life in Jerusalem after
the destruction of the city and
the exile of most of its popu
lation to Babylonia,’’ she
concluded.
The exhibition, in the
Museum’s Library Entrance
Hall, will be open to the public
until November.
The exhibition and poster
are sponsored by the Assoc
iates Division of the American
Friends of the Israel Museum.
The catalogue is by courtesy
of Julia Forchheimer.
•, V J
'i 'i ^ I-
Thom Powell
‘'A Museum of Gi/tf"
129 Perrin Place (Just off Providence Road)
Free Gift Wrap and City-Wide Delivery
i.AX..
Phone 376-6501
Please Touch
The Furniture
BUICK • JAGUAff • CMC • ALFA ROMEO
TNxola at 1-77 Charlotte, N.C. 28210
704-527-7711