Many of my readers are aware of the publication of Ross Nichols’s new book, The Moses Scroll that chronicles the whole Moses Shapira Saga and the question of whether or not the 19th century “Dead Sea Scroll” was most likely ancient or a modern forgery. I just received word from Nichols…
From Ross Nichols. Well worth reading. An Easter 1883 resurrection. Then and now https://themosesscroll.com/moses-shapiras-manuscript-and-an-easter-to-remember/ https://themosesscroll.com/moses-shapiras-manuscript-and-an-easter-to-remember/
Today’s international weekend edition of the New York Times has the Moses Shapira “Dead Sea Scroll” story, that appeared on-line March 10th, on the front page, above the fold! Congratulations to Idan Dershowitz for his years of painstaking work on the 1878 Shapira Scroll fragments–which have disappeared–trying to reconstruct them and…
Updated March 19th Okay, the expression is overused, but I like it: “When it rains it pours…” If you have been keeping up with the news, both in international media breaking headlines, and in the academic world of biblical studies and blogs–it is all about Dead Sea Scrolls–present and past…
I first heard of Moses Shapira in graduate school at the University of Chicago the summer of 1976. I remember the specific time as I was preparing for my Ph.D. exams, which included reading selections of the Dead Sea Scrolls in manuscript form. Fortunately, David Wilmot—who was a brilliant up-and-coming…
I will be reviewing this new book by Ross Nichols this weekend here on my blog. I highly recommend. I received my copy on my birthday, March 2nd, and could hardly put it down. Includes not only the most complete version of the Shapira story every published, but a reconstruction…
One of the more intriguing of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a fragment now titled “Messianic Apocalypse” (4Q521). This text contains three rather striking features that are of particular significance for comparing the apocalyptic beliefs and expectations of the Qumran community with the emerging early Christian movement. First, the text…
I am sometimes asked, “what is your greatest discovery or insight in the world of biblical archaeology?” I have been involved in or stumbled upon quite a few things over the past thirty years, including the “Tomb of the Shroud,” with Shimon Gibson, and our ground-breaking DNA and ancient disease…
There is a new article up at the fabulous website The Bible & Interpretation, by Ken Hanson. If you don’t know the web site check it out and bookmark. It is worth checking several times a week. Ken is Director of Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida. Some…
This semester I am offering an advanced undergraduate/graduate seminar on “The Dead Sea Scrolls and Earliest Christianity.” In preparation for this course I have been re-reading all of the published Dead Sea Scrolls as well as many of the secondary publications related thereto published over the past three decades. One…