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Photo: Israel Antiques Authority

Haaretz is reporting that two Palestinians were arrested trying to sell a 2,000 year-old Hebrew scroll. Here is ax excerpt from the article:

Two Palestinians were arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing a rare antique Hebrew scroll and attempting to sell it for millions of dollars.

Police apprehended the two suspects in Jerusalem after an intelligence tip allowed police forces to trace their tracks and intercept the document’s sale.

The rare historical document, handwritten in Hebrew on papyrus paper and estimated to be more than 2,000 years old, is a bill surrendering property rights. The document was written by a widow named Miryam Ben Yaakov, and hails from a period in which the people of Israel were exiled from the area and very few Jews remained.

The scroll also, unusually, clearly indicates a precise date on the first line: “Year 4 to the destruction of Israel”. The intention is, presumably, either to the year 74 C.E. (the year when the Second Temple was destroyed during the Great Revolt) or to 138 A.D. (the annihilation of the Jewish settlement following the Bar Kokhva revolt).

The trafficking of stolen artifacts is illegal in Israel and elsewhere. Israeli authorities believe the scroll is authentic, but further investigation is necessary. One wonders how much ancient artifacts with important historical significance have been stolen or are in the hands of private collectors.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Hebrew Scroll

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