Over 30 fragments purportedly from the Dead Sea Scrolls belonging to two private collections were... more Over 30 fragments purportedly from the Dead Sea Scrolls belonging to two private collections were published for the first time in Summer 2016. Virtually all of these fragments in The Schøyen Collection and Museum of the Bible are non-provenanced apart from verbal guarantees made by their sellers. An unusual feature of these fragments is that almost all of them correspond to texts from the Hebrew Bible, but also to a few previously known compositions from antiquity. This paper examines the published fragments from both collections according to their observable physical properties, as well as palaeographical and scribal characteristics, and seeks to understand from these more about their potential origin—whether from antiquity or modern times.
In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them ... more In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them through the Kando family. In this article we will present evidence that nine of these Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments are modern forgeries.
This is a review of Liv Ingeborg Lied and Hugo Lundhaug, "Snapshots of Evolving Traditions: Jewis... more This is a review of Liv Ingeborg Lied and Hugo Lundhaug, "Snapshots of Evolving Traditions: Jewish and Christian Manuscript Culture, Textual Fluidity, and New Philology," TU 175 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017) that was presented in the Book History and Biblical Literatures section at the 2017 Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.
Over 30 fragments purportedly from the Dead Sea Scrolls belonging to two private collections were... more Over 30 fragments purportedly from the Dead Sea Scrolls belonging to two private collections were published for the first time in Summer 2016. Virtually all of these fragments in The Schøyen Collection and Museum of the Bible are non-provenanced apart from verbal guarantees made by their sellers. An unusual feature of these fragments is that almost all of them correspond to texts from the Hebrew Bible, but also to a few previously known compositions from antiquity. This paper examines the published fragments from both collections according to their observable physical properties, as well as palaeographical and scribal characteristics, and seeks to understand from these more about their potential origin—whether from antiquity or modern times.
In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them ... more In 2002 new “Dead Sea Scrolls” fragments began to appear on the antiquities market, most of them through the Kando family. In this article we will present evidence that nine of these Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments are modern forgeries.
This is a review of Liv Ingeborg Lied and Hugo Lundhaug, "Snapshots of Evolving Traditions: Jewis... more This is a review of Liv Ingeborg Lied and Hugo Lundhaug, "Snapshots of Evolving Traditions: Jewish and Christian Manuscript Culture, Textual Fluidity, and New Philology," TU 175 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017) that was presented in the Book History and Biblical Literatures section at the 2017 Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.
This volume is a collection of essays written in honour of Martin G. Abegg from a range of contri... more This volume is a collection of essays written in honour of Martin G. Abegg from a range of contributors with expertise in Second Temple Jewish literature in reflection upon Prof. Abegg’s work. These essays are arranged according to four topics that deal with various aspects of text, language and interpretation of the Qumran War Scroll, and concepts of war and peace in Second Temple Jewish literature.
The contents of the volume are divided into the following four main sections: (1) The War Scroll, (2) War and Peace in the Hebrew Scriptures, (3) War and Peace in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and (4) War and Peace in early Jewish and Christian texts and interpretation.
The Cave 4 Apocryphon of Jeremiah C from Qumran survives in several copies, and presents signific... more The Cave 4 Apocryphon of Jeremiah C from Qumran survives in several copies, and presents significant links between the prophet Jeremiah, the scriptural book of Jeremiah, and the collectors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Because the prophet is only occasionally named in the Scrolls, and there are only a few clear instances where the book is cited, Jeremiah appears to have had a limited impact on the imagination of the Qumranites. However, through a careful appraisal of the Apocryphon manuscripts, and a reconsideration of Jeremiah's influence in the Dead Sea Scrolls via his reputational authority, this study shows that clusters of traditions were tied to Jeremiah’s prophetic and priestly distinction, with an emphasis on matters of leadership and empire.
This is a public lecture that took place at TWU sponsored by the TWU Dead Sea Scrolls Institute a... more This is a public lecture that took place at TWU sponsored by the TWU Dead Sea Scrolls Institute and the Alumni Association on Re-Imagining the Scriptural Past in the Dead Sea Scrolls. A curious feature in the study of textual transmission and the development of ideology in early Judaism is the treatment of the Prophet of Jeremiah and the book that bears his name. By way of analogy to the modern phenomenon of the internet dissemination of "facts" about Chuck Norris, Dr. Davis illustrates how the reputation of Jeremiah the prophet strongly influenced a wide range of traditions and texts that survive from Second Temple Judaism.
Abstract: We are now seven decades removed from the original “discoveries” of Dead Sea Scrolls in... more Abstract: We are now seven decades removed from the original “discoveries” of Dead Sea Scrolls in a by-gone era, but finds of which would presently be condemned by the SBL as “looting.” These first discoveries have dramatically shaped scholarly attitudes for years in favour of tacit acceptance of huge numbers of cultural treasures on private antiquities markets, which continue to be maintained through criminal activity. Moreover, it has been 15 years since Christopher Rollston established a set of detailed methodological protocols for treating unprovenanced epigraphic Hebrew texts, and a fascinating question is why scholars continue to skirt and avoid them. The Scrolls discoveries played a significant role in the 2016 publi-cation of unprovenanced—plausibly forged—manuscripts in private collections; an act itself that is rightly construed as unethical in that it—explicitly or otherwise—“feeds the illicit market.” The original discoveries have been instrumental in eroding over time the critical scientific principle of Cartesian doubt—the systematic process of methodological scepticism in the process of sorting true and false claims—in the handling and study of cultural heritage. There is a troubling irony in the role that Hebrew palaeography has played in the treatment of authenticity claims that spans the past sixty years. This paper intends to trace the historical appraisal of palaeography as it has been used to ground authenticity claims about the Dead Sea Scrolls, and to show how this has factored progressively in to a suspension of Cartesian doubt in scholarship to allow most recently and carelessly for the publication of numerous probable forgeries. I will consider preconceptions and biases in the handling of religiously sensitive material, will draw attention to various questionable outcomes from a starting point of ubiquitous acceptance, and offer some thoughts about how disciplined, sceptical inquiry might go beyond the protection of our historical and cultural datasets to effectively improve studies of ancient manuscripts more generally.
This is a preliminary work of comparison between recently published fragments from two private ma... more This is a preliminary work of comparison between recently published fragments from two private manuscript collections: The Schøyen Collection and the Museum of the Bible. In this survey I analyze physical and scribal features according to eight criteria, and suggest from these findings a relatively well established pattern of correspondence that should lead us to raise serious questions as to both the provenance of these manuscripts, and ultimately their authenticity.
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The contents of the volume are divided into the following four main sections: (1) The War Scroll, (2) War and Peace in the Hebrew Scriptures, (3) War and Peace in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and (4) War and Peace in early Jewish and Christian texts and interpretation.