Published: 26 October 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Five proven Dead Sea Scroll forgeries only the tip of the iceberg, scholars say (Times of Israel)
The Museum of the Bible announced this week that five Dead Sea Scroll fragments from its collection were proven forgeries. Removed from display, these fragments may prove to be the bellwether of the Washington, DC, institution’s entire 16-piece fragment collection, and beyond.
The clock is ticking as potential forgeries’ content increasingly skews and pollutes scholarly research. As the corpus of Dead Sea Scrolls material is dissected with surgical precision, any and all information from the presumed scribes is included in numerous scholarly articles, data banks and dictionaries. Correcting these statistical and contextual fallacies could take generations.
Washington's Bible Museum admits some of its Dead Sea Scrolls are fake (AP/SMH)
When Washington's Museum of the Bible held its grand opening in November 2017, attended by US Vice President Mike Pence, there were questions already about the authenticity of its centrepiece collection of Dead Sea Scrolls.
Photo: A small fragment of what the Museum of the Bible questioned was part of the Dead Sea Scrolls (bottom) turned out to be fake (EPA/AP)
