Source: Smithsonian.com
March 17, 2020
The new findings raises questions about the authenticity of a collection of texts known as the “post-2002” scrolls.
Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, considered one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century, are displayed 18 June 2003 at Montreal's Pointe-a-Callieres Archeological Museum (Normand Blouin/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2009, Hobby Lobby president Steve Green began acquiring a collection of 16 Dead Sea Scrolls for his Museum of the Bible, a sprawling institution in Washington, D.C. that seeks to provide “an immersive and personalized experience with the Bible, and its ongoing impact on the world around us.”
The museum opened in 2017—and not long after, doubts began to swirl about the authenticity of its Dead Sea Scrolls. Five were confirmed to be fake. And now, reports Michael Greshko for National Geographic, a study commissioned by the museum has reached an even more damning conclusion: “[N]one of the textual fragments in the Museum of the Bible’s Dead Sea Scroll collection are authentic.”
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