Bible scroll from Bar Kochba era discovered in Judean Desert

Arutz Sheva ^ | 16/3/21

[Eleutheria5]

“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. And do not contrive evil against one another, and do not love perjury, because all those are things that I hate—declares the Lord.”

These verses, from Zechariah 8:16–17, were discovered in a cave where Jewish refugees hid almost 1900 years ago. The verses, written on dozens of parchment fragments were discovered in a complex and challenging national-archaeological operation undertaken by the Israel Antiquities Authority on the cliffs of the Judean Desert, since 2017, in order to prevent antiquities looting.

The historic discovery comes 60 years after the last discovery of biblical scrolls in archaeological excavations. In addition to the scroll fragments, the operation uncovered additional extraordinary finds from various periods: a cache of rare coins from the days of Bar-Kokhba, a 6,000 year-old skeleton of a child – likely female, wrapped in a cloth and mummified, and a large complete basket dating back 10,500 years, likely the oldest in the world.

.....

The scroll fragments, which bear verses from the books of the prophets Zechariah and Nahum and are written in Greek, were retrieved from the Cave of Horror in the Judean Desert reserve’s Nahal Hever by clinging to ropes between heaven and earth. The cave, roughly 80 meters below the cliff top, is flanked by gorges and can only be reached by rappelling precariously down the sheer cliff.

Additional finds left behind by the Jewish rebels who fled to the caves at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt include a cache of coins from the Revolt bearing Jewish symbols such as a harp and a date palm, arrow- and spear-heads, woven fabric, sandals and even lice combs.

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[Eleutheria5]

Palestinian refugee camp./s

[Guenevere]

This is an amazing discovery!

[vpintheak]

Amazing finds!

[Adder]

Wow...10,500yr old basket.

Good article.

[Cronos]

the bar kochkba and kitos wars were such a waste of effort and lives

[cyclotic]

You can’t dig an outhouse in that region without finding proof of the Scriptures

[RoosterRedux]

What’s fascinating is the skeleton of the 6,000 y/o child. Is this little girl Antediluvian? Why was she kept (she must have some notable significance)?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“The cave, roughly 80 meters below the cliff top, is flanked by gorges and can only be reached by rappelling precariously down the sheer cliff.”

Think how hard this must have been back then. What sort of ropes were available?

[sauropod]

bkmk

[one guy in new jersey]

Ropes, knots, both were a well-developed technology at that point.

[dfwgator]

Was it from the Judean Peoples Front or The Peoples Front of Judea?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You are right. I looked up the history of rope-making and there is evidence that Neanderthals made rope 40,000 years ago! The first specialized tools made to make rope were found in Egypt. "Egyptian rope dates back to 4000 to 3500 BC and was generally made of water reed fibres. Other rope in antiquity was made from the fibres of date palms, flax, grass, papyrus, leather, or animal hair."

Still, you have to hand it to them...climbing that mountain with long ropes and then rappelling 250 feet down the cliff face to hide objects in that cave. Wow.

Here's a page from the "User's Manual for Rope Making, v1.6"

[SunkenCiv]

• Israeli archeologists discover new Dead Sea Scrolls for first time in 60 years

[Verginius Rufus]

Coins with a harp? Must be from Ireland.

[one guy in new jersey]

It sounds like they were hiding both people and stuff in those caves. Then somebody forgot where the caves were, or that people were hiding there too, or ran out of rope, and, OOPS! The cave-hiders all shriveled into the human version of beef jerkey.

[SunkenCiv]

• In a Remarkable Find, Archaeologists Exploring the ‘Cave of Horror’ in Israel Have Discovered a New Dead Sea Scroll/small>