Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 06/05/2025 7:20:33 AM PDT by Red Badger
This multidisciplinary work merges radiocarbon dating, ancient handwriting analysis, and machine learning.
In a recent development, AI has been deployed to date the Dead Sea Scrolls with astounding accuracy, radically challenging misconceptions regarding their age and the historical timelines they fall under.
The results show that several of the Scrolls might actually be much older than what is assumed, and in some cases, could be from the era of the biblical figures that supposedly wrote them.
Pioneered by the University of Groningen, this multidisciplinary work merges radiocarbon dating, ancient handwriting analysis, and machine learning.
The outcome is Enoch, the first AI system that can derive probabilistic dates from the script of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, providing estimates based solely on the script’s stylistic elements.
“With the Enoch tool we have opened a new door into the ancient world, like a time machine, that allows us to study the hands that wrote the Bible, especially now that we have established, for the first time, that two biblical scroll fragments come from the time of their presumed authors,” say the authors.
The problem with traditional dating
The Dead Sea Scrolls are typically recognized as having been composed in the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. While these are the general estimates, dates for individual scrolls still seem to pose problems.
For this purpose, the researchers collected new radiocarbon dates from 24 scroll samples. This real data anchored the researchers’ machine learning model within concrete timelines, thus filling a significant void in the assumed chronological framework.
The goal was to train Enoch using the BiNet. BiNet is a neural network that not only analyzes scanned images of the scrolls, but extracts features such as the curvature of ink strokes and the shapes of letters.
The model’s predictions were validated against the radiocarbon data, showing an uncertainty margin of about ±30 years—narrower than that of radiocarbon dating alone for texts from 300–50 BCE.
Key revelations and broader impact
The team dated 135 scroll manuscripts using Enoch. In many instances, the AI model validated prior scholarly estimates. But in some cases, it contested them.
Most strikingly, Enoch dated two biblical scroll fragments to the periods traditionally associated with their authors, which is a first in Dead Sea Scroll research. It also found that Hasmonaean-type script appears earlier than the commonly accepted 150-50 BCE date range, and that Herodian script emerged earlier than previously believed, suggesting these styles coexisted from the late second century BCE.
These findings are critical to early Judaism and Christianity studies. Scholars can now better connect the scrolls with pivotal historical events, such as the emerging Hasmonaean dynasty and the development of new religious movements, due to refined timelines provided by the scrolls.
“It is very exciting to set a significant step into solving the dating problem of the Dead Sea Scrolls and also creating a new tool that could be used to study other partially dated manuscript collections from history. This would not have been possible without the collaboration between so many different scientific disciplines,” conclude the authors.
The study has been published in the journal PLOS One.
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
PinGGG!.......................
I read this yesterday and found it highly interesting...
Have they tried it with the autopen signatures? Obama’s birth certificate?
Have they tried it with the autopen signatures? Obama’s birth certificate?
“”In a recent development, AI has been deployed to date the Dead Sea Scrolls with astounding accuracy, radically challenging misconceptions regarding their age and the historical timelines they fall under.””
Ok. I have questions. How do they know... it’s accuracy, astounding or otherwise. What proof do they have, IOW? What evidence did they use?
And I’m going to rant now. I wish they’d stop using the term bombshell... and find a more original name for the AI guessing program vs. “Enoch”. They might as well have led with or named it “Experts Say”.
Seems to me this AI mania fails to acknowledge that it was humans that built it, fed it and are keeping it sensationalized... as if it is “all knowing” and godlike. If humans fed it, it’s just the sameole sameole flawed info that’s fed into computer databases every day, probably by the sameole “accuracy-challenged and truth-challenged” liberal workers. Might as well raise up Wikipedia as a ‘super intelligence’. (EOR)
The left will Poo Poo ai now lol
The Scriptorium was a library for copying ancient scrolls. This went on for centuries. Most folks aren’t aware that the Scrolls at Qumran were mostly religious in nature, but many scrolls were related to ownership of property, titles, marriage and divorce records, etc. The scroll that most folks are interested in are the prophetic scrolls concerning the “War Against The Sons of Light versus the Sons of Darkness”. The only scroll written in metal (copper), unfortunately is kept in Amman, Jordan, and is difficult to access. Most Scholars rely on John Allegro’s attempt at translation, which is not correct in many aspects, but sometimes it is useful. The Catholic Monks who later explored these scripts tried to force the Catholic views on the translations, but again, useful.
“… could be from the era of the biblical figures that supposedly wrote them.”
Oh ye of little faith.
EC
I’ll dig deeper as I’m fascinated with Isaiahs’ Scroll.
Job and Jonah also have been Favs!
They need to bring in Max Headroom.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Sounds interesting...
I wonder if it could apply to, and they’d be allowed to, access to the Shroud of Turin ?
Thanks Red Badger, nice find.
LOL!
Wow...I did not know the Philistines were almost certainly Canadian. :)
Doubt not the work of Polynices Philomathes, yea, Finkelstein, Finkelstein, ... Finkelstein.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
