The Shapira Scroll (also known as the Shapira Strips) was a manuscript written in Paleo-Hebrew script.[1] It was presented by Moses Shapira[2] in 1883 as an ancient Biblical artifact and was the focus of a major archaeological controversy.

The scroll consisted of fifteen leather strips, and Shapira claimed to have found it in Wadi Mujib[3] near the Dead Sea.[4] The Hebrew text hinted at a different version of Deuteronomy, including an eleventh commandment: “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: I am God, thy God.” The text also cut out all laws except for the eleven commandments, which it “rendered in the first-person, from the standpoint of the deity.”[5] Scholars immediately rejected it as a fake, and the shame brought about by the accusation of forgery drove Shapira to suicide in 1884.

The scroll disappeared and then reappeared a couple of years later in a Sotheby’s auction, where it was sold for £25. It was considered to have been destroyed in an 1899 fire at the house of the presumed final owner, Sir Charles Nicholson. In 2011 Australian researcher Matthew Hamilton identified its purchaser as Dr. Philip Brookes Mason. Mason’s wife sold her husband’s possessions after his death in 1903. The whereabouts of the scroll are unknown.

Discovery of the Scroll

Shapira told, at various times, four different versions of his discovery of the scroll. The differences between them have been used as evidence of forgery. While in Germany, Shapira told Hermann Guthe that:[6]

At the end of July or the beginning of August a certain Selim of the tribe of Adachaje … offered in the Shapira shop a blackish stripe of leather for sale. Shapira himself was not present and found the cheaply acquired leather in the store on his return. As Salim was unable to visit Jerusalem, he had asked his friend, the Sheik, Mahmud of Abu Dis near Jerusalem, to arrange a meeting with Salem which, finally, brought all the strips into Shapira’s possession.

Another is contained within a handwritten letter from Shapira to Professor Hermann Strack[7] of Berlin on 9 May 1883:[8]

In July 1878 I met several Bedouins in the house of the well-known Sheque Mahmud el Arakat, we came of course to speak of old inscriptions. One Bedouin . . . begins to tell a history to about [sic] the following effect. Several years ago some Arabs had occasion to flee from their enemies & hid themselves in caves high up in a rock facing the Moujib (the neues Arnon [sic]) they discovered there several bundles of very old rugs. Thinking they may [sic] contain gold they peeled away a good deal of Cotton or Linen & found only some black charms & threw them away; but one of them took them up & and [sic] since having the charms in his tent, he became a wealthy man having sheeps [sic] etc.

Shapira wrote a letter to Ginsberg in early August, informing him that:[9]

In July 1878, the Sheik Machmud Arakat, the well-known chief of the guides from Jerusalem to the Jordan, paid me the customary visit . . . [as] the Sheik hat Bedouins of the East in his house, he brought them all with him . . . I heard the next day . . . some men of his acquaintance had hidden themselves, in the time when Wali of Damascus was fighting the Arabs, in caves hewn high up in a rock . . . near the Modjib. They found there several bundles of old black linen. They peeled away the linen and . . . there were only some black inscribed strips of leather, which they threw away (or I believe he said threw into the fire, but I am not certain); but one of them picked them up . . . I asked the Sheik to employ him as a messenger to bring me some of the pieces that I might examine them, but the Sheik thought that that man would not do it, but he knew a man who was not superstitious at all . . . In about twelve days I got four or five columns . . . in eight days more he brought me about sixteen; in eleven or twelve days more four or five . . . I have not seen the man again. The Sheik died soon, and I lost every trace that would enable me to follow the object further.

In an account to the Palestine Exploration Fund, later published as a memorandum to the British Museum on August 10, 1883, Shapira wrote that:[10]

[H]e first heard of the fragments in the middle of July 1878. A Sheikh, with several Arabs of different tribes came to him at his place of business in Jerusalem on other matters. The Sheikh had nothing to do with antiquities. They spoke of some little black fragments of writing in the possession of an Arab. They had been found in the neighborhood of Arnon. One of the Arabs spoke of them as talismans, smelling of asphalte. The day following Shapira was invited to dinner by the Sheikh and heard more about the fragments. About the year 1865, at a time of persecution, certain Arabs had hid themselves among the rocks. There, on the side of a rocky cavern, they found several bundles wrapped in linen. Peeling off the covering they found only black fragments, which they thew away. They were picked up by one of the Arabs, believing them to be talismans . . . Shapira promised the Sheikh a reward if he would bring to him an Arab he spoke of who would be able to get hold of the fragments. This happened on the day of the dinner. The Sheikh fell ill, and afterwards died. About ten or twelve days after the dinner, a man of the Ajayah tribe brought to him a small piece . . . a week later, he brought fourteen or fifteen columns . . . the next Sunday, fourteen or fifteen more . . . ten days after, on Wednesday, he brought three or four columns, very black. Shapira saw nothing more of him.

Presentation of the Scroll

On 24 September 1878, Shapira sent copies to Konstantin Schlottman, who consulted with Franz Delitzsch[11] and then identified the scroll as a fabrication.[12]

In 1883, perhaps having revised the text,[13] Shapira brought the scroll to Berlin in an attempt to sell it to the Royal Library of Berlin.[14] Richard Lepsius, then the Library’s keeper, convened a symposium of leading Bible scholars in Berlin to evaluate the scroll; these unanimously and immediately declared it a fake. In a separate German analysis, Hermann Guthe concluded the scroll was a forgery.[15] The Royal Library offered to buy it at a lower price, to enable German students to study the forger’s technique;[16] Shapira took it to London instead. The German scholars did not publicize their findings, and other experts’ conclusions were reached independently.[17]

Shapira sought to sell the scroll to the British Museum[18] for a million pounds and allowed the Museum to exhibit two of the 15 strips.[19] Shapira exhibited the scroll to a large number of British scholars, even tearing off a portion to demonstrate the parchment’s interior.[20] On August 4, 1883, Walter Fright of the British Museum reported that much of the leather looked ancient but the margin of one piece looked brand new.[21] On August 19, 1883, Adolf Neubauer[22] identified the scroll as a forgery based on Christian David Ginsburg’s[23] published facsimiles;[24] this identification was later called the scroll’s death knell.[25]

Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau,[26] who had earlier revealed Shapira’s Moabite forgeries[27] and to whom Shapira had previously denied access to the scroll, visited the exhibition to report for the French Ministry of Public Instruction. On August 22, after close examination of the two strips on display, he declared them to be forgeries.[28] Claude Reignier Conder[29] also declared them fake.[30] By August 25, the Grantham Journal reported, “The official verdict on the authenticity of Mr. Shapira’s manuscripts has not been given but the published evidence of experts who have examined them is unanimous against it.”[31]

On August 27, Ginsburg, who as the designated philological examiner of the British Museum had been given access to the entire scroll, came to the same conclusion. Ginsberg also suggested the shape of the strips, their ruling, and the leather used matched Yemenite scrolls Shapira had sold in previous years.[32] Clermont-Ganneau later made the same assessment.[33] Ginsburg’s conclusion drove Shapira to despair, and he fled london.[34]

“You have made a fool of me by publishing and exhibiting things you believe to be false. I do not think I shall be able to survive this shame. Although I am not yet convinced that the manuscript is a forgery – unless Monsieur Ganneau did it. I will leave London in a day or two for Berlin.
Yours truly, Moses Wilhelm Shapira”
Shapira’s letter to Ginsburg, August 23, 1883

Aftermath

Shapira fled London in despair, his name ruined, and all of his hopes crushed. Six months later, on 9 March 1884, he shot himself at the Hotel Willemsbrug in Rotterdam.[35]

The British Museum put up the scroll for auction at Sotheby’s in 1885 and it was purchased by Bernard Quaritch, a bookseller. Two years later, Quaritch listed the scroll for sale for £25. The scroll was thought to have been purchased by Sir Charles Nicholson[36] and destroyed in a fire in Nicholson’s study in England in 1899.[37] In 2011 Australian researcher Matthew Hamilton identified its purchaser as Dr. Philip Brookes Mason;[38] the identification was publicized in a 2014 documentary by Yoram Sabo, Shapira and I,[39] and a 2016 book by Professor Chanan Tigay, The Lost Book of Moses.[40]

Modern Scholarship

Despite the assessment of contemporary scholars, there have always been researchers claiming to have reasons to believe that the Shapira scroll might have been a genuine ancient artifact after all.[41]

Professor Menahem Mansoor, chairman of the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin, argued in 1956 that re-examination of the case would be justified.[42] Mansoor’s conclusion was immediately attacked by Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein and by Oskar K. Rabinowicz.[43] On the other hand, J. L. Teicher (1957),[44] Shlomo Guil (2017),[45] and Idan Dershowitz (2021)[46] have argued the strips were genuine.

Peter Aitken | Fox News: Dershowitz published his claims and arguments in a paper released earlier this month, “The Valediction of Moses: New Evidence on the Shapira Deuteronomy Fragments.” The paper outlines a number of techniques, including linguistic and archival evidence, to argue that the text is actually an earlier, more primitive draft of Deuteronomy, dating to the period of the First Temple. Ryan Morrison | Daily Mail: “Reconstructing the text from the original 19th-century transcriptions and drawings, Dershowitz claims the pieces date back to the time of the First Temple – as early as 957 BC, making them the oldest known biblical artifacts ever discovered.”

Let us not get our hopes too high as we have before, such as was the case with the New Testament P137. For years it was claimed that a fragment of Mark (P137) dated to the first century, which ended up not being the case. While that turned out to be untrue, it to be early to the middle second century (125-150 C.E.) and the earliest extant manuscript of Mark.  This Shapira Scroll has more implications than just age and the trustworthiness of the bible if it is dating to 957 BCE with the paleo-Hebrew script. Also, it would be like P52 for the NT. Many 19th century and early 20th century scholars argued that John was not the author of the Gospel, it was someone about 170-180 CE. Then P52, a scrap from the Gospel of John dating to about 110-150 CE, probably about 125 C.E. This decimated liberal scholars. The Documentary Hypothesis would be decimated, not that it wasn’t already, but it would shut up that last few people that hold to it if this Shapira Scroll is dated that early.

by Wikipedia and Edward D. Andrews

PAPYRUS 137 (P137): The Recently Published Earliest Manuscript Fragment of Mark

Papyrus 52 (P52): The “Ambiguity and Uncertainty” of Modern-Day Evangelical Bible Scholars Redating Early Papyri

SCROLL THROUGH DIFFERENT CATEGORIES BELOW

BIBLE TRANSLATION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

BIBLICAL STUDIES / INTERPRETATION

EARLY CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETIC EVANGELISM

TECHNOLOGY

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

CHRISTIAN FICTION

[1] Paleo-Hebrew script, also Palæo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the name used by modern scholars to describe the script found in Canaanite inscriptions from the region of Biblical Israel and Judah. It is considered to be the script used to record the original texts of the Hebrew Bible due to its similarity to the Samaritan script, as the Talmud stated that the Hebrew ancient script was still used by the Samaritans. The Talmud described it as the “Libona’a script”, translated by some as “Lebanon script”. Use of the term “Paleo-Hebrew alphabet” is due to a 1954 suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum, who argued that “[t]o apply the term Phoenician to the script of the Hebrews is hardly suitable”.

[2] Moses Wilhelm Shapira was a Jerusalem antiquities dealer and purveyor of allegedly forged Biblical artifacts – the most high profile of which was the Shapira Scroll. The shame brought about by accusations that he was involved in the forging of ancient biblical texts drove him to suicide in 1884. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1947, in approximately the same area he claimed his material was discovered, has cast some doubt on the original forgery charges.

[3] Wadi Mujib, which is also “almost certainly” the biblical Arnon Stream, is a river canyon in Jordan which enters the Dead Sea c 420 metres (1,380 ft) below sea level.

[4] The Dead Sea is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River.

[5] Schuessler, Jennifer (10 March 2021). “Is a Long-Dismissed Forgery Actually the Oldest Known Biblical Manuscript?”. The New York Times. Retrieved Thursday, March 11, 2021.

[6] Oskar K. Rabinowicz, The Shapira Forgery Mystery,” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 47 [1956–1957], pp. 170–183)

[7] Hermann Leberecht Strack was a German Protestant theologian and orientalist; born in Berlin.

[8] Guil 2017, p. 9.

[9] “HOW THE MOST RECENT BIBLICAL DISCOVERY WAS MADE”. Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales). 15 August 1883.

[10] Fund, Palestine Exploration (1883). Quarterly Statement – Palestine Exploration Fund. Published at the Fund’s Office.

[11] Franz Delitzsch was a German Lutheran theologian and Hebraist. Delitzsch wrote many commentaries on books of the Bible, Jewish antiquities, Biblical psychology, as well as a history of Jewish poetry, and works of Christian apologetics. Today, Delitzsch is best known for his

[12] Mansoor 1958, p. 225.

[13] Oskar K. Rabinowicz, The Shapira Forgery Mystery,” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 47 [1956–1957], pp. 170–183)

[14] The Berlin State Library is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the largest libraries in Europe, and one of the most important academic research libraries in the German-speaking world. It collects texts, media and cultural works from all fields in all languages, from all time periods and all countries of the world, which are of interest for academic and research purposes. Some famous items in its collection include the oldest biblical illustrations in the fifth-century Quedlinburg Itala fragment, a Gutenberg Bible, the main autograph collection of Goethe, the world’s largest collection of Johann Sebastian Bach’s and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s manuscripts, and the original score of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

[15] Dershowitz, Idan. “The Valediction of Moses: New Evidence on the Shapira Deuteronomy Fragments.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 133 (1): 1-22.

[16] Mansoor 1958, p. 225.

[17] Mansoor 1958, p. 225.

[18] The British Museum, in the Bloomsbury area of London, England, is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection of some eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence, having been widely collected during the era of the British Empire. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It was the first public national museum in the world.

[19] Reiner 1995, pp. 109, 115, 116.

[20] und, Palestine Exploration (1883). Quarterly Statement – Palestine Exploration Fund. Published at the Fund’s Office.

Besant, Sir Walter (1902). Autobiography. Dodd, Mead.

[21] Oskar K. Rabinowicz, The Shapira Forgery Mystery,” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 47 [1956–1957], pp. 170–183)

[22] Adolf Neubauer was sublibrarian at the Bodleian Library and reader in Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford University.

[23] Christian David Ginsburg was a Polish-born British Bible scholar and a student of the Masoretic tradition in Judaism.

[24] Neubauer, Adolf (25 August 1883). “The Shapira MSS. of Deuteronomy”. The Academy. 590: 130–131.

[25] Oskar K. Rabinowicz, The Shapira Forgery Mystery,” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 47 [1956–1957], pp. 170–183)

[26] Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau was a noted French Orientalist and archaeologist.

[27] Moses Wilhelm Shapira was a Jerusalem antiquities dealer and purveyor of allegedly forged Biblical artifacts – the most high profile of which was the Shapira Scroll. The shame brought about by accusations that he was involved in the forging of ancient biblical texts drove hi

[28] Archaeological forgery is the manufacture of supposedly ancient items that are sold to the antiquities market and may even end up in the collections of museums. It is related to art forgery.

Press, Michael (11 September 2014). “‘The Lying Pen of the Scribes’: A Nineteenth-Century Dead Sea Scroll”. The Appendix. Retrieved 4 April 2018.

[29] Claude Reignier Conder was an English soldier, explorer and antiquarian. He was a great-great-grandson of Louis-François Roubiliac and grandson of editor and author Josiah Conder.

[30] “Miscellaneous”. Leed’s Times (Leeds, England). 25 August 1883.

[31] “The New Deuteronomy”. Grantham Journal. 25 August 1883.

[32] Fund, Palestine Exploration (1883). Quarterly Statement – Palestine Exploration Fund. Published at the Fund’s Office.

[33] Press, Michael (11 September 2014). “‘The Lying Pen of the Scribes’: A Nineteenth-Century Dead Sea Scroll”. The Appendix. Retrieved 4 April 2018.

[34] Reiner 1995, pp. 109, 115, 116.

[35] Newspaper “Het Vaderland”, March 12, 1884.

Rotterdam is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, at the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte. In 1340, Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland. The Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 10th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country.

[36] Sir Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet was an English-Australian politician, university founder, explorer, pastoralist, antiquarian and philanthropist. The Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney is named after him.

[37] Press, Michael (11 September 2014). “‘The Lying Pen of the Scribes’: A Nineteenth-Century Dead Sea Scroll”. The Appendix. Retrieved 4 April 2018.

Crown 1970, pp. 421–423.

[38] Tigay, Chanan. “Was this the first Dead Sea Scroll?”

[39] Shapira & I

[40] Guil 2017, p. 25: “Surprisingly, contrary to the belief held for the last forty five years, the Shapira scroll was not destroyed in a fire that erupted in the house of Sir Charles Nicholson, near London. We presently know that it was Dr. Philip Brookes Mason of Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, who acquired the Shapira scroll in 1888 or beginning of 1889 and probably held it until his death in 1903. There are indications that, after his death, his wife sold his life’s collection at an auction. Some good detective work might lead to the rediscovery of the Shapira scroll.”

Tigay, Chanan. “Was this the first Dead Sea Scroll?”

OBITUARY NOTICE OF PHILIP BROOKES MASON, by The Rev. CHAS. F. THORNEWILL; Read before the Society, September 14, 1904, Journal of Conchology, VOL XI, 1904 — 1906, p.105 “It is not generally known that Mr. Mason became the eventual possessor of the notorious ‘Shapira’ manuscript, which for a time deceived some of the most experienced authorities on such matters but was at length discovered to be a remarkably clever forgery.”

[41] Guil 2017, pp. 6–27.

[42] “Dead Sea Scroll Traced to Jew Who Committed Suicide 70 Years Ago – Jewish Telegraphic Agency”. http://www.jta.org. 14 August 1956.

Mansoor 1958, p. 225.

[43] Reiner 1997, p. Endnote 2.

[44] J.L. Teicher “The Genuineness of the Shapira Manuscripts,” Times Literary Supplement, 22 March 1957.

[45] Guil 2017.

[46] Dershowitz, Idan. “The Valediction of Moses: New Evidence on the Shapira Deuteronomy Fragments.” Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 133 (1): 1-22.