A British university has discovered that “blank” pieces of leather parchment taken from the famed Qumran caves are not blank at all.

Instead, they are now considered to be authentic Dead Sea Scroll fragments — the only ones in Britain. And their newly elevated status stands in stark contrast to artifacts held by a growing number of prominent United States institutions who this year learned that their very expensive Dead Sea Scroll fragments were frauds.

The discovery that the British parchment pieces were not blank was made at the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library, by King’s College London Prof. Joan Taylor.

“Looking at one of the fragments with a magnifying glass, I thought I saw a small, faded letter — a lamed, the Hebrew letter ‘L,’” said Taylor in a press release.

Examining dozens of fragments, her multidisciplinary team would eventually find many more letters on four of them — “readable Hebrew/Aramaic text written in carbon-based ink.” And the most substantial fragment yielded the remains of four lines of text — possibly from the Book of Ezekiel — including one clear word: “Shabbat.”

When she first saw the letters, said Taylor, “I thought I might be imagining things.”

Read the full articles at Times of Israel

Subscribe to start receiving FREE TORCH magazines from CUFI UK

Related Articles:

We cannot be silent when the UK damages Israel

CUFI UK is becoming increasingly concerned that the strong relationship between Israel and the UK is being negatively impacted by decisions and attitudes of the UK government,...

This Purim, we stand with the Jewish people ‘for such a time as this’

This Purim, the lessons from the story of Esther about the Jewish people’s deliverance couldn’t be more appropriate at a time when once again the Jewish nation is fighting for its...

How the Oscars got hijacked by Israel hate

Every year when the Oscars comes around, we prepare ourselves for headlines about who won big on the night, the fashion on display on the red carpet, and indeed talk of the...

“The numbers are not real” – new analysis blasts Hamas figures as FAKE

Graph with Hamas daily figures shows impossible straight line.There is lack of correlation between women and children casualties.Hamas's own figures show Israel is killing hardly any...

‘You should be ashamed of yourself for using Auschwitz to criticise Israel’

This year's Oscars was surrounded by controversy due to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. One of the winners on the night was The Zone of Interest, a film about the Holocaust...

We call upon the UK Government to officially recognise Jerusalem is Israel's capital and move its embassy to Jerusalem.