Robert Eisenman and James Robinson, eds. A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls 1 (Washington, 1991) Printed book. Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress
The Publication Controversy
Reacting to the official team's slow pace of scholarly
publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, two Hebrew Union College
scholars developed a computer program that reconstructed Cave 4
texts from a decades-old concordance. Soon thereafter, the
Huntington Library announced in the fall of 1991 that it would
make available to scholars photographic copies of the scrolls
that had been deposited in its vaults. Displayed here is the
first part of the reconstruction.
Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin Abegg. A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls (Washington, 1991) Printed book. Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.
The Shapira Affair
In 1883, M.H. Shapira, a Jerusalem antiquities dealer, offered to
sell fragments of an ancient manuscript of the biblical book of
Deuteronomy. On examination by leading scholars of the day, the
manuscripts were found to be forgeries. Disgraced and
humiliated, Shapira committed suicide in 1884.
In view of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some contemporary scholars have suggested that the Shapira fragments bear at least a surface resemblance to the Qumran manuscripts and have advocated re-examining their authenticity. Unfortunately, the Shapira fragments were sold at auction in 1885 and have since disappeared.
M.H. Shapira's daughter Myriam penned a thinly veiled fictionalized account of the scandal from the point of view of a devoted daughter. Serialized in France under the title of "La petite fille de Jerusalem," it was then translated into English as "The Little Daughter of Jerusalem" and published in New York and London.
In "The Shapira Affair," John Allegro, a leading scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a member of the original scroll team, examined reproductions of the Shapira fragments in light of their resemblance to the Qumran documents.
John Marco Allegro The Shapira Affair (Garden City, New York 1965) Printed book. General Collections, Library of Congress.
Myriam Harry La petite fille de Jerusalem La Petite Illustration ([Paris] 1914) Unbound serial. General Collections, Library of Congress.
Myriam Harry The Little Daughter of Jerusalem (New York, 1919) Printed book. General Collections, Library of Congress.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: "A Hoax"
In the early 1950s, Professor Solomon Zeitlin of Dropsie
University in Philadelphia argued strenuously--on philological
grounds--that the antiquity of the Dead Sea Scrolls should be
rejected. Subsequent carbon-14 tests on their linen wrappers
firmly dated the finds to the late Second Temple Period and laid
to rest arguments concerning the antiquity of the scrolls.
Solomon Zeitlin The Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern Scholarship (Philadelphia, 1956) Printed book. Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.
The Library of Congress and the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls were first displayed in the United States at
the Library of Congress in October 1949. The scrolls belonged to
Mar Athanasius Yeshua Samuel, the head of the Syrian Jacobite
Monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem. In 1954, he placed an
advertisement in "The Wall Street Journal" offering "The Four
Dead Sea Scrolls" for sale. Purchased for the State of Israel by
archaeologist Yigael Yadin, these scrolls are housed today in The
Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.
S. Glassman Megiles fun Yam ha-Maylekh (New York, 1965) Printed book. Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.
Iosif Davidovich Amusin Rukopisi Mertvoga Morya (Moscow, 1960) Printed book. General Collections, Library of Congress.
Eugen Verber Kumranski Rukopisi (Beograd, 1982) Printed book. General Collections, Library of Congress.
M. al-Abidi Makhtutat al-Bahr al Mayyit (Amman, 1967) Printed book. Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress.
Shikai bunsho (Tokyo, 1963) Printed book. Japanese Section, Asian Division, Library of Congress.
Saleh A. Nahdi Nafiri maut dari lembah Qamran (Djakarta, 1964) Printed book. Southern Asian Section, Asian Division, Library of Congress.