Modern Technology Unlocks Secrets of a Damaged Biblical Scroll

>The writing retrieved by the computer from the digital image of the unopened scroll is amazingly clear and legible, in contrast to the scroll’s blackened and beaten-up exterior. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think anything would come of it,” said Pnina Shor, the head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

>Scholars say this remarkable new technique may make it possible to read other scrolls too brittle to be unrolled.

>The scroll’s content, the first two chapters of the Book of Leviticus, has consonants — early Hebrew texts didn’t specify vowels — that are identical to those of the Masoretic text, the authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible and the one often used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles.

>The Dead Sea scrolls, those found at Qumran and elsewhere around the Dead Sea, contain versions quite similar to the Masoretic text but with many small differences. The text in the scroll found at the En-Gedi excavation site in Israel decades ago has none, according to Emanuel Tov, an expert on the Dead Sea scrolls at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
...

>“We have never found something as striking as this,” Dr. Tov said.

>“This is the earliest evidence of the exact form of the medieval text,” he said, referring to the Masoretic text.

>The experts say this new method may make it possible to read other ancient scrolls, including several Dead Sea scrolls and about 300 carbonized ones from Herculaneum, which were destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

>The date of the En-Gedi scroll is the subject of conflicting evidence. A carbon-14 measurement indicates that the scroll was copied around A.D. 300. But the style of the ancient script suggests a date nearer to A.D. 100. “We may safely date this scroll” to between A.D. 50 and 100, wrote Ada Yardeni, an expert on Hebrew paleography, in an article in the journal Textus. Dr. Tov said he was “inclined toward a first-century date, based on paleography.”

>The feat of recovering the text was made possible by software programs developed by W. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky. Inspired by the hope of reading the many charred and unopenable scrolls found at Herculaneum, near Pompeii in Italy, Dr. Seales has been working for the last 13 years on ways to read the text inside an ancient scroll.
...

>Methods like CT scans can pick out blobs of ink inside a charred scroll, but the jumble of letters is unreadable unless each letter can be assigned to the surface on which it is written. Dr. Seales realized that the writing surface of the scroll had first to be reconstructed and the letters then stuck back to it.

>He succeeded in 2009 in working out the physical structure of the ruffled layers of papyrus in a Herculaneum scroll.

>He has since developed a method, called virtual unwrapping, to model the surface of an ancient scroll in the form of a mesh of tiny triangles. Each triangle can be resized by the computer until the virtual surface makes the best fit to the internal structure of the scroll, as revealed by the scanning method. The blobs of ink are assigned to their right place on the structure, and the computer then unfolds the whole 3-D structure into a 2-D sheet.

>The suite of software programs, called Volume Cartography, will become open source when Dr. Seales’s current government grant ends, he said.

>The En-Gedi scroll was brought to Dr. Seales’s attention by Dr. Shor. A colleague, Sefi Porat, who had helped excavate the En-Gedi synagogue in 1970, was preparing a final publication of the findings.
...

>they found a text of a made up book from 2000 years ago that is almost identical to modern copies
Although cool, still embarrassing for the human race.

>>73867
Interesting story, thanks for finding this.

Thx for the find.

Very interesting, thank you for posting op

>>73881
Bible has never been proven wrong yet, is the most historically accurate religious text ever found, and predicted the Life and Death and Reign of Jesus Christ and salvation from sin. 66 books written ovee the span of centuries by different people from diverse backgrounds.

Not. Made. Up. God bless you!

>>73868
>the authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible and the one often used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles.
>authoritative

No.

>The Dead Sea scrolls, those found at Qumran and elsewhere around the Dead Sea, contain versions quite similar to the Masoretic text but with many small differences

I.E. matched the Septuagint bible.

>>73869
>A carbon-14 measurement indicates that the scroll was copied around A.D. 300

So it's much younger than the Dead Sea scrolls.

>But the style of the ancient script suggests a date nearer to A.D. 100

Except the Jews took care to transcribe the Masoretic text identically down to the scribbles.

>>73881
>I don't want to go to church
>but I'm too much of a pussy to just not go
>so I'm going to make up bullshit to justify it

>>73973
The bible was written by God, you role playing, fedora wearing fuck.

>>73973
>66 books

73 books

>>73973
>hasn't been proven wrong yet
>the most historically accurate religious text ever found
hahahahah :') oh man
Yea like that time where Moses split a part water, where jesus fed 10,000 people with a little bread, and also when jesus turned water into wine. So accurate.
Oh yeah and how there were giants(goliath) yeah i totally remember giants in history class! Coolest lesson.

God, christ, lucifer.... etc... none of them ever existed. They are fables.

>>Not. Made. Up. God bless you!

Is completely made up. Retards like yourself believe it to be truth 2000 years later... lol.

>>73881
That it shows the Bible has been so well preserved across so long a time is a huge achievement in scribery and preservation of information, you cantankerous rube.

>>74027
I agree with this. It's exciting that many of the previously illegible artifacts sitting in museum basements can now be read with this new tool.

Personally I'm hoping for some new, previously lost Greek tragedies to be unearthed.

>>74003
>Yea like that time where Moses split a part water,

Winds blew and the reed sea parted, winds stopped and the sea rushed in. There was a documentary about it.

>where jesus fed 10,000 people with a little bread, and also when jesus turned water into wine. So accurate.

Jesus had cheats enabled.

>Oh yeah and how there were giants(goliath)

It's called acromegaly, a tumor on the pituitary gland.

>>73881
Actually that is worrying, the memes haven't mutated at all.

>>73986
I heard there were more too.

>>73973
What's it like to still hold to delusions of grander? To be so limited in your ability to reason by a conditioned need to accept illogical notions in order to work your dogmatic narrative into everything?

>>74016
>Stalin, Lenin, Mao.... etc... none of them ever existed. They are propaganda.

"Communism has never been tried"

>>74050
>Winds blew and the reed sea parted
Really? Winds blew at the exact right time to allow the Jews to cross? lmao, ok
You christians are so delusional
>had cheats enable
good job skipping over an argument you cant refute (water into wine as well)
>acromegaly
Prove he had it. You cant. Burden of proof rests on the person making the claim.

The bible isnt fucking real, open your minds. ANYONE could have written the bible

>>74090
You have to be over the age of 18 to post on 4chan

>>74119
> If you dont believe the bible ur not 18 lmao #rekt

>>74003
Goliath was just a lanklet that struck fear into the hearts of the manlet jews

A better example might've been the mention of the nephilim

>>73867
That's pretty dang nito.

>>74016
This is such a lazy post. You should be ashamed of yourself.

So using numerous ct scans they managed to detect and place every animal skin pixel, and every ink pixel accurately in a computer program, translating it into numerous sections of triangles, then ever so slowly tilting the degree of each triangle until it turned the 3d object into a 2d map?

>>74003
Don't forget the Virgin Mary giving birth.

'it was a miracle!'
Poker_face.jpg

At least that's how Mary tells it.
Joseph was a right cuck...

>>74119
you have to be literally retarded to believe the bible

>>74289
LOL mary was a skank who craved BBC

The best part of the bible is where they leave out 5. Billion years or so, and start the story with two people and a snake.
A talking snake, obvs.

It's like dinosaurs and early man never happened.

How did god talk to Adam & Eve when clearly all the evidence shows that language evolved over time?

When did snakes stop talking?

Also, it's funny how god doesn’t talk to people much now we have a developed language and reasoning abilities.

It's also funny how he was really chatty back then, but chose to speak to a handful of people, usually one at a time, when an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being could talk to everyone at once, every day, with no extra effort...

'i'm not gonna repeat myself, pass it on, I'm a busy being, cheers, goodnight'

Also, where is Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha buried, and why didn't they leave someone in charge?
It's almost like they were maybe the same person or several prophets got confused as one.

>>74003
Why do atheists have to be such cunts? I'm not a christian but at least I understand basic respect of others beliefs. Especially considering atheists suckle the cock of a geriatric who reqognized Negros as a sperate species.

>>74296
irony 101

>I respect other people's beliefs
>atheists are cunts

Using your logic, since there have been violent religious fundamentalists since religions creation, not to mention human sacrifice and torture of all kinds, all religious people are cunts by default.

I don't know if you're talking about Darwin, but the huge difference is, atheists don't kill, torture or enslave in his name, or to enforce atheism.

Atheists being sarcastic or offensive pales in comparison to suicide bombers, holy wars and forced attrition, imprisonment, censorship, burning to death, torture, etc

Atheists don't force believers to deny their god under duress.

Not to mention affectionate terms like heathens, infidels, kuffars, and literal endorsement of persecution, sabotage, deception in religious texts of non-believers.

>>74003
Yeah yeah it was supposedly written by an omnipotent (all powerful) God

Okay okay I get that

BUT SPLITTING an ocean! Pssshaw! As if! Now THAT is unbelievable!

What does it say?

>>74319
According to the article, it's basically the same as The Book of Leviticus you'd find in a modern bible.

That chapter is infamous. It's pretty clear cut in what it says, in any language. Even King James couldn't fuck up the retelling of stuff like "Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you".

>>74090
You can make aggressive denials all you want. I just want you to know how close-minded you are being. Its really quite sad... You will live your whole life without opening your mind and body to new experiences.

Im not a christian. So, you can go ahead and stop that ignorant response before you start it.

How about lets use facts rather than speculations to start an argument.

>>74323
So there's nothing about angels buried deep inside the earth waking up and attacking us?

>>74329
Nope, more like a list of do's and don'ts for being a good jew, the minor stuff not covered in the ten commandments.

>>74329

Brace for the third impact

the posts in this thread are embarrassing

>>74300
Atheists believe in themselves, a.k.a, their own assholes.

>>74422

Well, let's look at the evidence -

Can I see, hear, smell, touch and taste my asshole?
Yes, so I believe in it.
It also serves a purpose -
I can't say that about any god.

Self-righteous much?

You addressed nothing I typed,
And resorted immediately to an Ad Hominem attack on atheists.

How evangelical!

May I ask, what God you believe in?
One god? Many gods?
Which of the 100+ gods fabricated by mentally ill humans since the dawn of man do you believe in?

>>74003
Hey man, I know it sounds crazy to you but other folks really care about that type of shit
You don't have to be a jerk about it

I'm not a Christian, however I was raised my entire life to believe in Christianity, God, and most importantly the Bible. As I passed my 20s in to my 30s going to school stimulating my brain, in the Bible belt mind you those beliefs just faded. I found myself on the shores of reality. If there is a God, and for argument's sake let's say it's the God spoken of in the Bible, why then as a humble lower middle class Christian who prayed his whole life cannot get through. I pray and nothing. The others tell me well god speaks to you in many ways. When certain things happen in life you have to see that as God speaking to you. Well I guess after 30 yrs I'd know how to pray with as much indoctrination I'd had, but I still could not connect with God. So again I ask the my veteran Christians, they tell me well you also have to read the word if God for him to speak with you. I read, and I read and I read. Now I was going through some really shitty times in my life, I wasn't reaching for God because I was bored. Nothing happened. On that shore I referred to earlier I realized that, God as he's described in the Bible for the lack of a better example communicate with me as easily as I can via video chat with other humans around the world and yet that isn't happening. So what's the scoop. Well the Bible is a self proclaimed dictation of the word of God, however if you unplug the Bible from the equation do you still have a god or a religion for that matter? The answer is no. I haven't beloved in years and I still to this day am waiting for an omnipotent voice to boom in my head saying you know that's too much sodium, what did the doctor say about your blood pressure. Just hasn't happened yet. Believe in what you can prove. Faith in the invisible just simply put is childish. Children have faith that if they are good boys and girls Santa will bring them toys and gifts. But he doesn't and when dad or mom are laid off Santa my have to give you a raincheck.

>>74431
Your not proving anything except how much of a spaz you are.

Maybe I could respect Atheists if they didn't talk to everyone like they were in middle school. Or had this overwhelming sense of self righteousness. Or could communicate like normal fucking people.

>>74003
Giants were the result of human/nephilim breeding, done to help us ascend by giving us better genetics.
The group that did this, named Yahweh, were subsequently removed from the galactic council for upgrading us artificially vs letting us ascend in our own time.
The parting of the seas was enabled by a "God item", one of the twelve staves left to the pharaohs by Ra, stolen by Moses and pals.
Jesus was ascended on earth and able to tap into the fourth density where all things are possible if you wish it, this he could literally provide infinite food and other "magic".
This is all available in the text of the Law of One, and on the website www.gaia.com under the Cosmic Disclosure series.
The first, second, and fifth episodes are free and that's really all you need if you already have a decent understanding of world history and religions.

>>74540
>god speaks to you in many ways
this was one

god was always a metaphor for the collective experience, which nothing can be outside

God sent me a text once.

the amount of time we spend on bullshit like this is disgusting

>>74726
No, you are incapable of respect for atheists.
Irony again.
Insults again.

That response was appropriate to the post.

Also, no response to this, which I also posted -
>>74300

Religious people killed in the name of their religion.
Atheists do not.
There, a simple argument.

And the religious peeps here are the first to insult.
Both times I did not directly insult or abuse anyone.

There's a video of Richard Dawkins on YouTube reading his hate mail. I think you'll enjoy hearing the death threats, swearing, insults, etc in all the letters.
Something Dawkins does not direct at religious people, yet they continually do to him.

Evangelicalism is the ultimate self-righteousness.
You get emotional because of cognitive dissonance.

>>74540
Not realizing the theme of the bible. Humans rebel caused by satan deceiving Adam and Eve. Inherit sin, Jesus used as a sacrificial lamb so we are absolved. The question of God rule comes into play. Satan gets his chance to corrupt people say we don't need God. Jesus says Satan in control and power of the world and governments. Literally living in a time when satan gets his chance to convince humans to turn away from God. Living in the most violent times on earth only going to get worse till Armageddon.

>>74846
What is atheist Stalin and his regime and gulags. Killed more people then hitler and was considered completely evil.

>>73973
uhhhh

What are Gilgamesh Tablets for 500? please. Yeah, the one with the snake, long lives and the ark/flood story that predates the bible by several hundred years, yes, that one please.

>>75142

But we don't live in the most violent times in history. By any measure. Less wars, crime, diseases, etc.

>>75144

Stalin and the rest didn't kill in the name of atheism. They did so in the name of Communism, of which atheism isn't the whole of their beliefs, but one part of it. So far in history nobody has killed strictly for atheism. Or in the name of no god.

And that's because atheists do not feel this religious veneration towards atheism itself like a religious person would for their god. Someone would suicide bomb a place for allah or start a crusade for Christ. Nobody does that for atheism since it's nonsensical. You'll never get atheists killing in the name of atheism simply because it doesn't promote that kind of fanatic loyalty to the idea. Hence why these atheists killing religious people end up doing so, not in the name of atheism, but for various different ideologies that just happen to have atheism tacked on. And the only major examples for that would be some eugenics stuff and Communism. Whereas I can name a shitload of times religious people have killed for their religion specifically.

>>75172
Shh you won't get anywhere with facts, anon. These people FEEL the violence is worse than all of human history and they're TOTALLY right

cool, we found ancient scrolls which confirm the ancient text hasn't changed much through copying.

What about the codex Hammurabi? Its a document concerning law predating the bible by far. does that mean these laws still ought to be enacted?

>>74534

Not that guy, but to be fair anon, a lot of other people really care about being racist. Doesn't make them not wrong.

>>74296
People like to argue. Go on /g/ and you'll see people trashing each others' computer and software. It's just human nature.

>>73867
Cool!

>>74206
and your's isn;t? lol.

>inb4 stuff about current social norms

>>75174
>Stalin didn't kill in the name of atheism.

Stalin executed 10 times more priests in one year than the Spainish Inquisition did during its entire existence. He did it specifically to further the spread of orthodoxy, and Yuri Andropov hired a Turkish national to assassinate Pope John Paul II because the Polish pope was hindering Soviet attempts to "atheize the youth of Poland"

Pol Pot killed 3,000,000 thinkers, priests, and others to create a godless "utopia"

The Chinese rolled over Christians with steamrollers, and all religion is regulated by the atheistic state TO THIS DAY.

You just spew shit that you got off of AIU, The Bible Reloaded, and other garbage.

You forget that following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church was the sole reason that ancient texts filled with knowledge were preserved. The preisthood gave scholars a place to study at a time when the best you could do without funding by the faithful was to learn how to work the land more efficiently.

Christian, Muslim, and other religious charity is a huge boon to the poor of the world when atheist shitbags like yourself can do nothing but bitch about how they can't get pussy freely because of the "oppressive Christian societies" that they live in, while completely ignoring the fact that natural and divine law were the founding prociples their countries were based upon.

You pretend to know that everything in the universe is mundane, despite us only being able to see 1/4 of the universe, recorded history going back only some 5,000 years, and the Cambrian explosion being completely unexplainable through evolution by natural selection. Hell, we don't even know if the universe is one of net zero energy, I doubt it though, considering the universe is accelerating outwards.

I'm so tired of this "Atheism is as pure as the wind driven snow, but religion is the root of all stupidity and evil" argument that people like you put out. Evil is relative if you aren't religious anyways.

>>76614
Edit: "curb the spread of orthodoxy"

It wouldn't make sense to kill the priests if he wanted it spreading.

>>76614
>You forget that following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church was the sole reason that ancient texts filled with knowledge were preserved.
Apart from the records kept by the Orthodox church and Muslims, but that goes along with your point.

wtf i love jesus now

>>74294
Muhammed's tomb is a famous place that you can go visit in Saudi Arabia, and he left someone in charge. That guy's successor failed to keep things going though.
Buddha told his people to figure out what to do next on their own, and refused to name a successor, probably because first generation Buddhism is kind of anarchist. After he died, his body was divided into pieces and shipped all over the country.
Jesus supposedly left Peter in charge.

>>74296
> of a geriatric who reqognized Negros as a sperate species
You're saying that like it's a bad thing.

>>76717
>Muhammed
That is only allegedly his tomb, at best.
I have yet to see anyone claim that as fact,
And any religious scholar is biased by default.

I have asked many Muslims this (over 100) and none could say definitely, just that it's what they heard, but could not even confirm it from an imam or other sources when asked and given the chance.

Buddhism has become, unfortunately, susceptible to marketing and 'backstory' enhancement so many times, it's modern version is questionable.

The current Dalai Lama, is supposedly reincarnated every time the last one dies, recreated from the original Buddha, which seems to be an edit in the plot point at some time, as this was never mentioned in the Buddha's teachings or scripture. This Lama is always, conveniently, a local Tibetan boy of pure stock, who allegedly performed some unverifiable miracle (protip - religious miracles are always highly spurious, and the Christian church in particular are experts at this - ideally wait until the 'saint' is dead before ordaining them, so their testimony is not required, and no cross-examination can take place. See Saint Mother Teresa for example) there are conflicting versions of whether he was a guy from India, from East Asia, or was even someone separate from the prophet known as 'Deus' - thought to be a gestalt identity, composed of various prophets which themselves have similar supernatural story arcs and elements - Horus, Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, etc - all appear to perform miracles 'sight unseen' or from accounts which don't support each other -

There are accounts that he evaporated upon death, that his soul transcended to Nirvana leaving his body as an empty shell, and burst into flames, split into atoms, etc

Jesus body? Was he left to rot on the cross? Nobody thought to save it?

And no, sorry, Muhhamed did not leave someone in charge, 3 distinct tribes immediately disagreed on his teachings and formed their own schools - Shia, sunni, wahabbi,

>>74329
"Don't eat pigs they're dirty"
Yeah okay

>>76908
>Jesus body? Was he left to rot on the cross? Nobody thought to save it?

Are you serious? This point is pretty fundamental to Christianity.

>>77014
OK, but he was (allegedly) buried in a tomb, then there was an attempt at exhuming him.

But the tomb was (allegedly) empty.
Some say he ascended to heaven, some say his body was stolen by disciples to make it appear as if he ascended, some say he resurrected and escaped.

This is just page one of Bing, first two results.
That's from scholars and priests and such.

It's just amazing how religion conveniently has physical evidence missing or destroyed.

The holy grail anyone?

>>77091
>It's just amazing how religion conveniently has physical evidence missing or destroyed

Fits in with being saved through faith. You answered your own question. We're supposed to use faith, that's the whole point, so "physical evidence gone missing" literally goes hand-in-hand with the teachings.

>>73867
>synagogue
DROPPED

>>77116

Not that guy, but believing things as heavy as the shit that modern religions push purely on faith is an absolutely terrible idea.

It's like opening oneself to be misled, just look at the Muslims. They're taught all manner of backwater shit from their already dreadful culture, and then their religion's teachings combined with that make them prime candidates to be led into thinking that their holy war is a great idea.

Taking shit based on nothing but faith is possibly the single most detrimental human mistake ever conceived, and we're paying the price for it every day.

>>74028
This. Any new information on ancient times it always welcome.

>>74326
Good bait

>>77091
Lets not also forget that there is no historical evidence for Jews as slaves in Egypt. Egyptian slaves were paid laborers that worked in the off-season

>>76614

Christianity spawned the dark ages, Christianity also created communism, everything Marx wrote sounds like he ripped off the bible, he just reinvented it, it's similar to evolution, like when a virus goes airborne.