Archaeologists find 1st-century texts, first since Dead Sea Scrolls
Some 1,900 years ago, Jewish refugees fleeing the Romans made their way to the Judean Desert. Among the belongings they carried with them were scrolls featuring the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. Two millennia later, fragments of those texts have reemerged, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Tuesday.
It is the first such discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and the early Fifties.
The inhospitable environment was considered a safe haven as the war between the Roman Empire and the
Judean rebels led by Shimon Bar Kokhba raged around 130 CE. Jews found shelter in the caves and brought what they thought they needed for their new life.
In recent decades, the caves have been targeted by looters eager to find artifacts to sell on the private market. For this reason, a few years ago, the IAA, in cooperation with the Civil Administration’s Archaeology Department, launched a rescue operation to survey all the caves in the area.
The findings, which include not only the biblical fragments, but also dozens of artifacts dating back as early as 10,000 years ago, have been astounding.
“More than 80 fragments of different sizes have been uncovered, some of them carrying text, some not,” Dr. Oren Ableman from the IAA Dead Sea Scroll Unit told The Jerusalem Post. “Based on the script, we dated them to the end of the first century BCE, which means that by the time it was brought to the cave, the scroll was already a century old.”
The researchers ascertained that the artifacts matched other fragments uncovered several decades ago and preserved at the IAA laboratory. They belonged to a scroll featuring the biblical Book of Zechariah, written in Greek,
to cannibalize votes in the Center-Left bloc at a Tel Aviv press conference on Tuesday. But he made an exception for Meretz, which is struggling to pass the 3.25% electoral threshold.
“If someone wants to vote Meretz, they should vote Meretz,” Lapid said. “It’s important that they cross the threshold. Apart from that, with all due respect to the political calculations, you can’t change the government without a large governing party. You can’t form a government without a large party. I call on the undecideds, give us your vote. Let sanity win.”
The parties in Lapid’s bloc he was referring to are Labor and Blue and White. Asked about his history with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, Lapid denied that his call was personal.
“My goal is not to go at someone’s head or settle scores,” he said. “I call on all people to look at the numbers, even if they are less comfortable, and act accordingly.”
Lapid was wrong to harm parties in the bloc, Gantz said, adding that when he headed the bloc, he did the opposite. Gantz referred to Netanyahu as “garbage” in a radio interview on Tuesday and then said he regretted the statement.
In response to Lapid, Labor leader Merav Michaeli said when Yesh Atid was large after the 2013 election, he had agreed to join a government led by Netanyahu in which Yamina leader Naftali Bennett played a central role. Labor needed to be large to replace Netanyahu, she said.
Meretz praised Lapid for “displaying responsibility.”
Shas leader Arye Deri accused Lapid of conspiring with Meretz and Yisrael Beytenu to harm Judaism in Israel.
At the press conference, Lapid expressed concern that Netanyahu could question the results of next Tuesday’s election.
“For Netanyahu, it’s either he won or it was stolen,” Lapid said. “We will make sure there will be no problems with the election. There are no indications of that. You can’t have a democracy if
the country’s institutions are constantly questioned.”
At the press conference, Lapid said Netanyahu wants a negative personal fight because he wants to hide from his public that the only government he can form is with right-wing and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties United Torah Judaism, Shas, the Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit.
“It would be a government that includes the disciples of the murderer Baruch Goldstein and people who call for Yigal Amir to be freed,” he said. “It would be a government of political blackmail that will take money from hard-working people and give to people who don’t work.”
Likud would not be a governing party in such a coalition, Lapid said.
“Netanyahu will be hostage to extortionists and extremists,” he said. “He needs them to give him immunity, and he’ll pay with our money, with our children’s future, with Israel’s international relations.”
Meanwhile, Ma’an, a moderate Arab Party, has dropped out of next week’s election and would instead endorse the Joint List, it announced Tuesday.
It is too late to run together with the Joint List, but the two parties announced that from now on, Ma’an would be a fourth party in the umbrella group of Arab parties.
It was important for the Arab parties to unite, Ma’an Party head Mohammad Darawshe, who is also the director of planning, equality and shared society at Givat Haviva, said at a press conference. Because his party would not cross the electoral threshold, leaving the race was the right thing to do, he said.
After the Democratic Party also quit the race, there are now 37 parties running. •