Sunday, December 30, 2007

MORE ON THE "VISION OF GABRIEL": The Biblical Archaeology Society has put up a page on it:
A New Dead Sea Scroll in Stone?
You can download a transcription of the Hebrew text and an English translation. (Via Joseph I. Lauer and the Agade list.)

Also, subscribers to Biblical Archaeology Review can download Ada Yardeni's article in the Jan-Feb 08 issue of BAR here.

UPDATE: Stephen Goranson e-mails:
I'm not sure what to make of it yet. The BAR description "Dead Sea Scroll" may be less than apt since it's not a scroll and, perhaps, not reliably known to be from near the Dead Sea. It reminds me a bit of the "Angel Scroll" or "Visions of Yeshuah Ben Padiah Scroll," as Stephen Pfann called it--which has not to my knowledge been authenticated--also supposedly from Jordan. As for writing on stone, if genuine, the new text would not be quite unparalleled. In 1955 in Qumran Locus 129 de Vaux uncovered a "plaque de calcaire inscrite" (with ink or paint?), Humbert and Chambon, Fouilles... 1994 page 332, KhQ 2207). The latter was published by A. Lemaire in Humbert and Gunneweg, Khirbet Qumran...II: etudes... 2003 pages 360-2. Unfortunately, these 5 lines of text are not especially clear, though apparently religious.
Interesting. For the supposed Ben Padiah scroll, see here. As far as I know it has yet to be produced or authenticated.