New Appointment: Rebekah Klein, Intern for Manuscript Research

The MIKRA Research Laboratory is delighted to announce that Rebekah “Bekah” Klein has become a manuscript research intern beginning March 2024. Bekah has been studying biblical languages at Brookes Bible College since 2020. After having distinguished herself with excellent linguistic capacity since beginning her Biblical Hebrew studies, she has progressed to Biblical Aramaic where she continues to excel. Like many gifted linguists, she is also an accomplished instrumentalist and is especially noted for her facility in piano.

Because of her focus and energy, Bekah has created a position for herself at MIKRA by becoming our first official intern serving in support of internationally recognized academics and researchers. Her future academic plans include focusing on Biblical Greek acquisition and Greek Bible research at Brookes beginning the fall 2024 term.

At present, Bekah is coordinating progress between our paleography and technology teams on our software platform and will soon begin editing and inputting digital images of an Ecclesiastes (Koheleth) scroll currently in the paleographical analysis phase.  Already this month, she has participated in our public exhibition and educational platforms by serving as a manuscript docent at a local high school exhibit, entitled, “Encountering Biblical Manuscripts.”

We look forward to working with Bekah and watching her advance in original language biblical manuscript studies over the upcoming years. Congratulations Bekah!

March Exhibit: Encountering Biblical Manuscripts

Rebekah Klein

Intern for Manuscript Research

Job Announcement: Specialist for Modern Hebrew Paleographer; Torah Scrolls Specialists

MIKRA Research Laboratory is hiring a specialist in Torah scroll paleography to be part of a team performing digitization, paleographic analysis, and database building on modern era scrolls and manuscripts from the 16th-20th centuries. See below.

1000 Year Old Bible Refound in Cairo Synagogue

In 2017, Prof. Yoram Meital rediscovered the Zechariah Ben Anan manuscript in a Cairo, Egypt synagogue. The manuscript is similar to the Aleppo Codex and Codex L (the most important Hebrew Bibles; currently only containing the Writing’s section). It is named after the scribe who produced it, Zechariah Ben Anan (ZBAM for short).  Here is a recently released video describing Meital’s experience (#1 below). Yesterday, on June 29th, MIKRA participated in a presentation out of Cairo sponsored by the Egyptian non profit, A Drop of Milk Association, that interviews key persons in a project to preserve the manuscript. It has been released and is linked below (#5).

(1) Video on the discovery.

(2) Here are two articles by MIKA CEO Brian Rickett on the discovery: Article 1; Article 2.

(3) Here is Yoram Meital’s JQR article on the rediscovery.

(4) Richard Gottheil’s original 1905 article on his discovery of the ZBAM in The Jewish Quarterly Review.

(5) June 29th presentation on the rediscovery of the manuscript by the non profit, Drop of Milk Association.

Dead Sea Jar Lid Found to Hold Decomposed Papyrus

PRESS RELEASE

A study of ancient residue in a clay jar lid, originally coming from the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, has shown that it contained decomposed papyrus. Numerous cylindrical jars and lids were found in caves close to the ancient site of Qumran, west of the Dead Sea, but these were largely broken and empty, and their association with scrolls has been doubted. The discovery of decomposed papyrus in one of the lids adds to the evidence that scrolls were once placed in them, even when no scroll fragments have survived.

Jewish Ritual Art Coming Into Its Own At The Met

Just over a year ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of the most important Jewish manuscripts to survive medieval Spain. This 14th-century Spanish Bible from the Castile region is one of only three surviving decorated Hebrew Bibles from the region. Its uniqueness is in the beauty of the manuscript, with its clean margins and uniform penmanship, complex micrographical patterns, illuminated initial panels and intricate designs on its opening carpet pages.

Gleanings from the Cave of Wonders? Fragments, Forgeries, and “Biblicism” in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Kipp Davis on the treasures of Qumran

“Remember, boy.
First fetch me the lamp.
And then you shall have your reward . . .

. . . Your eternal reward.”

Any child of the 1980s or ‘90s or self respecting Disney animated film buff will recognize the “Cave of Wonders” as the fabled treasure cave in the 1992 blockbuster hit Aladdin. The film was a loose adaptation of folk tales in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The Cave was the secret horde of treasure belonging to a bloodthirsty band of thieves that was unwittingly uncovered by a poor woodcutter named Ali Baba. The story of Ali Baba and his wealthy brother Cassim is in part a moral tale about greed, and this theme is also reflected in the film: At one point of the movie the protagonist is provided entry along with his boon companion—a monkey named Abu—into the Cave, but is then restricted from even touching any of the limitless treasure within. Unable to quell his own greed Abu breaks this prohibition and he and Aladdin are consequently swallowed by the magic cave.

Artificial Intelligence Is Cracking Open the Vatican's Secret Archives

The Vatican Secret Archives is one of the grandest historical collections in the world. It’s also one of the most useless.

The grandeur is obvious. Located within the Vatican’s walls, next door to the Apostolic Library and just north of the Sistine Chapel, the VSA houses 53 linear miles of shelving dating back more than 12 centuries. It includes gems like thepapal bull that excommunicated Martin Luther and the pleas for help that Mary Queen of Scots sent to Pope Sixtus V before her execution. In size and scope, the collection is almost peerless.

Experts harness 3D printing to recreate ancient artifacts destroyed by ISIS

“Experts are using crowdsourced images and 3D printing technology in an ambitious project to recreate ancient artifacts destroyed by Islamic State in the Iraqi city of Mosul.... 

Last month ISIS released a video that showed militants using sledgehammers and drills to destroy artifacts in the Mosul Museum, the latest in a string of wanton attacks on sites of historic and religious importance. Project Mosul, part of the European Union-funded Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage, is calling on volunteers to help restore the museum’s devastated artifacts.”

Note: To see an interactive 3D image of the Mosul lion, see middle of article.