Bigre. Does this mean that there would remain texts, unknown to specialists, which would complete the Old Testament?
This would put many believers in turmoil! The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had already represented, between 1947 and 1956, the greatest archaeological conquest of the 20th century. Tens of thousands of fragments, making up a thousand manuscripts, had been unearthed in eleven caves in the Judean desert, in present-day West Bank, providing irreplaceable testimony to the origins of the Old Testament. More than seventy years later, the so-called “library” of Qumrân is far from having revealed all its secrets. In 2017, new fragments surfaced at the Bible Museum in Washington, but the experts’ verdict is in: all are fakes, like most of the hundred or so “unpublished” fragments that have popped up in the antiques market in recent years. , and which are snapped up at a high price despite a dubious authenticity. A new treasure hunt has nevertheless started in the hills of Qumran, which have around 600 caves, but only 200 of which have been explored. An American-Israeli team of archaeologists announced, in January 2017, the discovery of a twelfth cave with manuscripts. They unearthed the remains of seven broken jars, as well as remains of textiles and leather ties that may have been used to wrap manuscripts.
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But of these famous manuscripts, no traces, except a fragment of blank parchment! A new campaign, in January 2019, just provided details on the use of caves according to their altitude, in particular for the storage of jars. The probability of finding new manuscripts there after more than seventy years is therefore difficult to assess. But it is not impossible, after all, that treasures still lie dormant in the darkness of these caves.
From Science & Vie – Questions Answers n ° 39.
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