Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021)
Greek Zechariah and Nahum with the divine Name in paleo-Hebrew, from the Judean Desert survey
Found 2021 — Israel Antiquities Authority Judean Desert survey (from 2017), teams led by Oriah Amichai, Hagay Hamer and Haim Cohen, with Eitan Klein and Amir Ganor; announced 16 March 2021
Where Cave of Horror (Cave 8), Nahal Hever, Judean Desert, near En-Gedi (Israel (West Bank, Judean Desert))
Dates from Scroll copied c. 50 BCE–50 CE; hidden 132–135 CE · Early Roman (Bar Kokhba revolt) · Between the Testaments and the generation after the apostles
Now at Israel Antiquities Authority, Dead Sea Scrolls conservation laboratory, Jerusalem
How Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021) was found
Rappelling into the Cave of Horror in Nahal Hever, 80 m below the cliff top, the survey sifted sediment left after Yohanan Aharoni's 1953–1961 work and recovered some two dozen parchment scraps, plus a 10,500-year-old woven basket, a 6,000-year-old naturally mummified child, Bar Kokhba coins and arrowheads. The project aimed to reach caves before looters did.
What it is
About twenty small fragments of a Greek scroll of the Minor Prophets, joining the 8HevXIIgr scroll partly recovered in the 1950s. Eleven lines from Zechariah 8:16–17 and lines from Nahum 1:5–6 were read. The Greek is a revision toward the Hebrew text, and wherever the name of God occurs the scribe wrote YHVH in paleo-Hebrew letters instead of translating it. The cave earned its name from the forty skeletons of Bar Kokhba refugees found there in 1961.
Why it matters for the Bible
These were the first new biblical scroll fragments found by archaeologists in some sixty years. They show Greek-speaking Jews near the time of Yeshua reading the Prophets in Greek but refusing to translate the Name, writing it in the old Hebrew script, a practice that bears on how the earliest believers read 'the LORD' in their Scriptures. Small differences from the standard Septuagint and Masoretic wording (for example in Zechariah 8:17) show the text was still being fine-tuned. They also remind readers that the desert refugees of 135 CE carried Scripture with them to the end.
The Hebrew word: (the Name; often read A-do-NAI)
יהוה
יהוה is pronounced (the Name; often read A-do-NAI) and means the four-letter Name of God, written in paleo-Hebrew script within the Greek text (Strong's H3068).
People this discovery connects to
- Zechariah — זְכַרְיָה (Ze-char-YAH) — YHVH remembers
- Nahum — נַחוּם (Nah-CHOOM) — comfort
Places
- En-Gedi — עֵין גֶּדִי (Ein GEH-dee) — spring of the kid
Events
Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE) · Transmission of the Prophets in Greek
Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021) in Scripture
Joshua 15:62 First mention of En-gedi in Scripture.
Nahum 1:5-6 The second passage read on the fragments: mountains quake and the earth heaves before YHVH.
Zechariah 8:16-17 The eleven Greek lines reconstructed from the new fragments come from these verses on truth and justice in the gates.
Questions people ask
What is Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021)?
About twenty small fragments of a Greek scroll of the Minor Prophets, joining the 8HevXIIgr scroll partly recovered in the 1950s. Eleven lines from Zechariah 8:16–17 and lines from Nahum 1:5–6 were read. The Greek is a revision toward the Hebrew text, and wherever the name of God occurs the scribe wrote YHVH in paleo-Hebrew letters instead of translating it. The cave earned its name from the forty skeletons of Bar Kokhba refugees found there in 1961.
When was Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021) discovered?
It was found in 2021 by Israel Antiquities Authority Judean Desert survey (from 2017), teams led by Oriah Amichai, Hagay Hamer and Haim Cohen, with Eitan Klein and Amir Ganor; announced 16 March 2021, at Cave of Horror (Cave 8), Nahal Hever, Judean Desert, near En-Gedi.
Where is Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021) today?
Israel Antiquities Authority, Dead Sea Scrolls conservation laboratory, Jerusalem.
Which Bible verses does Cave of Horror Scroll Fragments (2021) relate to?
Joshua 15:62, Nahum 1:5-6, Zechariah 8:16-17.
Related discoveries
- נִינְוֵהFall of Nineveh Chronicle (BM 21901)Babylonian record of the destruction of Assyria's capital in 612 BCE, as Nahum foretold
- נֻסָּחSamuel Scrolls from Cave 4 (4QSama-c)Fragments of Samuel that preserve readings lost from the traditional Hebrew text
- יהוהEarliest Septuagint Papyri (Rylands 458 and Fouad 266)Greek Deuteronomy fragments from the 2nd–1st centuries BCE, one writing God's name in Hebrew letters
- כִּכָּרCopper Scroll (3Q15)A treasure list engraved on copper, the strangest of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- מְעָרָהQumran Cave 12 (2017)A newly excavated scroll cave, looted in antiquity but proving the caves still hold secrets
- מְגִלָּהDiscovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran Cave 1)The 1947 find that gave the world Hebrew Bibles a thousand years older than any known before
Sources
- Times of Israel, 'Bible scroll fragments among dazzling artifacts found in Dead Sea Cave of Horror' (March 2021)
- Biblical Archaeology Society, 'Scrolls Hidden During Bar Kokhba Revolt Discovered'
- Smithsonian Magazine, 'Dozens of Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Found in Israeli Cave'
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