The Ashkar-Gilson Manuscript is a fragment of a Torah scroll, dated to the 7th century CE, containing a portion of
Shemot (
Book of Exodus
The Book of Exodus (from ; ''Šəmōṯ'', 'Names'; ) is the second book of the Bible. It is the first part of the narrative of the Exodus, the origin myth of the Israelites, in which they leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through the strength of ...
). The section is a crucial text that displays the unique layout of Shirat HaYam (
The Song of the Sea).
The official name of the fragment is MS Durham, Duke University, Ashkar-Gilson #2.
Ashkar-Gilson #2 was bought in
Beirut
Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
, Lebanon in 1972 by Fuad Ashkar and Albert Gilson, although it is believed that it may have come from the
Cairo Genizah. Ashkar and Gilson donated the manuscript to
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
. In 2007, the university lent the piece to the
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...
in Jerusalem, where it was displayed in the
Shrine of the Book
The Shrine of the Book (, ''Heikhal HaSefer'') is a wing of the Israel Museum in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aleppo Codex, among others.
History
The building was constructed in 1965, funded by ...
. During its exhibition at the museum, the manuscript attracted the attention of two Israeli scholars,
Mordechay Mishor and
Edna Engel. Close examination of the manuscript revealed that the fragment was the continuation of the previously uncovered
London Manuscript, containing the passages of Exodus 9:18–13:2. Additional fragments of the same scroll were identified by Mordechai Veintrob. They were discussed by Paul Sanders, who argues that the relationship between the scroll and the
Aleppo Codex
The Aleppo Codex () is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate, and was endorsed for its accuracy by Maimonides. ...
is remarkably strong.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashkar-Gilson Manuscript
Torah
Hebrew Bible manuscripts
7th-century biblical manuscripts