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- A religious text,
which is being billed by some as one
of the "lost" Dead Sea
Scrolls, has mysteriously surfaced in
Israel. Stephen Pfann, a scholar
and president of the University of the
Holy Land, is currently studying
the document.
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- He says the text uses some of the same phrases and imagery
as
the famous 2000-year-old scrolls. However, he warns that further study
will be required before experts can confirm whether the so-called
"Angel
Scroll" is genuine or an elaborate hoax.
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- If it is real, it
could shed new light on Jewish mysticism
and the origins of
Christianity, Dr Pfann says.
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- "I haven't found anything to knock this totally
out of the ballpark," he told The Associated Press. "If it's
a forgery, it was done by an expert who has studied Dead Sea Scrolls at
length."
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- The whole story surrounding the Angel Scroll is bizarre
to say
the least. Rumors have circulated among scholars for many years
that
one of the Dead Sea Scrolls - the religious writings of the Essenes
found in caves near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1954 - made its way to
an antiquities dealer in one of the nearby Arab capitals.
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- Sworn to
secrecy
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- The Jerusalem Report magazine this week reported that
Benedictine monks had bought the parchment, filled with 1,000 lines of
Hebrew text, in 1974. It was said the monks took the parchment to a
monastery
on the German-Austrian border and secretly studied
it.
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- The
monks were sworn to secrecy, but one - identified
only by the pseudonym
Mateus - broke the vow, bequeathing a transcript
and his commentary to
a German friend after his death in 1996.
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- The transcript was then given
to an Israeli college administrator
and a physician with an interest in
Kabbala, a form of Jewish mysticism,
the magazine reported. The two men
have insisted on anonymity, but allowed
the magazine to look at the
transcript. The publication said its limited
access meant it was
unable to draw any firm conclusions about the scroll's
authenticity.
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- The college administrator handed Dr Pfann - one of several
Christian scholars deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls - one-fourth of the
transcript for a review.
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- A believer's story
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- In the document, one
"Yeshua ben Padiah" describes
a religiousvision he says he
had while at Ein Eglatain, a desert settlement
on the eastern shore of
the Dead Sea. The author is taken by an angel,
Panameia, on a trip of
the heavens, entering through the gates of a heavenly
palace.
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- A second unidentified
source in the document provides
embalming recipes for the resurrection
of the dead and the use of herbs
and stones for healing, practices
attributed to the Essenes by the Jewish
historian Josephus, a
contemporary.
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- Phrases associated with the Essenes recur in the new
text, such
as "children of light" and "children of darkness"
as well as the word "el" for God. Grammar and spellings are
similar
to those of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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- Dr Pfann says he also found a
complete phrase in Yeshua's
story that he had been trying to
reconstruct in one of the scrolls he was
working on.
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- Father Bargil Pixner,
the Benedictine authority on the
Dead Sea Scrolls, is reported to be
skeptical about the text. If the Benedictines
were in possession of a
scroll, "I would know about it," Pixner
said.
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