The Ashkar-Gilson Manuscript (circa 600-700CE) is a fragment of a Torah scroll containing a portion of
Shemot (
Book of Exodus
The Book of Exodus (from grc, Ἔξοδος, translit=Éxodos; he, שְׁמוֹת ''Šəmōṯ'', "Names") is the second book of the Bible. It narrates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through t ...
). The section is a crucial text that displays the unique layout of Shirat HaYam (
The Song of the Sea).
It was found in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, Lebanon in 1972 by Fuad Ashkar and Albert Gilson, although it
is believed that it may have come from the
Cairo Genizah
The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the '' genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Eg ...
. Ashkar and Gilson donated the manuscript to
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
. In 2007, the university lent the piece to the
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
in Jerusalem, where it was displayed in the
Shrine of the Book
The Shrine of the Book ( he, היכל הספר, ''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 construct ...
. During its exhibition at the museum, the manuscript attracted the attention of two Israeli scholars, Dr. Mordechay Mishor and Dr. Edna Engel. Close examination of the manuscript revealed that the fragment was the continuation of the previously uncovered
London Manuscript
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
, containing the passages of Exodus 9:18–13:2.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashkar-Gilson Manuscript
Torah
Hebrew Bible manuscripts
7th-century biblical manuscripts