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Wednesday, May 06, 2015

The oldest (complete) copy of the Ten Commandments

EXHIBITION: Ten Commandments Dead Sea scroll to go on display for two weeks in Israel. World’s oldest complete copy of Ten Commandments has only previously been displayed overseas, but will be at Israel Museum for first time (AP).

You can read more about the exhibition in the Wall Street Journal: The Israel Museum Presents ‘A Brief History of Humankind.’ Inspired by a book by Yuval Noah Harari, Jerusalem’s Israel Museum is celebrating its first half-century with a look at humankind, from ancient artifacts to contemporary works (Jessica Dawson).

Technically the oldest copy of the Ten Commandments is the Nash Papyrus (second century BCE), which was found well before the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is not quite complete, though: a few letters are missing here and there, so the carefully phrased headline of the AP article is correct. The article does not specify which Qumran manuscript is on display, but I can see from the photo that it is 4QDeuteronomyn (late first century BCE).