Customer Reviews

The Copper Scroll And The Search For The Temple Treasure

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For a book that touts itself as bringing deserved attention to the Copper Scroll for the first time in 40 years, it has little new to say. What is interesting is Shanks' coverage of the Hyrcania tunnel excavations. Unfortunately, even here, this is hardly relevant to the Copper Scroll and he only tells half the story.

As editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, Shanks is in a unique position to access almost every book that is published on the subject, and yet he fails to mention the work of Lefkovits or my findings in relation to the problematic 'Khaff' weight term. I have proposed a much smaller value than the 75 lb Talent and this solves the difficulty of ending up with vast total weights of gold and silver. When I discussed the problem with Jozef Milik, one of the greatest Dead Sea Scrolls scholars ever, he told me he had previously held to the view that the Copper Scroll was a work of fiction. However when he considered the possibility that the `Khaff' might actually be a weight term equivalent to the Egyptian `Kite' he agreed it would make much more sense and bring the entire Scroll back into the realms of reality.

Despite the fact that I have shown that examples of engraving on copper are not available for the period, and the examples given by Michael Wise are simply wrong, Shanks gives a similar example of engraving related to Roman military activities. He fails to give a reference to the location of this sheet and I would be very surprised if this actually is made of copper.

When it comes to the unsolved mystery of the Greek letters interspersed in the Hebrew text, Shanks seems completely unaware of the theory that they spell out the name of an Egyptian pharaoh. This suggestion is supported by Professor John Tait, of University College, London, and Professor Rosalie David, of Manchester University.

It seems Hebrew based scholars have a blind spot when it comes to considering anything Mesopotamian, and especially Egyptian. Perhaps a hearing aid or new pair of glasses might help.

Robert Feather