For my first authentic cultural article, I want to focus on the Ketef Hinnom scrolls. These are two extremely small scrolls made completely out of silver, and they contain the oldest passages of scripture ever discovered. I have attached an image of them below. Even though they are tiny, their historical and cultural importance is huge.
The Ketef Hinnom scrolls were discovered in 1979 in Jerusalem’s Old City. They were found in a burial cave, which helped preserve them for thousands of years. Because the scrolls were so fragile, archaeologists had to be extremely careful when opening them. Eventually, they were able to carefully unroll the silver sheets and discovered inscriptions from the Torah, specifically from Numbers 6 and Deuteronomy 7. One of the most well-known passages found on the scrolls, which says:
“‘The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.’”
After testing and dating the scrolls, scholars found that they came from the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E. This makes them incredibly old. To put this into perspective, the Ketef Hinnom scrolls are about 500 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Before this discovery, many scholars believed that the Torah was not written down until centuries later. While later discoveries in 2004 confirmed that the Torah existed before these scrolls, the Ketef Hinnom scrolls were the first major proof of this.
These scrolls had a very large impact on biblical and Hebrew studies. They helped scholars better understand the ancient Hebrew alphabet and how it was written during that time period. The scrolls also reference “Yahweh,” known as the rebuker of evil, and they contain the earliest known confession of Yahweh. This discovery helped confirm how early the worship of Yahweh began and how central it was to Hebrew and Jewish belief.
The two scrolls are written in Old or Biblical Hebrew. Today, it is very rare for people to speak ancient Hebrew as it appears in the Torah. Most people now speak modern Hebrew. In the late 1800s, linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda began a movement to revive Hebrew as a spoken, modern language. After the Holocaust, when many Jewish people immigrated to Israel, modern Hebrew became widely adopted and is still spoken today.
When I personally visited the Old City of Jerusalem, I was able to see many ancient artifacts and culturally significant buildings. Although I did not see the Ketef Hinnom scrolls in person, I did visit the Western Wall, Jesus’ tomb, the Dome of the Rock, and many other important sites. Being there allowed me to see firsthand how deeply these places resonate with people. For many individuals, visiting Israel and the Holy Land is a lifelong dream that they save for years to achieve, which shows just how powerful and meaningful these historical and religious sites still are today. Although I am not religious, my visit to the Old City of Jerusalem gave me a good perspective on the significance of these artifacts.
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