Friday, March 20, 2009

The Nash Papyrus Fragments

In Egypt, in 1898,  W.L. Nash purchased four fragments written in Hebrew. They are known as  the Nash Papyrus fragments and are  dated at 150-100 BC.  They are the only fragments of the O.T. found in Egypt written in Hebrew.  From this find we can deduce that the Egyptian Hebrew readers had a Torah that was different from either the Septuagint  (the Greek  version of the OT created for the Jews living in ancient Egyptian) or the Masoretes (modern Jewish OT).  What is significant is that the four fragments record a mixture of commandments from Exodus and Deuteronomy and includes among the Ten Commandments an eleventh.

24 [0 Isra]el: Jahwe our God, Jahwe is one; and thou
shalt love]
25 [Jahwe thy G]o[d with al]1 t[hy heart ... . ].

We know that Yahshuah quoted from a version that was neither the Septuagint, nor the Masorah. This fragment may come from that missing Bible.


 

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