16.06.2013 Views

The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

12 DIGITAL MIRACLES<br />

Some of <strong>the</strong>se characters can be explained by inspecting <strong>the</strong> photograph<br />

of <strong>the</strong> reverse side of this column: <strong>the</strong> new characters visible in <strong>the</strong> fifth line<br />

appear in reverse very clearly. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r h<strong>and</strong>, in <strong>the</strong> region of <strong>the</strong> top<br />

four lines where <strong>the</strong> superimposed characters appear on <strong>the</strong> front, nothing<br />

is visible from <strong>the</strong> back except that <strong>the</strong> scroll is very dark in that region.<br />

One explanation is that a piece of scroll torn from ano<strong>the</strong>r column is stuck<br />

on <strong>the</strong> back (reverse) side of column 17. Clearly, <strong>the</strong> YES processing has<br />

allowed <strong>the</strong> characters of <strong>the</strong> “fifth” line on <strong>the</strong> back to be seen through <strong>the</strong><br />

parchment. It is our conclusion that <strong>the</strong> superimposed characters in <strong>the</strong> top<br />

four lines are being seen through <strong>the</strong> parchment <strong>and</strong> that <strong>the</strong>y are written<br />

on <strong>the</strong> piece of scroll stuck to <strong>the</strong> reverse side. If this assumption is true,<br />

<strong>the</strong> task remains to determine <strong>the</strong> origin of this piece of scroll.<br />

ORIGIN OF THE NEW CHARACTERS<br />

<strong>The</strong> most likely source of <strong>the</strong> new characters found in column 17 is a<br />

neighboring column. Since <strong>the</strong> scroll was rolled from <strong>the</strong> left to right (<strong>the</strong><br />

Figure 5: An enlarged image of <strong>the</strong> top of column 17 of <strong>the</strong> Temple<br />

Scroll is shown on <strong>the</strong> left. After processing through <strong>the</strong> YES color<br />

space, <strong>the</strong> enhancement is shown on <strong>the</strong> right. A fifth line of characters<br />

is now visible.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!