Author’s Blog
The Shapira Affair and Those Skeptical of The Scrolls
On 6 January 2022, Idan Dershowitz posted a four-part thread on his Twitter account.[1] This is what he posted. I just listened to an excellent talk by Michael Langlois,[2] in which he dispels the myth that the Dead Sea Scrolls were accepted by most early...
Shapira in the Netherlands – But Why?
One of the great puzzles for most researchers of the Shapira Affair is why he spent the final months of his life in the Netherlands. The basic story, oft repeated, is that after the official rejection of his manuscript strips by Christian Ginsburg, the dejected...
Lofty Hills of Moab – A Hymn by M. Lowrie Hofford 1884
Research often yields things of interest tangentially related to the investigation at hand. I was looking for 19th-century photographs of the land east of the Jordan, searching the archives of the Library of Congress, which contain a wealth of public domain images of...
Clermont-Ganneau was Told No and The Record Went on Record – 17 August 1883
“On Friday, Clermont-Ganneau returned to the museum where he was informed with ‘great regret’ by Edward Augustus Bond, the principal librarian, that Mr. Shapira had ‘expressly refused his consent’ for him to inspect the fragments. The Frenchman would describe his...
The Moses Scroll – Autographed Copies
Since the publication of my book, The Moses Scroll, several people have written and requested an autographed copy. I am pleased to let everyone know that I have finally ordered a few dozen copies for this purpose. If you want an autographed copy, please email me at...
Moses Shapira’s 9 May 1883 Letter to Hermann Strack
In early 1883, Moses W. Shapira came upon a book by a German scholar named Friedrich Bleek, published in 1860 under the title, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, [Introduction to the Old Testament]. The book presented a critical, academic approach to the study of the...