The fragment was called the most important find since the Dead Sea Scrolls when it was announced Monday at the Antiquities Authority’s Jerusalem laboratory in the Israel Museum. It is from the end of the sixth century AD, according to the Daily Mail, and is the oldest copy of the Hebrew Bible discovered since the Dead Sea scrolls.

The fragment is far too delicate to unroll, but the scanning allowed experts to determine that it is the first eight verses of Leviticus.


The text of the fragment of scroll, in ancient Hebrew, translates as:

'The Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When any of you bring an offering of livestock to the Lord, you shall bring your offering from the herd or from the flock. 

'If the offering is a burnt-offering from the herd, you shall offer a male without blemish; you shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, for acceptance in your behalf before the Lord. 

'You shall lay your hand on the head of the burnt-offering, and it shall be acceptable in your behalf as atonement for you. 

'The bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord; and Aaron's sons the priests shall offer the blood, dashing the blood against all sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 

'The burnt-offering shall be flayed and cut up into its parts. The sons of the priest Aaron shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.

'Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the parts, with the head and the suet, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar.'
(Leviticus 1:1-8).

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