ReViews: Unraveling the Truth: Alleged Forgery and the “Oldest Bible”

In the second half of the 19th century, the Middle East became an arena of vigorous competition among the European powers over strategic positions in the declining Ottoman Empire. Eretz-Israel/Palestine, being the land of the Bible and the cradle of Judeo-Christian civilization, served as a central part of this arena, and Jerusalem was its focus. There, pilgrims and missionaries, consuls and archaeologists struggled over a foothold in the holy places and over archaeological objects that were sent to museums in European capitals. In 1856 Moses Shapira, a Polish-born Jew and a recent convert to Christianity, arrived in Jerusalem and […]