Endnote 37 – Tracking the Shapira Case: A Biblical Scandal Revisited

Quaritch, A General Catalogue of Books, vol. 3, (London, 1887). The Quaritch description fails to mention that the “famous fragments” were declared a forgery by Ginsburg. One interpretation of “led the religious world of England to sing hallelujahs” is that Ginsburg’s evaluation and judgment preserved the authenticity of the authorized text of Deuteronomy. The Shapira manuscript, after all, represented a conflicting version of the book and challenged the received biblical text. In addition, Ginsburg’s verdict saved the British people world embarrassment by not authenticating a manuscript that European authorities had declared a forgery. But the last sentence of the Quaritch 1887 description implies that the British religious community accepted what the “scoffing atheists” of Germany and France “had refused to acknowledge [as] genuine.” In fact, Ginsburg, Clermont-Ganneau and Strack all came to the same conclusion: that the scroll was a forgery. Perhaps Quaritch himself was not convinced and thought that the scroll might be authentic and have religious (or monetary) relevance.