Image Details
By permission of the The British Library/add. ms. 41294, fol. 33
In 1883, Shapira offered to the British Museum 15 fragments of what he claimed to be the oldest written Biblical text in the world—an abbreviated version of Deuteronomy, perhaps written by Moses himself. (The photo shows one of the blackened, almost indecipherable strips.) Within a year, the scrolls had been declared fakes and Shapira had committed suicide.