The Marzeah Papyrus, regnet som en forfalskning av ledende epigrafer som Frank Moore Cross, Andre Lemaire og Christopher A. Rollston, fortsetter stadig å bli utstilt som
«the world's oldest known Hebrew/Moabitic writing on manuscript».
I forbindelse med Ink & Blood-utstillingen i 2005 (
Ink & Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to Gutenberg) beskrev man fragmentet slik:
Marzeah Papyrus
Seventh
century B.C.
Egypt
The
world's oldest known Hebrew / Moabitic writing on manuscript
Translation:
"Thus
says God (Elohim) to [Gera]:
The marzeah and the millstones and the
house are yours. As for [Yisa], he should keep away from them. And Malka is the depositary [guarantor]."
The Marzeah Papyrus is possibly the
oldest known surviving Hebrew or Moabitic script on papyrus by several
centuries. There are extant papyri
written by Jews from the colony of Jewish soldiers stationed in Elephantine in
Upper Egypt from the Fifth Century B.C., but these are written in Aramaic, not
Hebrew (at the Staatliche Museen Aramaic Papyri, Berlin). All other surviving Hebrew papyri are
significantly later. Any evidence of the
languages of Palestine
at this time comes from inscriptions on stone and pottery. The three Eastern branches of Canaanite
(Moabite, Edomite, and Ammonite) are known only from stele, ostraca, and
seals. Examined and authenticated by
the British Museum
(Carole Mendelson and Terence Mitchell, early 1980s), the Oriental Institute of
the University of Chicago (Professor H. Kantor, using photographs), the
Louvre (on deposit, early 1990s), and the Bible
Lands Museum
in Jerusalem
(2002). Analyses were both paleographic
and scientific, and considered the papyrus itself, the inscription, and the
bulla.
I katalogen
From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book: A History of the Bible (Lee Biondi, 2003, 2004) presenteres fragmentet som The
Elohim Papyrus:
The Elohim papyrus is from about 700 years before Christ ... It is the oldest known example of the name of the Judeo-Christian God in the form Elohim (19).
Kombinasjonen av angivelig datering og anvendelse av gudsnavn er interessant, siden flere forskere vil datere aktiviteten til den såkalte elohisten til denne tiden.
Edward M. Cook gir en glimrende innføring i en del av problemene med dette fragmentet i bloggposten
Thoughts on the Marzeah Papyrus.
