MS in Canaanite West Semitic on bronze, Canaan, Israel/Lebanon, 11th c. BC, 1 arrowhead, 7,2x1,5 cm, inscribed on both sides with Proto-Canaanite script/early Phoenician script.

Context: A MS with Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script is MS 5180.

Provenance: 1. Found in Southern Lebanon; 2. Frank Sternberg, Zürich, Auktion XXIV, 19.11.1990:431.

Commentary: The about 50 known arrowheads are the most important link between the West Semitic early Proto-Canaanite and the Phoenician-Hebrew scripts, being critical for the study of the development of the alphabet. The owners of most of the known arrowheads were warriors, possibly under the command of the King of Amurru.

Exhibited: The Norwegian Institute of Palaeography and Historical Philology (PHI), Oslo, 13.10.2003-06.2005.

MS in Aramaic on black stone, Neo-Hittite kingdom, North Syria/South Turkey, 8th c. BC, 1 Pyxis lid, diam. 10,6x5,4x1,1 cm, 2 lines in archaic Aramaic script, deeply carved frieze of animals, a chimera.

Provenance: 1. Mannuki, chief artisan, North Syria/South Turkey (8th BC); 2. The Surena Collection, Geneva and London (ca. 1970-1997).

MS in Aramaic on clay, Syria, 613(?) BC, 1 tablet, 8,6x5,4x2,6 cm, 7+10+3 lines in Aramaic cursive documentary script, 3 seal impressions of a crescent moon above a schematic winged sun disc, of Sharash-sharru-ibnu the Turtanu.

Context: A similar tablet recently discovered in Syria, is published in Frederick Maria Fales: "An Aramaic tablet from Tell Shioukh Fawqani, Syria", Semitica, 46(1996), pp. 81-121, plates 9-10.

Commentary: The Aramaic alphabet developed alongside and in competition with the existing cuneiform script. The present documents are a hybrid of the new and the old, demonstrating written Aramaic script on cuneiform-style tablets.

Published: Andrè Lemaire: Nouvelles tablettes aramènnes. Seires Hautes Études orientales - 34, Moyen et proche-orient, 1. Genève, Librairie Droz S.A., 2001.

MS in Jewish-Aramaic on cream coloured clay, Idumea, Palestine, 2 March 344 BC, 1 ostracon, 7,0x3,5 cm, single column, 3 lines in Jewish-Aramaic script.

Context: This is the second of 4 ostraca that seems to be written in 4 subsequent days by the same scribe; EN 103 is written the day before, L 36 the next day. Cf. A. Lemaire, Nouvelle inscriptions araméennes d'Idumée au musée d'Israel, Suppl. 3 à Trans. Paris 1966. I. Efph'al et J. Naveh, Aramaic Ostraca of the Fourth Century BC Idumaea, Jerusalem 1966.

Provenance: 1. Archive, Idumea, Palestine (344 BC- ); 2. Excavated, Palestine (1991-1995); 3. Sadi Barakat, Jerusalem.

Commentary: There are at least 300 Aramaic ostraca of this type, found from 1991 on.

Published: A. Lemaire,: Quatre nouveaux ostraca araméens d'Idumée; Transeuphratène 18, 1999.

MS in Hebrew (texts 1-2) and Jewish-Aramaic (text 3) on clay,
Iran/Mesopotamia/Syria/Jordan, 5th-7th c., 1 incantation bowl, 17,0x6,5 cm, 10
lines in Jewish-Aramaic script, drawing of the demon Lilith with her hands and
feet bound.

Commentary: Text 1, Exodus 3:14 - 15, quoting the Hebrew Bible is among the earliest known, only preceded by the Dead Sea Scrolls, 4QGen-Exoda and 4QExodb. Text 2, Isaiah 40:31; 60:11, quoting the Hebrew Bible is among the earliest known, only preceded by the 2 Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QIsaA and 1QIsaB, from ca. 100 BC. Incantation or magical bowls are also called demon traps. They were placed with the bottom up under the floors and thresholds of the houses in the Near East. The demons were then believed to be trapped inside the bowl with the magical spells written against them.

The drawing of the demon Lilith with her hands and feet bound, her breasts bare and her hair undone, shows her as a promiscuous adulteress, who is stripped naked and cast out of the house. This picture accords well with Lilith's role as a succubus, who has sexual relations with men at night in order to propagate a new generation of demons.

Published: To be published by Prof. Shaul Shaked in the series Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection.

Exhibited: . XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998; 2. The Warburg Institute: A Special exhibition on the occasion of the workshop "Officina Magica", London 15 - 17 1999.

MS in Hebrew on vellum, Qumran, 1st c. BC, 1 fragment of a scroll, 3,3x1,6 cm, 1 partial column, (original column 20x13 cm), part of 4 lines (originally 29 lines), in a formal Hasmonaean Hebrew book script; a fragment, 0,7x0,8 cm, with the offset of the letters Shin and Lamed; 2 uninscribed fragments, 2,0x0,7 cm and 0,5x0,5 cm.

Context: Part of the final benedictions (1QSb=1Q28b) of the scroll originally known as the Manual of Discipline (1QS), also named after its 2nd text, The Rule of the Community (1QSa) or Serekh ha-Yahad. This was one of the 7 scrolls found in Cave 1 at Qumran in June 1947. The Metropolitan, Bishop Athanasius Samuel, took 4 of these scrolls (the Manual of Discipline, the Isaiah A Scroll, the Habakkuk Commentary, and the Genesis Apocryphon), to New York in January 1949 to be sold. They were advertised in the Wall Street Journal on 1 June 1954, bought 1 month later by Yigael Yadin on behalf of the Israeli Government and immediately taken back to Israel. They are now in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The present fragment had either fallen off the scroll in the cave, or while in the possession of Athanasius Samuel.

A further fragment from the bottom of column 7 of 1QS, in The Schøyen Collection, see MS 1926/3. Further Dead Sea Scroll fragments: MSS 1926/1-4, 2713, 2861, 4611, 4612 and 5095/1. There are 10 more fragmentary Rule of the Community scrolls from Cave 4 (4QS255-264).

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (1st c. BC-68 AD); 2. Qumran cave 1 (68-1947); 3. Muhammad Adh-Dhib of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1947); 4. Khalil Iskander Shakin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1947-1948); 5. Syrian orthodox Monastery of St. Mark (Metropolitan Athanasius Samuel), Jerusalem (1948-1973); 6. Dr. William Brownlee, Claremont, California (1973-1983); 7. Louise Brownlee, Claremont, California (1983-1994).

Commentary: The Manual of Discipline/Rule of the Community scroll is one of the most important of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Manual of Discipline is one of the oldest documents of the Essenes. Originally written around 100 BC, it contains the community's liturgies, statutes, organisation, discipline, and a penal code. The 2nd text, the Rule of the Community, is also known as the Messianic Rule. It is the rule for a community adapted to the requirements of the Messianic war against the nations. The 3rd text, from which the present fragment comes, is a collection of blessings, to be recited by the Master or the Teacher of Righteousness for the ceremony of the institution of the new community. It was intended for the Messianic age. Included in the blessings are the members of the Community, the Messiah of Aaron, the sons of Zadok, the priest, and finally the Prince of the congregation, the Messiah of Israel. This text is unique, not witnessed in any other Dead Sea Scroll.

Published: 1. by George J. Brooke and James M. Robinson: A further fragment of 1QSb: The Schøyen Collection MS 1909, in: Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont, California, Occasional papers no. 30, Nov. 1994; 2. Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 46, Nos. 1-2, 1995, pp. 120-133; 3. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, XXVI, Philip S. Alexander and Geza Vermes: Qumran cave 4, XIX, 1Q28b, pp. 227-233, plate XXIV.

Exhibited: 1. Conference of European National Librarians, Oslo, Sept. 1994. 2. Treasures from the Dead Sea. Manchester museum, 21 October 1997 - 10 January 1998; 3. XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

MS in Hebrew on vellum, Iraq or Iran, 10th c., 1 partial f., 34x37 cm, part of 3 columns (28x28 cm remaining, column width ca. 7 cm), 17 lines in a large Hebrew square book script with nikud and the small Masorah between the columns.

Binding: England, 1922-1942, brown cloth.

Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1900); 2. David Solomon Sassoon's Library, Hertfordshire, MS.566 (1922-1942); 3. David Solomon Sassoon's trustees (1942-1994); 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1994:1.3 (5th Sassoon sale).

Commentary: Contemporary with the earliest primary MSS of the Hebrew Bible in codex form, British Library's Pentateuch BL Or. 4445, the Damascus Pentateuch, the Aleppo Codex, all 10th c. Second to the caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the great Genizah in Cairo is the most significant and evocative source for any fragments of early Hebrew MSS. The Genizah was fully unearthed from 1896. Probably no Egyptian finds, except that of Tutankhamon in 1922, has ever excited the public imagination so much at the time of the discovery. No single source has added so much to our knowledge of early Jewish culture. For half a century these were among the oldest Hebrew MSS known. Literature: D.S. Sassoon: Ohel Dawid, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library, London 1932, I, pp. 27-8.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

MS in Hebrew and Aramaic on vellum, Iraq, first half of 11th c., 8 ff., 39x33 cm, 2 columns, (25x25 cm), 23 lines in a large Hebrew square book script, by a scribe perhaps originating from the Maghreb (North Africa probably Tunisia).

Provenance: 1. The Genizah of a Kurdistan Jewish community, North Iraq (until 1950/59); 2. Dr. Fischel, U.S.A.(from 1950/59 ; 3. Bernard Rosenthal, San Francisco. .

Commentary: The Aramaic translation is verse by verse. Among the earliest group of surviving Hebrew targum Bible MSS in codex form.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Library of Law Faculty, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

MS in Judaeo-Arabic on paper, Palestine or Iraq, 13th c., 10 ff., 18x14 cm, single column, (18x12 cm), 32-33 lines in an oriental semi-cursive Hebrew book script.

Binding: England, 1921-1942, in pale brown cloth.

Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1896); 2. David Solomon Sassoon's Library, Hertfordshire, MS.530 (1921-1942); 3. David Solomon Sassoon's trustees (1942-1994); 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1994:7 (5th Sassoon sale).

MS in Hebrew on paper, North Africa, 15th c., 6 ff., 16x11 cm, single column, (12x9 cm), 25 lines in a north African semi-cursive Hebrew book script.

Binding: England, 1921-1942, in brown cloth.

Provenance: 1. The Cairo Genizah, Fustât, Egypt (-ca. 1896); 2. David Solomon Sassoon's Library, Hertfordshire, MS.532 (1921-1942); 3. David Solomon Sassoon's trustees (1942-1994); 4. Sotheby's 21.6.1994:53 (5th Sassoon sale).