PSALMS GO MISSING FOR TWO THOUSAND YEARS

                               Qumran Living Quarters

         The ruins of Qumran is 50 miles east of Jerusalem.

BUT, how could such an important book, like the Bible, get misplaced or lost?  Dr. Hoffman believes that as rolled up scrolls progressed into codices (an ancient form of a bound book) only so many pages could be produced. The current Bible represents the “greatest hits collections (Hoffman 2015).” For example, today’s Bible contains 150 Psalms, divided into three sets of fifty. Yet, scholarship of newly discovered scrolls at Qumran reveal twice that number was originally written. Only the best of the best made it into the Bible codex. Qumran is 50 miles east of Jerusalem. 

 MAKING A TORAH 

                         All The Books Of Bible Unscrolled.

Making a Torah is a long holy task that can only be completed by a specially trained person called a sofer.  Before beginning any work each day, the sofer takes a ritual cleansing bath, a Mikvah, and then begins copying. A feather quill is dipped in specially made black ink. The task takes an entire year to complete inscribing the 304,805 letters in the First Five Books of the Bible, known as the Torah. The new Torah is paraded throughout the Jewish Community in a festive Torah Dedication Ceremony.