Editing Copper Scroll (section)

==History==
While most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by [[Bedouin]]s, the Copper Scroll was discovered by an archaeologist.<ref>{{cite web|last=Lundberg|first=Marilyn J.|title=The Copper Scroll (3Q15)|url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/dead_sea_scrolls/copperscroll.shtml|work=West Semitic Research Project|access-date=5 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303234829/http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/dead_sea_scrolls/copperscroll.shtml|archive-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> The scroll, on two rolls of copper, was found on March 14, 1952<ref name="autogenerated211">{{cite book |author=Michael Wise |author2=Martin Abegg Jr |author3=Edward Cook |title=A New Translation: The Dead Sea Scrolls|year=2005|publisher=Harper Collins Publisher|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-076662-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deadseascrollsne00wise/page/211 211–223]|url=https://archive.org/details/deadseascrollsne00wise/page/211}}</ref> at the back of Cave 3 at Qumran. It was the last of 15 scrolls discovered in the cave, and is thus referred to as 3Q15.<ref>[http://home.flash.net/~hoselton/deadsea/cave03.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070216161923/http://home.flash.net/~hoselton/deadsea/cave03.htm|date=February 16, 2007}}</ref> The [[Corrosion|corroded]] metal could not be unrolled by conventional means and so the Jordanian government sent it to [[University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology|Manchester University's College of Technology]] in [[England]] on the recommendation of English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar [[John Marco Allegro]] for it to be cut into sections, allowing the text to be read. He arranged for the university's Professor H. Wright Baker to cut the sheets into 23 strips in 1955 and 1956.<ref>Allegro 1960, pp. 22–24, 27.</ref> It then became clear that the rolls were part of the same document. Allegro, who had supervised the opening of the scroll, transcribed its contents immediately.

The first editor assigned for the transcribed text was [[Józef Milik]]. He initially believed that the scroll was a product of the [[Essenes]] but noted that it was likely not an official work of theirs. At first, he believed that it was not an actual historical account; he believed it was that of folklore. Later however, Milik's view changed. Since there was no indication that the scroll was a product of the Essenes from the Qumran community, he changed his identification of the scroll. He now believes that the scroll was separate from the community, although it was found at Qumran in Cave 3, it was found further back in the cave, away from the other scrolls. As a result, he suggested the Copper Scroll was a separate deposit, separated by a "lapse in time."<ref name="autogenerated211"/>

Although the text was assigned to Milik, in 1957 the Jordanian Director of Antiquities approached Allegro to publish the text. After a second approach by a new director of Jordanian Antiquities,<ref>Allegro, 1960, p. 6.</ref> Allegro, who had waited for signs of Milik of moving to publish, took up the second request and published an edition with translation and hand-drawn transcriptions from the original copper segments in 1960. Milik published his official edition in 1962, also with hand-drawn transcriptions, though the accompanying black-and-white photographs were "virtually illegible".<ref>Al Wolters, article on the "Copper Scroll", in Schiffman, 2000a (Vol.2), p.146.</ref> The scroll was re-photographed in 1988 with greater precision.<ref name="BrookeDavies2004">{{cite book|author1=George J. Brooke|author2=Philip R. Davies|title=Copper Scroll Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rfXGBRUIiBoC&q=%22copper+scroll%22+photographed+1988+-wikipedia&pg=PA46|year=2004|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-567-08456-9|page=46|access-date=2015-11-26}}</ref> From 1994 to 1996, extensive conservation efforts by Electricité de France (EDF) included evaluation of corrosion, photography, x-rays, cleaning, making a facsimile and a drawing of the letters. Emile Puech's edition had the benefit of these results.<ref>See Poffet, et al. 2006.</ref>

===Dating===
Scholarly estimates of the probable date range of the Copper Scroll vary. [[Frank Moore Cross]] proposed the period of 25–75 CE<ref name="vanderkam92" /> on [[palaeographical]] grounds, while [[William F. Albright]] suggested 70–135 CE.<ref>[[Albert M. Wolters|Al Wolters]], article on the "Copper Scroll", in Schiffman, 2000a (Vol.2), p.146.</ref> Manfred Lehmann put forward a similar date range to Albright, arguing that the treasure was principally the money accumulated between the [[First Jewish–Roman War]] and the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]], while the temple lay in ruins. [[P. Kyle McCarter Jr.]], [[Albert M. Wolters]], David Wilmot and Judah Lefkovits all agree that the scroll originated around 70 CE.<ref name="autogenerated211"/> Contrarily, Emile Puech argues that the Copper Scroll could not have been deposited behind 40 jars after they were already in place, so the scroll "predates 68 CE."<ref>Puech, "Some Results of the Restoration of the Copper Scroll by ''EDF Mecenat''", in Schiffman, 2000b, p.893.</ref>

Józef Milik proposed that the scroll was written around 100 CE.<ref name="autogenerated211"/> If this dating is correct, it would mean that the scroll did not come from the Qumran community because the settlement had been destroyed by the Romans decades earlier.<ref name="vanderkam92">{{cite book |last=VanderKam |first=James C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2i5haDHAygC&pg=PA92 |title=The Dead Sea Scrolls Today |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8028-6435-2 |location=Michigan |pages=92–93 |language=en}}</ref>

===Language and writing style===
The style of writing is unusual, different from the other scrolls. It is written in a style similar to [[Mishnaic]] [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]. While Hebrew is a well-known language, the majority of ancient Hebrew text in which the language is studied is generally biblical in nature, which the Copper Scroll is not. As a result, "most of the vocabulary is simply not found in the Bible or anything else we have from ancient times."<ref>{{cite web|last=Lundberg|first=Marilyn J.|title=The Copper Scroll (3Q15)|url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/dead_sea_scrolls/copperscroll.shtml|work=West Semitic Research Project|access-date=4 April 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110303234829/http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/dead_sea_scrolls/copperscroll.shtml|archive-date=3 March 2011}}</ref> The [[orthography]] is unusual, the script having features resulting from being written on copper with hammer and chisel. There is also the anomaly that seven of the location names are followed by a group of two or three [[Greek alphabet|Greek letters]], thought by some to represent [[Isopsephy|numerical values]].<ref>Lefkovits (1994), p. 123</ref> Also, the "clauses" within the scroll mark intriguing parallels to that of Greek inventories, from the Greek temple of Apollo.<ref name="autogenerated212">{{cite book |author=Michael Wise |author2=Martin Abegg Jr |author3=Edward Cook |title=A New Translation: The Dead Sea Scrolls|year=2005|publisher=Harper Collins Publisher|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-076662-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/deadseascrollsne00wise/page/212 212]|url=https://archive.org/details/deadseascrollsne00wise/page/212}}</ref> This similarity to the Greek inventories, would suggest that scroll is in fact an authentic "temple inventory."<ref name="autogenerated212"/>

Some scholars believe that the difficulty in deciphering the text is perhaps due to it having been copied from another original document by an illiterate scribe who did not speak the language in which the scroll was written, or at least was not well familiar. As Milik puts it, the scribe "uses the forms and ligature of the cursive script along with formal letters, and often confuses graphically several letters of the formal hand."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Milik|first=J.T|title=The Copper Document from Cave III, Qumran|journal=The Biblical Archaeologist|date=September 1956|volume=19|issue=3|pages=60–64|jstor=3209219|doi=10.2307/3209219|s2cid=165466511}}</ref> As a result, it has made translation and understanding of the text difficult.