Editing Torah scroll (section)

==History==
Findings from [[Qumran]], [[Masada]], and the [[Bar Kokhba refuge caves]] indicate that biblical scrolls were abundant and widely circulated in late [[Second Temple period|Second Temple Judaea]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodblatt |first=David |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/elements-of-ancient-jewish-nationalism/68B5269393825257297A43E197C94A12 |title=Elements of Ancient Jewish Nationalism |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86202-8 |location=Cambridge |pages=47 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511499067}}</ref>

===Single-scroll Pentateuch===
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The researchers working on the En-Gedi Scroll have concluded that by the fourth century CE, there was no halakhic rule yet prescribing that scrolls used for liturgical purposes must contain the entire Pentateuch.<ref name=ANET>{{cite journal |last= Rendsburg |first= Gary A. |author-link= Gary A. Rendsburg |title= The World's Oldest Torah Scrolls |journal=[[ANE Today]] |date= March 2018 |volume= VI |number= 3 |publisher=[[American School of Oriental Research]] (ASOR) |url= http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2018/03/Worlds-Oldest-Torah-Scrolls |access-date=2 August 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180319040625/http://www.asor.org/anetoday/2018/03/Worlds-Oldest-Torah-Scrolls |archive-date= 19 March 2018}}</ref> As of 2018, no other statements regarding when this rule came into being could be made with any degree of certainty.<ref name=ANET/> It must be noted that, while the physically determined date for the scroll points to the 3rd or 4th centuries, its text has been palaeographically dated by [[Ada Yardeni]] to the first century CE or the early second at the latest, a discrepancy not uncommon in this field, which could push back in time the entire discussion.<ref name=AY16>[[Ada Yardeni |Yardeni, Ada]]. "Appendix: Palaeographic Description". In Michael Segal, [[Emanuel Tov]], William Brent Seales, Clifford Seth Parker, Pnina Shor, Yosef Porath: [https://openscholar.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/he_bible_project/files/m._segal1.1.pdf "An Early Leviticus Scroll from En Gedi: Preliminary Publication"] (PDF). ''Textus'' '''26''' (2016). Accessed 10 March 2024</ref>

===En-Gedi Scroll=== 
{{Further|En-Gedi Scroll}}

The [[En-Gedi Scroll]] is a Hebrew parchment [[radiocarbon-dated]] to the 3rd or 4th century CE (88.9% certainty for 210–390 CE), although paleographical considerations suggest that it may date back to the 1st or early 2nd century CE.<ref name=sci>{{cite web |last=de Lazaro |first=Enrico |title= En-Gedi Scroll Finally Deciphered |date=September 23, 2016 |website= Sci-News.com |url= https://www.sci.news/archaeology/en-gedi-scroll-deciphered-04216.html |access-date=9 March 2024}}</ref><ref name=AY16/> The charred scroll, found ''in situ'' in the synagogue's Torah niche, was discovered to contain a portion of [[Leviticus]],<ref name=ANET/> making it the earliest copy of a Pentateuchal book ever found in a [[Holy Ark]].<ref name=sci/> The deciphered text fragment is identical to what was to become during the [[Middle Ages]] the standard text of the [[Hebrew Bible]], the [[Masoretic Text]], which it precedes by several centuries; it thus constitutes the earliest evidence of this authoritative text version. The scroll is badly charred and fragmented and required noninvasive scientific techniques to virtually unwrap and read.<ref>{{cite news |first=Enrico |last=de Lazaro |title=En-Gedi Scroll Finally Deciphered |url=http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/en-gedi-scroll-deciphered-04216.html |work=Sci News |date=September 23, 2016 }}</ref>