Editing 7Q5 (section)

== Significance ==
If 7Q5 was actually a fragment of {{bibleref|Mark|6:52-53}} and was deposited in the cave at Qumran by 68 AD, it would become the earliest known fragment of the [[New Testament]], predating [[Rylands Library Papyrus P52|P52]] by at least some if not many decades. Yet, since the amount of text in the manuscript is so small, even a confirmation of 7Q5 as Markan "might mean nothing more than that the contents of these few verses were already formalized, not necessarily that there was a manuscript of Mark's Gospel on hand".<ref>{{cite book|page=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VVcEmE6ZJMC&q=7q5&pg=PA11|first=Robert E.|last=Picirilli|title=The Gospel of Mark|publisher=Randall House Publications|year=2003|isbn=0-89265-500-3|edition=first|location=Nashville, TN}}</ref> Since the entirety of the find in Cave 7 consists of fragments in Greek, it is possible that the contents of this cave are of a separate "Hellenized" library than the Hebrew texts found in the other caves.

Sunday April 12th, 1992 7q5 was examined forensically in the Investigations Department of the Israel National Police. The investigation was carried out by Chief Inspector Sharon Landau in the presence of Dr Joseph Almog, the Director of the Israel Division of Identification and Forensic Science and Curator Joseph Zias. The decisive parts of the analysis were “recorded by a TV team from the Bavarian Television Company, ARD.”<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ak3KqUEdNYC&dq=examination+carried+out+by+sharon+landau&pg=PA195 | title=Rekindling the Word: In Search of Gospel Truth | isbn=978-1-56338-136-2 | last1=Thiede | first1=Carsten Peter | date=1995 | publisher=Gracewing }}</ref> From the examination of line 2 of fragment 7Q5 under the stereo microscope, Thiede believed he saw the diagonal middle stroke of a NU, "as demanded by the identification of 7Q5 as Mark 6:52-53”<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ak3KqUEdNYC&dq=diagonal+middle+stroke+of+a+nu&pg=PA196 | title=Rekindling the Word: In Search of Gospel Truth | isbn=978-1-56338-136-2 | last1=Thiede | first1=Carsten Peter | date=1995 | publisher=Gracewing }}</ref> Yet, another examination by Stephen Pfann using the Rokefeller Museum's Olympus SZ4045 Zoom Stereo Microscope with an Olympus Cold Light Illuminator 3000 detected no traces of the alleged diagonal and instead concluded that the original editors were correct in reading an iota: "The iota is absolutely an iota."<ref>Robert H. Gundry, "No NU in Line 2 of 7Q5: A Final Disidentification of 7Q5 With Mark 6:52-53," ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' 118 (4): 698–707. doi:10.2307/3268112.</ref> Computer print outs of the letter “NU” as well as other letters of 7Q5 corroborated it as Mark’s Gospel were made by the use of stereo microscope in the independent Department of Investigations at the Israel National Police office.  The computer print outs were added the appendix of the book Eichstatt symposium on Qumran along with majority of scholarly essays corroborating 7Q5 as Gospel of Mark<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=_ak3KqUEdNYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=7q5+israel+1992+microscope+NU&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTuMb57uSMAxWnjIkEHfkTIwYQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=1992&f=false</ref><ref>https://www.academia.edu/121198113/Christen_und_Christliches_in_Qumran_edited_by_Bernhard_Mayer_Eichst%C3%A4tter_Studien_NF_32_Regensburg_Verlag_Friedrich_Pustet_1992_Pp_268_43_plates_DM_88_00_ISBN_3_7917_1346_9</ref>