Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

April 12, 2016

The Mystery of a Purportedly Ancient Manuscript of the Bible May Finally Be Solved

Over a century after its discovery.

A Jewish convert to Christianity born in 19th-century Russia, Moses Wilhelm Shapira spent most of his life in Jerusalem, where became a prominent antiquities dealer. He managed to stay in the business even after he was caught selling a number of fake pottery artifacts he himself had a hand in forging. But the great scandal of his career came later, and is the subject of a new book by Chanan Tigay. Beth Kissileff writes in her review:

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