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New York Post
4 days ago
- Science
- New York Post
Dead Sea Scrolls much older than previously thought, AI-based study finds
Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are much older than academics previously thought, with some dating back to the time of their ancient authorship, a new study claims. Scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands utilized artificial intelligence to examine the handwriting of the ancient fragments and claim they derived more accurate dates for some writings, including the Book of Daniel, according to a paper published in Plos One. A part of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is seen inside the vault of the Shrine of the Book building at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Getty Images The aptly named AI program 'Enoch' was fed a plethora of already dated ancient texts from modern-day Israel and the West Bank that also had radiocarbon dates — then used machine learning to study the handwriting progressions of 135 Dead Sea Scroll fragments. Advertisement The study claimed that the fragment of the Book of Daniel 8-11, which was thought to be dated to 160s BC, could be as old as 230 BC, which overlaps with the period in which the biblical book was authored. 'With the Enoch tool we have opened a new door into the ancient world, like a time machine, that allows us to study the hands that wrote the Bible,' the study's authors wrote in a statement, Eureka Alert reported. 'Especially now that we have established, for the first time, that two biblical scroll fragments come from the time of their presumed authors,' the statement continued. Advertisement A 2,000-year-old fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls on display at The Jewish Museum in New York City in 2008. Getty Images Researchers also claim that fragments written in Herodian Aramaic and Hasmonaean Hebrew — considered to have emerged in the First and Second centuries BC — are actually older than initially thought and provide a new lens for the presumed proliferation of writing during that era. These new dating claims result in 'a new chronology of the scrolls and the re-dating of ancient Jewish key texts that contribute to current debates on Jewish and Christian origins,' the study stated. Advertisement The Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered in 1943 by two Bedouin shepherds who found them secreted in caves in the Qumran section of Israel near the Dead Sea and are the oldest known fragments of Jewish manuscripts written in Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and Aramaic dating back to the Third and Second century BC. Scholars attribute the trove of religious manuscripts to the Essens, who were Jewish sectarians at the turn of the first millennium.
The Independent
14-02-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Sir Isaac Newton letter from 1704 predicts when world will end – and it's not far away
Renowned scientist Sir Isaac Newton predicted when the world would end in a letter dating back more than 300 years ago. A letter from the famous mathematician and physicist - who was best known for formulating the laws of gravity - revealed he believed the world would end in 2060, as he scrawled the warning above a series of mathematical calculations in 1704. Also a theologian, Sir Isaac based his predictions for the end of the world on his Protestant interpretation of the Bible. Sir Isaac calculated the year in question using maths and dates in biblical history to land on the prophesied apocalypse, which he put in the middle of the 21st century. He used the days numbered 1260, 1290 and 2300 in the Book of Daniel and Revelations, which mark the end and beginning of certain important moments in the apocalypse. However, he interpreted these days as years. Studying history, he settled on 800AD as the date the abandonment of the church formally began - the year the Holy Roman Empire was founded. He then calculated the world would reset 1,260 years after its founding. He predicted the end would be marked by plagues and war, as he wrote in the 1704 letter: 'And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived [sic] kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings AC 800, will end AC 2060.' Sir Isaac caveated his prophecy: 'It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. 'This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.' Professor Stephen Snobelen, from the history of science and technology department at the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said Sir Isaac was 'wary of prophetic date-setting' and 'worried that the failure of fallible human predictions based on divine prophecy would bring the Bible into disrepute'. Prof Snobelen said in his Statement on the Date 2060 that Sir Isaac didn't believe the world would end in a literal sense. He added: 'For Newton, 2060 AD would be more like a new beginning. It would be the end of an old age, and the beginning of a new era - the era Jews refer to the Messianic age and the era premillenarian Christians term the Millennium or Kingdom of God.'
