These Fragments Were Dismissed As Fake 140 Years Ago. Were They Actually The Oldest Surviving Biblical Manuscript?

An antiquities dealer in Jerusalem came forward in 1883 with what he claimed were fragments of the original book of Deuteronomy. After scholars at the time pronounced them forgeries, the dealer committed suicide and the fragments eventually disappeared. Now a scholar, working with old photos and transcriptions of the fragments, argues that they are an early (and somewhat different) version of the last book of Moses and that they date from before the Babylonian Exile. – The New York Times