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German-based researchers tested the fragments and found five
"show characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin and
therefore will no longer be displayed," the museum said in a
statement.
Academics have long questioned the authenticity of Dead Sea
Scroll fragments sold by antiquities dealers. The museum
established by the Green family of Oklahoma, who own U.S.
craft-store chain Hobby Lobby, funded research over the past two
years into whether its 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments were
genuine.
"Though we had hoped the testing would render different results,
this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance
of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts,"
Jeffrey Kloha, chief curatorial officer for the Museum of the
Bible, said in the statement.
Scholars and media reports raised questions about the museum's
Dead Sea Scroll fragments last year in the run up to the Green
family's November opening of the $500 million museum.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, composed of hundreds of manuscripts and
thousands of fragments of ancient Jewish religious texts, were
discovered in the West Bank by Bedouin shepherds in the 1940s.
The nearly 2,000-year-old scrolls gave religious scholars a new
trove of information on the Hebrew Bible.
Kipp Davis, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Trinity Western
University in Canada, was one of several academics who studied
the Museum of the Bible's scroll fragments, prompting the museum
to send five for testing.
"My studies to date have managed to confirm upon a preponderance
of different streams of evidence the high probability that at
least seven fragments in the museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls
collection are modern forgeries, but conclusions on the status
of the remaining fragments are still forthcoming,” Davis said in
the statement.
The museum sent the five fragments to Germany's BAM institute
for analysis of their ink.
Forgers typically write on top of ancient scraps of parchment or
leather, making fragments appear authentic until their ink is
tested.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; editing by Bill
Tarrant and Tom Brown)
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