Religion
Seductive Discoveries: The Academic Authentication of Biblical Finds and Forgeries
This project will describe and decry the roles academics have played in the authentication of biblical finds and forgeries. The most notorious recent incident is surely the 2016 publication of sixteen minuscule Dead Sea Scroll fragments displayed in the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, quickly determined to be clever forgeries. Additional episodes range from Cyrus Gordon’s authentications of supposedly ancient Hebrew inscriptions discovered in America (1971, 1974) to Idan Dershowitz’s 2021 reevaluation of the Deuteronomy manuscripts offered for sale by Moses Wilhelm Shapira in 1883. While various articles and books have focused on one incident or another, no recent monograph has tried to grasp the larger, repeating dynamic of academic naiveté among biblical scholars. Nor has any work on forgery to date isolated and illustrated the distinct role played by the academic authenticator—a figure who stands between Anthony Grafton’s “forgers” and “critics,” neither forging nor criticizing the artifacts they endorse. Authenticators operate in a seductive atmosphere involving semi-licit antiquities markets, deep-pocketed collectors, and publicity-providing media. Like magicians, authentication efforts involve distraction, shifting focus away from flaws. The inherently transgressive act of authenticating unprovenanced finds frequently coincides with other broken norms (typically involving secrecy and the media, at times with money involved). This analysis promises to shed light on long-resolved forgery cases, to tip the balance in some open cases, and to expose the ethical and intellectual lapses that permit the current situation to persist and fester.