The Book of Deuteronomy.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1812, 16 February 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Book of Deuteronomy.

VALUVULE DISC(MFK\ OF A"N ANCIENT WNUbCRiri 1 01' THE NINTH CENJ'UK\ HBIOBIS CHRIST. A Mb. Siiurnu of Jeiusalem, bookseller and dealer in antiquanes, has iust deposited in the British Mibeum fifteen slips of black shccpslun lcathci on which aic written in chaidctcis similar to those on the celebrated Moabhe stone, poitions of the Book of Deuteronomy, differing materially fiom the received version. The date of the slips is the ninth century before Clnist, or sixteen centuries older than any authentic manuscript of any part of the Old Testament. Mr. Shupha bought them fxom an Arab, and he asks for them $5,000,000 fiom the British Museum. If genuine, the interest and impoifcancs of the discovery cannot be overrated, and so far as the variations in sacred text are concerned, there is promise of one of the greatest controveisies that scholars have ever enteied upon. The Decalogue furnishes a good example for comparison with the received version. I quote from the Shupira lecord :—: — 1 am (iod thy God, which liberated thee from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Ye shall have no other gods. Ye shall not make to yourselves any graven image, nor any likeness that is in heaven above, or that is in theeaith beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. Ye shall not bow down to them nor servo them. I am God thy God. In six clays I have made heaven and the eaith auri all that there is therein, and rested on the seventh day; theiefore rest thou also, thou and thy cattle and all that thou hast. lam God thy God. Honor thy father and thy mother. lam God thy God. Thou shalfc not kill the person of thy brother. lam God thy God. Thou shalt not commit adultery with the wife of thy neighbour. lam God thy God. Thou shalfc not steal the property of thy brother. I am God thy God. Thou shalt not swear by my name falsely, for I vwt the iniquity of fatheis upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of those who take my name in vain. I am God thy God. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy In other. lam God thy God. Thou shalt not covet his wife, his man seivant, or his maid servant, or anything that is his. lam God thy God. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart. I am God thy God. These ten words God spake. Dr. Ginsburg, the eminent Jewish scholar, to whom Gladstone had just given £50 for the production of his work on the Masoiah, has deciphered the above, and is busy completing the translation and determining on behalf of the Museum the genuineness of the fragments. — London cablegram in the Neio York Sun.