The Man Behind the Seventh Scroll
DR. JAMES BIBERKRAUT, noted Hebrew University
scientist, shown at work on the Seventh Dead Sea Scroll
in his laboratory in Jerusalem.
By LUCIAN MEYSELS
Member of administrative staff of Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Currently Research Associate in Department of Hebrew Studies at
University of Wisconsin.
When Dr. Yigael Yadin, the into the job with enthusiasm—
Hebrew University's brilliant if only because it was an as-
general-turned-scholar purchas- signment no restorer had ever
ed for Israel the last four of done before. Aided by his wife,
the seven original Dead Sea a professional photographer,
Scrolls from the Syrian Metro- Biberkraut was able to unroll
politan of Jerusalem, he knew the three scrolls quicker and
he was taking a calculated risk. better than anyone could have
Of the four scrolls three had hoped, and made it possible for
already been opened and their Sukenik to examine the scrolls
contents scrutinized, and no fur- and come to his significant con-
ther surprises were to be ex- clusions concerning their age
pected from them. The last and contents many months
scroll, however, was in so bad a ahead of the other scholars
state of deterioration that the working on the other scrolls,
leading experts of Europe and which had by then come into
America shied away from the the possession of the Metro-
responsibility of unrolling it lest politan.
the whole scroll disintegrate.
The opening of the fourth
The Metropolitan carried the
scroll with him on his tour of scroll, however, dwarfed the
Europe and the U. S. trying to difficulties which Biberkraut
find a purchaser which certain- had had to overcome in the
ly did nothing to improve its unrolling of the first three.
The state of the scroll was
condition.
incredibly poor. Entire sec-
We now know that the sev- tions had simply been chewed
enth scroll contains an impor- off by the ravages of time and
tant apocryphon on the Book the elements. The entire
of Genesis, but this is jumping parchment was stuck to -
far ahead of the story on the gether, turning the scroll into
day Dr. Yadin bought the scrolls something resembling a solid
from the Metropolitan.
cylinder. In places, the ink
Yadin knew that if anyone of the writing had disap-
could unroll the scroll, he had peared altogether, while
the man to do it—Prof. James elsewhere it had corroded the
Biberkraut, a noted artist in parchment, leaving jagged
his own right and well known holes in place of the inscrip-
restorer of paintings, who had tion.
made his home in Jerusalem
Prof. Biberkraut now admits
after the Nazis came to power that his first impulse was to
in his native Germany.
turn down the job as impos-
When Dr. Yadin's father, sible, like the other experts
the late Prof. Eliezer Suke- before him, but he knew that
nik, head of the Hebrew Uni- Dr. Yadin depended on him.
versity's Department of Arch- To save the scroll, or at least
aeology, bought the first three a substantial part of it, for the
of the seven scrolls only a world of learning, Biberkraut
few weeks after they had had to combine the skills of
been accidentally discovered many professions. He had to
in the Qumran caves by a figure out just the right at-
Bedouin shepherd boy, he mospheric conditions which
took them to his friend Biber- would allow him to separate the
kraut to have them unrolled. glued together sheets. One day
he was a surgeon delicately
Prof. Biberkraut, a wizened peeling off an outer skin of
little man with a friendly smile parchment, a little thicker than
and a mop of white hair, usu- a film of varnish, which adhered
ally hidden under a Parisian to the inner side of the sheet
style beret, had been accust- immediately around it, thus cov-
omed to restoring paintings ering the writing. Another time
from Durer to Van Goh, and he was a chemist trying to es-
Sukenik's proposal — incident- tablish how to bring out letters
ally made at the height of the so faded that they had become
fighting in Palestine—came as almost invisible to the naked
a complete surprise to him. eye. On another occasion he
Nevertheless he threw himself had to remove entire fragments
which had broken loose from
the total parment and had be-
come embedded elsewhere.
These isolated fragments,
with only a few words or even
parts of words on them, present-
ed a particular problem. Their
"geographical location" so to
speak in the scroll had to be
determined as accurately as
possible, so as to give the
scholar who would later de-
cipher the scroll a chance to in-
clude these bits in the general
context.
As he drew closer to the core
of the scroll, Biberkraut found
to his delight that the inner
columns of writing were in a
much better state of preserva-
tion. Whereas the beginning of
the scroll was entirely missing
(since the scroll was found to
be an apocryphon on the Book
of Genesis, it was reasonable
to assume that the text origin-
ally started with the creation)
and the first decipherable frag-
ment mentioned the name of
Lamech, the height of the pre-
served columns of writing now
increased until finally entire
columns could be read.
In the end Biberkraut was
able to deliver Dr. Yadin five
complete columns of the text—
far more than Yadin had hoped
for when he bought the scroll
from the Metropolitan. In addi-
tion very substantial fragments
were recovered from the other
columns, together with hun-
dreds of smaller fragments on
which Hebrew University schol-
ars are working to this day—
and will continue for many
months to come. The general
contents of the Genesis Apo-
cryphon, as the seventh scroll
is known today, includes stories
about the Patriarchs Abraham,
Lot and Noah and a description
of the beauty of Sarah.
Mrs. Biberkraut relates that
the Professor's sigh of relief
when his work on this scroll
was completed could be heard
through the entire house.
Never again, he told her, would
he ever go through with a job
like this. However, it is char-
acteristic of this "youthful"
savant that by now, he is re-
liably reported to be keenly
scanning the newspaper col-
umns every day for reports of
new discoveries of scrolls on
which to try out the incompar-
able skill of his hands.
Irving Salomon Named Nkrumah Supports
on U.S.'s UN Delegation
UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.
(JTA)—Irving Salomon, indus-
trialist and rancher of Escon-
dido, California, and Chicago,
was named a member of the
United States delegation to the
13th session of the United
Nations G e n e r al Assembly
which opens here Sept. 16.
Salomon, who served in the
U. S. Marine Corp in World
War I and the Army in World
War II, rising to the rank of
lieutenant colonel, served on
the board of the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, the University
of Judaism, Jewish Peoples In-
stitute of Chicago and the
National Jewish Welfare Board.
Mr. Salomon is a member of
the board of the Ford Founda-
tion and the Fund for Adult
Education.
Jewish Committee Sends
Mission to South America
NEW YORK, (JTA) — A
delegation of American Jewish
Committee leaders will embark
on a good will mission to South
America, it was announced by
Irving M. Engel; president of
the organization. He said that
"the State Department has ex-
pressed enthusiastic interest in
the mission and is facilitating
some aspects of the trip."
The delegation will confer
with government leader s,
Roman Catholic church digni-
taries and U. S. Embassy offi-
cials in Buenos Aires, Rio de
Janeiro, Sao Paulo and San-
tiago. Members of the mission
will also visit religious, edu-
cational and welfare organiza-
tions and hold discussions with
leaders o _ f the Jewish communi-
ties in Argentina, Brazil and
Chile.
Nasser on Africa,
Not on Palestine
OTTAWA, (JTA) — Prime
Minister Nkrumah of Ghama,
who is currently visiting here,
said today that he was in agree-
ment with President Nasser of
the United Arab Republic on
the latter's African policy but
not on the Palestine question.
The Prime Minister was com-
menting on a recent meeting
between himself and the UAR
Chief Executive. The Ghanian
leader expressed confidence
that there would some day be a
solution of the conflict between
Israel and the Arab states.
Dr. Nkrumah, who said he in-
tended to "visit Israel shortly
and see my good friend Mr.
Ben-Gurion," expressed satisfac-
tion with the relations between
his country and the Jewish
State. Economic relations "so
far are very good," he said. He
reviewed high points in this re-
lationship, including Israeli
technical aid to Ghana, the
launching of the joint Black
Star Line and the exchange of
diplomatic envoys.
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guages fluently, but his real
hobby is astronomy.
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