The most beloved Scroll
hrwth rpo
Scroll of The law
Very few Gentiles have a chance to see the Word of God without translation.
These Manuscripts have been carefully copied by our Jewish friends from around the world for the last 3,500 years.
Among the Jewish community there is no argument about the correct “translation”. They have the original Word of God without translation which has been so carefully copied, that if a Sefer Torah is written according to Halacha STaM (the law of the Sofer) it is .00004 (four one hundred thousands) in “world wide agreement correct”. A Sefer Torah contains 304,805 Hebrew letters and only six can not be agreed upon.
Photos of the 16 Scrolls of the Tanakh
NOTE: The provenance of the following fifteen Scrolls is hard to determine solely on the seller’s information. I will use their information and my estimation of what I have gleaned from 20 years of collecting approximately 100 non-kosher Scrolls from many countries. I do not consider my work to be considered professional as in the league of the Hebrew Sofer.
Torah – hrwt
Joshua – eswhy
Sheepskin, 3.2 pounds, skin 20 1/2 inches tall 15 feet 4 inches long
Purchased from a Scroll rental service in Israel
Written in Lithuania with a quill and iron gall ink,
at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Judges – Myjpws
Sheepskin, 3.6 pounds, parchment 21 3/4 inches tall 15 feet long
Purchased from a Scroll rental service in Israel in 2005
Written in Lithuania with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Samuel– lawms
Sheepskin, 5.2 pounds, parchment 20 inches tall 42 feet 6 inches long
Purchased from a Scroll rental service in Israel in 2005
Written in Lithuania with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Kings – Myklm
Sheepskin, 5.6 pounds, parchment 19 3/4 inches tall 38 feet 3 inches long
Purchased from a Scroll rental service in Israel in 2005
Written in Lithuania with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Isaiah – hyesy
Sheepskin, 3.8 pounds, parchment 17 3/4 inches tall 15 feet 5 inches long
Purchased from Machon OT in Jerusalem 2004
Written in Russia with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Jeremiah – hymry
Sheepskin, 4.6 pounds, parchment 19 3/4 inches tall 26 feet 2 inches long
Purchased from a Scroll rental service in Israel in 2005
Written in Lithuania with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Ezekiel – laqzxy
Sheepskin, 5.2 pounds, parchment 21 inches tall 27 feet 7 inches long
Purchased from a Scroll rental service in Israel in 2005
Written in Lithuania with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
and had been exposed to mold in the past
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
Thick, heavy parchment
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
12 Prophets – rse yrt
Sheepskin, 2.6 pounds, parchment 17 1/4 inches tall 26 feet 5 inches long
Purchased from Tarshish J. Zadok & Sons Jerusalem 2005
Written in Baltic Sea Region with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Psalms – Mylht
Very fine calfskin , 4.4 pounds, parchment 12 inches tall 64 feet 7 inches long
Purchased from a small Shul in Israel around 2006
This Scroll was written in Israel with a quill using iron gall ink before 1985
Proverbs – ylsm
Very fine calfskin , 1.6 pounds, parchment 19 inches tall 12 feet 6 inches long
Purchased from a family in Israel around 2008
Job – bwya
Very fine calfskin , 2.2 pounds, parchment 19 inches tall 13 feet 7 inches long
Purchased from a family in Israel around 2008
Five Megillot – twlygm smx
Sheepskin, 4 pounds, parchment 21 1/4 inches tall 19 feet 6 inches long
Purchased from Tarshish J. Zadok & Sons Jerusalem in 2005
Written in Baltic Sea Region with a quill and iron gall ink, at least 100 years old
Scroll shows iron gall ink degradation
and had been exposed to moisture in the past
Has a coating of log on the back of the skin
Very thick, heavy parchment
The Scroll shows unnatural damage, i.e., not from normal use
Because of the damage, age , and location, it is possible the damage
came from the Holocaust
Daniel – laynd
Very fine calfskin , 1.4 pounds, parchment 19 inches tall 10 feet 9 inches long
Purchased from a family in Israel around 2008
Ezra/Nehemiah – hymxnw arze
Very fine calfskin , 1.6 pounds, parchment 19 inches tall 16 feet 4 inches long
Purchased from a family in Israel around 2008
Chronicles – Mymyh yrbd
Very fine calfskin , 3.4 pounds, parchment 19 inches tall 40 feet 8 inches long
Purchased from a family in Israel around 2008
Various Photographs from Scrolls
Creation
The First of All Commandments
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Mark 12: 29-30 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
The Fall of Mankind
10 Commandments
Most people have never seen the 10 Commandments as they are written in Hebrew. We usually see Roman numerals representing the 10 or abbreviated two or three paraphrases of the 10 Commandments. This photo is the entire 10 Commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:6 through Deuteronomy 5:21 Hungarian Torah written in the 1800s
I Am That I Am
hyha rsa hyha
Exodus 3:13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
This small 11 inch tall Torah Scroll from Morocco has the most delicate Hebrew calligraphy of all in our collection. In the passage of Exodus 3:14 The Creator gives Moses His name.
Promised Messiah Isaiah 9:6 (v5 Tanakh)
Isaiah 9:6 is Isaiah 9:5 in the Hebrew Bible.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. The yad, pointer, in the photo below is pointing to the word Avi Ad Everlasting Father.
Isaiah 53 The Lamb of God
The Scriptorium purchased six sets of Scrolls that make up the Prophets from 2004 through 2011. Today they are all in various Christian Scroll collections and are on public display. The Scrolls came from South Africa, Russia and Poland. All are old enough to have survived the Holocaust.
Of these six sets of the Prophets we have observed that only one of the Scrolls of Isaiah started the 53 chapter where the Christian Bible begins the chapter with “Who hath believed our report?”. That Scroll is shown in the next photograph. Also of that particular set of the Prophets there were two other Scrolls that varied from what we observed as “normal writing” in the other five sets. The Scrolls of Samuel and Kings were written on four scrolls, two for Samuel and two for Kings. This did not follow the other five sets using one Scroll for Samuel and one Scroll for Kings.
This “odd form” as seen below begins Isaiah 53 with
Nymah ym “Who hath believed …”.
In what we called “normal” (not because we are experts in the matter, but one out of six Scrolls varied from the others) the next three photographs of various Scrolls show the “normal”.
You will notice the yad, pointer, pointing to
Nymah ym
which does not begin the paragraph on the Scroll. Four lines above that the paragraph begins with
ydbe lyksy hnh
This is Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
The next photograph of Isaiah 52
ydbe lyksy hnh
This is Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
The next photograph of Isaiah 52
ydbe lyksy hnh
This is Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
Balaam hired by Balak to curse Israel
The following photograph is a sheet from a Sephardic Torah Scroll which is perhaps 200 years old. It was written on deer skin with a reed using iron gall ink. The scroll suffered fire damage in the past and is reported to have been in a pogrom against the Jewish community.
The Scripture contained in this sheet starts in the book of Numbers chapter 23:17 and ends in chapter 26:38. This is the prophecy of Balaam when he was hired by Balak to curse Israel. He could not curse Israel but he blessed them as was commanded by the Lord.
Numbers 23:17-20 And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
ויבא אליו והנו נצב על־עלתו ושׂרי מואב אתו ויאמר לו בלק מה דבר יהוה
וישׂא משׁלו ויאמר קום בלק ושׁמע האזינה עדי בנו צפר
לא אישׁ אל ויכזב ובן־אדם ויתנחם ההוא אמר ולא יעשׂה ודבר ולא יקימנה
הנה ברך לקחתי וברך ולא אשׁיבנה
The Flood of Noah
