The
charred lump of a 2,000-year-old scroll sat in an Israeli archaeologist’s
storeroom for decades, too brittle to open. Now, new imaging technology has
revealed what was written inside: the earliest evidence of a biblical text in
its standardized form. The biblical scroll examined in the study was first
discovered by archaeologists in 1970 at Ein Gedi, the site of an ancient Jewish
community near the Dead Sea. Inside the ancient synagogue’s ark, archaeologists
found lumps of scroll fragments. The synagogue was destroyed in an ancient
fire, charring the scrolls. The dry climate of the area kept them preserved,
but when archaeologists touched them, the scrolls would begin to disintegrate.
So the charred logs were shelved for nearly half a century, with no one knowing
what was written inside. See picture and read article at -- http://www.timesofisrael.com/3d-tech-proves-hebrew-bible-unchanged-for-2000-years/
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to what he
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