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In 1878, fragments of what appeared to be an ancient copy of portions of the Biblical book of Deuteronomy were found in a cave along the east side of the Dead Sea.

Purchased by a Jerusalem antiquities dealer, Moses Shapira, he presented them to scholars who declared them to be modern forgeries. The Shapira fragments were eventually auctioned off and disappeared. But recently headlines in The New York Timesasked, "What if they were real?" Scholars have proposed that the case be reopened in light of our current knowledge of ancient texts. If authentic, they would be the oldest copies of biblical texts ever discord.

Dr. James Tabor's PhD is from University of Chicago, and he is a Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches Christian origins and ancient Judaism and served as Chair for a decade.