GOOD SCIENCE
SURGEON AT WORK: An employee at the Israel Antiquities Authority sews together fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
GETTY
WHILE MOST Americans are riveted by a tumultuous presidential campaign, archaeologists and experts in ancient writing have been focused on some newly discovered bits of ancient history: 70 alleged fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The origin of the fragments, some of which are being sold in batches for tens of millions of dollars, is unclear. Even the private collectors who have bought them are uncertain of their provenance. American Steve Green, the evangelical Christian heir to the Hobby Lobby craft chain fortune and the force behind the Museum of the Bible, has spent millions on the new finds. One fragment sold to the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary refers to the biblical prohibition against homosexuality in the Book of Leviticus.