The Turkish authorities in Gaziantep in the western part of Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia region, this week arrested three people who tried to sell an antique Bible written on deerskin, which had been stolen from a museum in Allepo, Syria, Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi (AMN) reported. The thieves were asking for one million dollars.
Three people were arrested in Turkey this week after they tried to sell an antique bible that was stolen from a museum in Aleppo.
The antique bible itself was written in Hebrew, using deer skin. pic.twitter.com/caKtW3sraN
— ليث ابو فاضل (@leithfadel)
Turkey’s Regional Security Service issued a statement saying: “During the operation, a copy of an old Bible was seized. According to earlier intelligence information, it was stolen from the museum of the Syrian city of Aleppo and smuggled into our country.”
“The security teams raided the residence of the suspects, and seized in their possession an ancient Bible manuscript written in the Hebrew language on the skin of a deer whose price is estimated at one million dollars,” the statement continued.
The manuscript was handed over to the Museums Directorate in Gaziantep, while local police arrested three people whose nationalities have not been reported.
Another famous biblical manuscript found in Syria is the Damascus Pentateuch, a 10th-century Hebrew Bible consisting of the almost complete Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses. It was copied by an unknown scribe and is replete with Masoretic annotations.