The Nash Papyrus
The Ten Commandments and the Shema were being copied on papyrus in the second century BC.
Lave'i 'i tu'a mei he Tohi TapuTohi nima2nd century BC
A single sheet carrying the Ten Commandments and the Shema. Until 1947 it was the oldest known Hebrew biblical manuscript by a margin of a thousand years, and the palaeographic work done on it is what allowed the Dead Sea Scrolls to be dated so quickly when they appeared.
Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- Egypt, 1898 — Acquired by Walter Llewellyn Nash
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- Cambridge University Library
- Lea
- Hebrew
- Na'e a'u mai fēfē kiate kitautolu
- Na'e keli hake, pe 'oku kei tu'u 'i he potu na'e langa ai.
Ko e me'a 'oku ne fakahā
It is a liturgical or devotional sheet rather than a scroll of a biblical book, and its text mixes the Exodus and Deuteronomy versions.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
A landmark in Hebrew palaeography; the dating framework built on it is still in use.
'I he Folofola
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Albright, "A Biblical Fragment from the Maccabaean Age", JBL 56 (1937)
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.