SAN MARCOS, Texas, May 26 (UPI) — A Bethlehem antiques dealer is looking to sell fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the head of the San Marcos, Texas, World of the Bible Ministries said.
Randall Price wrote on the ministry website that while in Israel, he met with William Kando, who has in his possession the remains of the scroll of Genesis and numerous fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Kando’s father purchased the Dead Sea Scrolls from Bedouin in 1947, Price said.
“William now possesses the remains of one large scroll of Genesis (valued at $35 million) and numerous fragments of biblical and other texts. A number of these were recently sold by him to Azuza Pacific University and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. … Kando does have more fragments for sale, however, the price is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and he is very insistent that the remaining fragments go to institutions that deal with the Bible so that they can be shared with Christian believers,” Price wrote.
Kando has reportedly said he offered to sell the fragments to Israel’s Antiquities Authority but it was unable to meet his price.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in some 12 caves at a place called Qumran near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. Texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Nabataean. Israel possesses most of the scrolls.
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