Turkish police confiscate a 1,200-year-old Bible

The Bible appears to be in the Aramaic language and inscribed on papyrus. Four suspects, including two potential purchasers, were detained.

Evangelical Focus

Evangélico Digital · 19 DECEMBER 2019 · 17:00 CET

The Bible appears to be in the Aramaic language and inscribed on papyrus. / Daily Sabah.,
The Bible appears to be in the Aramaic language and inscribed on papyrus. / Daily Sabah.

Turkish security forces seized a bible estimated to be over a thousand years old last week, in an anti-smuggling operation in the province of Bursa, northwest of Turkey, loccal newspaper Daily Sabah reports.

After getting a tip-off, the provincial police conducted a raid into a house in the Osmaniye neighbourhood of the city's Inegol district, and found the Bible, which appears to be in the Aramaic language and inscribed on papyrus.

Four suspects, including two potential purchasers, were detained accused of an alleged crime of smuggling.

 

NOT THE FIRST TIME

This is not the first time that the country's police prevent the sale of an old Bible. Last February, the police broke into a building in the Turkish town of Diyarbakir and arrested several people trying to sell a 1,200-year-old Bible written on leather with gold-encrusted motifs.

Thousands of anti-smuggling operations are carried across Turkey every year to halt the illegal sale of historical objects and protect the country's rich cultural heritage.

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