Old Bibles and scriptures depicting biblical times are a very important piece of history, something that millions of people live their lives by. Throughout history, many of these historical and religious texts have been lost (mainly due to war). Many of them held important information that is now either forgotten or left in the past and hidden from Christian society.
This is why such items are quite valuable, especially on the black market where many of them can be found, or stolen from sacred places.
Since the 10th century, contrabandists have been after historical and particularly religious artifacts, but Turkish officials have been able to identify and apprehend a group of organized criminals who have been stealing priceless historical and religious artifacts for years. In Tokat, their hiding place was found in 2015. The items discovered in their hoard were intended to be illegally exported from the nation and sold for astronomical sums of money.
Along with other diamonds, swords, and paintings, a severely tattered and misaligned bible was discovered. Before authorities realized that each and every one of the Bible’s pages was made of gold, it didn’t appear that the book itself was particularly valuable.
The Bible appears to be at least 1000 years old, according to specialists who have examined it more closely to determine its age. This has been noted because it was written in an ancient form of Assyrian (Suresh), a language that had been steadily dying since the fifth century.
A video of the bible being opened and inspected by experts was also shown:
Many historical artifacts disappear as a result of these smugglers. This is a result of the demand for antiques produced by private collectors who would even pay thieves to take the items for them. This is true despite the fact that, despite the absurd offers that may be made, the majority of the rare historical items in museums are not available for purchase.
The Turkish government is still looking for information on where exactly this piece came from—was it a museum find or perhaps a recent historical find? It is so uncommon that it raises a lot of questions, based on its actual authenticity from not only being a fake but if it was forged to look as if a Bible from 1000 years ago.
