the four manuscripts to the cleric for twenty-four pounds. Isha’ya, at the Metropolitan’s request, brought a priest of St. Mark’s to the cave, thus verifying the story about the discovery told by the Bedouin. While Mar7 Samuel suspected the scrolls were very old, several individuals to whom he showed them (none of whom was an expert in such matters) doubted their antiquity. In late July Father J. van der Ploeg, an Old Testament scholar at the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands) who was staying