Direct meaning: Yes. According to the surviving ancient witnesses, 1 Maccabees 1:56 and Josephus (Antiquities, Book 12), during the Seleucid persecution under Antiochus, around 167 BCE, discovered scrolls of the Turah were torn to pieces and burned, and anyone found keeping them was put to death.
"The books of the law which they found, they tore to pieces and burned."1 Maccabees 1:56
It is not a legend. Two separate ancient witnesses, the record of 1 Maccabees and the historian Josephus, describe the same thing: the deliberate destruction of the scrolls of the Turah during the Seleucid persecution.
What the surviving ancient record says
1 Maccabees 1:54-64 describes the decree of Antiochus against the people and their Scriptures. The scrolls of the Turah that were found were torn to pieces and burned, and anyone found keeping a scroll, or living by it, was put to death.
Two witnesses: 1 Maccabees and Josephus
The account in 1 Maccabees 1:56 is matched by the historian Josephus in Antiquities, Book 12, who records the same campaign to destroy the copies of the law. Two independent literary witnesses telling the same account is strong ancient evidence.
How strong is the evidence
This rests on the surviving ancient literary witnesses, not on a recovered scroll we can hold. The dating, around 167 BCE, is the standard dating of the persecution. Offered so you can check it against the record for yourself.
Common Questions
Who burned the copies of the Turah?
The forces of Antiochus, during the Seleucid persecution, as recorded in 1 Maccabees 1:56 and by Josephus.
When were the Turah scrolls burned?
Around 167 BCE, during the Seleucid persecution under Antiochus.
The Takeaway
The record is plain: the scrolls of the Turah were hunted, torn, and burned, and keeping one could cost a life. The word survived anyway.
Back to the Blogzoreayahu.org · Restoration through Truth