Search for lost Bible pages accelerates

JERUSALEM, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A global search has accelerated for missing pages of the world's oldest Hebrew Bible that disappeared 60 years ago in Syria.

The Ben-Zvi Institute is enlisting the help of former residents of Aleppo, Syria, where nearly half of the pages of the ancient Bible disappeared during anti-Jewish riots, The Washington Times said.

"We are appealing to the older members of Aleppo's once-great Jewish community, who are scattered throughout the world, to look for the missing fragments and bring them to us," Zvi Zameret, the institute's director, told the Times.

The 1,000-year-old text is called the Aleppo Codex.

"It is the most reliable version of the Old Testament," Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay told the Times.