The Dead Sea Scrolls and The Reliability Of God's Word, part 1

With the Dead Sea Scrolls now visiting the Kansas City area for the next couple of months, http://www.unionstation.org/ I wanted to start a series of blog entries to help folks understand what this is about and how to think about it. It has already created quite a buzz in the Kansas City area, as it should, and through this series of entries, I want to not only help folks understand what the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) are, but also how to think about the dialog that is presently happening in our area about it, and how to use it possibly as a means to open up doors to share the gospel through it. We are going to see them and go through the exhibit later this month and am hoping to be there for some of the keynote speakers on it, and to give you some of my commentary of those times. Likewise, I am presently gathering some helpful books and resources on this topic to pass along to you, if you would like to read up more about it, than what I will be providing in these entries.

First, what are the "Dead Sea Scrolls?" The DSS were first discovered in 1947 in a series of caves located on the shore of the Dead Sea, near Qumran. Most of the documents were written between the time of the "Second Temple Period" (the period just following the end of the exile, when the remnant of God's people were released from Babyolian captivity, by the Persian decree of Cyrus to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.) to about the second half of the first century A.D. This Qumran Community, which consisted primarily of the Essenes people group was seen as one of the primary groups from which these documents were thought to have come. They were a small Jewish religious sect living an ascetic, communal, agricultural life. There are several theories about the location where they were found. Some thinking that this was their communal library, others thinking that their scrolls were hidden there about the time of the Roman dominion of the region and the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. in order to preserve them. (Several theories abound).

What types of documents are they? Various types of documents were found in the caves near Qumran, but most important to us were copies of books of the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament. Almost every book of the Old Testament was found except for the book of Esther and Nehemiah. There were also other writings, commentaries, histories, stories, etc. from that time. In the findings there are some of the books that would consist of the "Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha," books such as Tobit, 1 Enoch, and Jubilees. There were also other documents which serve as fascinating windows into the their community life. For example there is a book, which is for all intensive purposes, a book of "community rules" called The Manual of Discipline. There are also several other scrolls of allegorical stories, poems, songs and other books on their ritual laws.

In future posts, I will give more information and my commentary on some of the more "influential" scrolls and the present discussion that is being given about them. There are definitely quite a few "scholars" giving their opinions, revealing their own bias and presuppositions on these documents that we would quite simply disagree with.

If you are able to go to the exhibits, I would greatly encourage you to. Historically speaking, it has been said that this is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest archaeological find of the last century. Concerning the Old Testament texts that were found, they were dated to be about 1,000 years older than the Masoretic texts from which come our complete Old Testaments. When this finding happened, many critics of the Bible waited with baited breath to find a discrepancy in the texts, in hopes to undermine the reliability of the Bible. Well, needless to say, they were greatly disappointed. In the words of Rabbi Morris Margolies,

"These writings include all of the books of the Hebrew Bible except Esther and possibly Nehemiah. The authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Masorah...has served as the accepted text for all editions up to the present day. The Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew Bible has been written more than a thousand years before. A close comparison of this Essene text with the...Masoretic text reveals virtually an identical rendition. If we think about this, it is a miraculous phenomenon that so faithful a tradition could have been so long preserved almost word for word." (from article written by Margolies in the Kansas City Star, p. B10, Sunday, February 4, 2007 - emphasis added)

Rabbi Morris Margolies says, in two words, this is a "miraculous phenomenon"...yes indeed! In one word, "Providence."

(I hope you benefit from this series of entries and that you find them helpful as we learn together...take care)