Chapter 25
The Dead Sea Scrolls
While the Dead Sea Scrolls are not central to a book
on the modern translations, they do have some peripheral impact.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered in
caves near the Dead Sea in 1947. Hundreds of scrolls were discovered,
some dating back to 400 B.C.
Every Old Testament book with the exception of Esther has been found
among these scrolls, although not all in their entirety. In addition to
Bible passages, the scrolls included many secular manuscripts, for this
find represented the library of the Essene community living in Qumran
from about 130 B.C.
to A.D.
68. The settlement was eventually destroyed by the Romans just two years
prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. A second group lived nearby at
Masada. These the Romans destroyed in
A.D.
72, while the third settlement at Murabbaat survived until
A.D.
132 when this community too fell
to Roman arms at the time of the Second Jewish Revolt.
Recognizing that they were facing perilous times,
these people hid their precious scrolls in almost inaccessible caves.
This action must be evaluated in the knowledge that, so precious was
God’s Word to them that when the scrolls became unusable they were
buried, a type of funeral service being said over the scroll.
The great significance of this archeological
discovery is that it provided evidence of the Old Testament text at the
time of Christ or even earlier. One evangelist has reported on his
conversation with the director of the museum examining the Dead Sea
Scrolls. The evangelist stated:
As the director of the Jerusalem Museum assured us
that they had found manuscripts or fragments of all the books of the
Old Testament, I asked him if there was any difference between these
ancient manuscripts and our present Bible. He quickly answered, "There
is virtually no difference. In practically all things they are exactly
the same as the Authorized Version. You can take that for certain," he
assured me personally. What’s All This About The Dead Sea Scrolls?,
G. Burnside, 4
Professor Frank Cross confirmed that
Not only in Isaiah, but in other prophetic books,
indeed in the entire Old Testament, we must now assume that the Old
Testament text was stabilized early, and that late recensional
activities were of only slight effect. This conclusion, of course,
powerfully supports textual scholars of conservative persuasion.
The Christian Century, August 11, 1955, 920, quoted in The Dead
Sea Scrolls, G. Burnside, 5
In confirmation, another authority stated:
In the latter years of the nineteenth century the
champions of Christianity were mainly on the defensive. Natural
science was in the heyday of the progress which took its rise in the
discoveries and doctrine of Darwin. At the same time within the sphere
of religious study itself a school of thought asserted itself which
questioned the authenticity and trustworthiness of the fundamental
doctrines of Christianity, and applied the utmost freedom of
skepticism to their narratives. Against this attitude the state of our
knowledge of biblical archeology did not supply arguments which could
effectively convince those who did not wish to be convinced. The
advocates of the Christian faith fought at a disadvantage and were on
the defensive. Now all this is changed, and the point I want to make
is that we are no longer on the defensive. It is no longer the
Christian scholar who is out of date. The up-to-date scholars are now
those who recognize the authenticity and authority of the Christian
literature. It is the critics who formerly claimed to be advanced, who
are now belated and behind the times. Sir Frederick Kenyon, former
head of the manuscript department of the British Museum in his
presidential address to the Victoria Institute, quoted in The Dead
Sea Scrolls, G. Burnside, 7
A scroll of great significance is the Isaiah scroll,
which is in excess of twenty-four feet in length, and contains Isaiah’s
entire prophecy. Higher critics had long held that Isaiah was written by
separate authors, one writing the first thirty-nine chapters and the
other the remainder. The basis for this speculation was that the
fortieth chapter focuses on the Babylonian exile which occurred over one
hundred years after Isaiah’s death. Faithful students of Scripture have
long discarded such theorizing, believing rather that Isaiah wrote a
prophetic message under divine guidance. Let it not be overlooked that
the New Testament writers quoted both sections of Isaiah and ascribed
the quotations to his pen. Jesus Himself quoted from both the early and
the latter sections of the book, identifying Isaiah as the author of
both.
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias,
which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and
seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. [Jesus is quoting Isaiah
6:9-10.] Matthew 13:14.
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our
sicknesses. [Jesus was quoting Isaiah 53:4.] Matthew 8:17
Thus when the Isaiah scroll was discovered it was
eagerly examined for clues to settle the dispute. All evidence indicated
that the book was written by a single author. There was absolutely no
evidence of a distinction between the thirty-ninth and the fortieth
chapters, no break in the material. Nor has the least evidence of
separate authors been identified in the more than one dozen other copies
of Isaiah discovered. While these findings do not provide proof beyond
dispute, they accord with the writers of the New Testament who, we
assert, do provide irrefutable evidence.
Yet it is men of higher critical bent who have been
most active in planning and supporting new Bible translations. They have
been wrong in their every attack on Scripture, and they cause great harm
when their opinions are accepted in the matter of biblical translation.
Of course, a further matter of great significance is
that the discovery of the Isaiah scroll, copied about 150
B.C.,
provided absolute certainty that the precise Messianic prophecies of
Isaiah were indeed written long before Christ’s birth (the Septuagint
translation around the same period also confirms the matter). This
evidence of Christ’s Messiahship is outstanding.
It is rather sad to find in their writings that while
the members of these communities were avidly studying the Messianic
prophecies, yet the Messiah came during their era and they were totally
oblivious of it. In their earnest search these Essenes came to the
conclusion that they could anticipate four Messiahs—one a king in the
line of David, one a priest of the Levitical rite, another a prophet in
the mold of Moses, and last a Messiah of the order of Melchizedek. How
close these men were to the truth! If only they could have fused these
four "Messiahs" in their minds! But they could conceive neither of a
priest of the tribe of Judah, nor of a prophet who was also a conquering
king. But in Jesus was their kingly Prophet and Priest of the Order of
Melchizedek. Interestingly, in their commentaries on Melchizedek, these
men recognized his role in judgment. One scroll states:
Melchizedek shall exact the vengeance of the
judgments of God from the hand of Belial and from the hands of all the
spirits of his lot.
When Hebrews chapters 5 and 7 are read we discover
that the conclusions of these people were not far from the truth. Yet
they tragically failed to recognize the One they earnestly sought.
At the time of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
the oldest Hebrew text known was copied in the ninth century after
Christ. Thus the Dead Sea Scrolls were up to one thousand years older
than the earliest Hebrew manuscripts used by the King James translators.
The same translators had been able to utilize manuscripts four hundred
years older for their translation of the New Testament. Yet we find that
God in His goodness had so preserved His Word that those ninth-century
copies almost exactly accorded with those of one thousand years earlier.
This powerful testimony should establish the faith of God’s people in
His power to preserve the Word of God, whether it be the Hebrew text of
the Old Testament or the Greek text of the New Testament. There are many
such lessons to be underscored in the minds of Bible students who cast
doubts upon the majority text.
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