The latest scrolls were copied shortly before the destruction of the Qumran site by the Romans in AD 68. The earliest scrolls found at Qumran date back to 250 BC, if not earlier. Thus, when you hear the term “Dead Sea Scrolls,” it refers, collectively, to all scrolls found in the area, not just in the caves at Qumran. Other scroll discoveries followed in the vicinity of the Dead Sea. By 1956, a total of 11 caves had been discovered at Qumran, gifting the world with almost 1,050 scrolls written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
The cave, which became known as Cave 1, is located about a mile inland from the Western shore of the Dead Sea, about 13 miles east of Jerusalem. The first of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, in early 1947, in a cave by Bedouin shepherds, near an ancient site called Qumran. It was the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls that helped scholars to answer this question: “Does the Masoretic Text faithfully represent the Hebrew text as originally written by the authors of the Old Testament books?” The tradition of the Masoretic Text is significant for four reasons: It provided the only textual witness to the Old Testament for more than 1,000 years (9th century AD to 1947 when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered) its internal consistency clearly attests to the care, precision, and systematic rigor with which the Masoretic scribes copied the manuscripts the Masoretic Text tradition allows the textual critic to reasonably assume a prior tradition going back to as early as AD 70 and it provides the primary textual witness by which all other textual witnesses are measured. Following the tradition of earlier scribes, the Masoretes were committed to faithfully preserving the correct form of the Hebrew text. Scholars deem these five ancient Hebrew sources to be immensely valuable for biblical research:Īs we noted in last week’s post, the majority of English translations of the Old Testament are derived from ancient texts created by the group of scribes called the Masoretes. Specifically, the Aleppo Codexand the Leningrad Codex, which they produced in the 10th and 11th centuries. In this week’s post, let’s look at some important Hebrew manuscripts that help to validate Old Testament Scripture. Of just the known 5,800+ Greek New Testament manuscripts, there are more than 2.6 million pages! That equates to one mile of New Testament manuscripts (and 2.5 miles for the entire Bible), compared with an average four feet of manuscript by the average classical writer. Combining both the Old and New Testament, we have more than 66,000 manuscripts and scrolls that speak to the validity of Scripture! I love reposting the following statistic, as it’s so impressive: So much historical documentation exists to confirm the faithful transcription of Scripture.
OLD MANUSCRIPTS SERIES
I hope one truth you’re learning, as we travel this series together, is that the Bible is THE most vetted document in the history of the world. In last week’s blog post we answered the question, “Did ancient scribes faithfully transcribe biblical texts?” Resoundingly, research shouts, “YES!”
Historical manuscripts have already done so. Modern Christians don’t have to defend the validity of the Bible.
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