Evidence ID: HIS-EV49

Evidence: Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Summary: The Dead Sea scrolls demonstrate the transmission accuracy of the Old Testament. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Masoretic copy of the Old Testament was from about 1000 AD. Now with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the earliest manuscript predated 69 AD, the date the scrolls were hidden.

Description: Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls so important?

The Dead Sea Scrolls are powerful evidence of how accurately the Bible was transmitted. The Dead Sea scrolls demonstrate the accuracy of Old Testament copies between 69 AD and 980 AD. They demonstrate the accuracy of the scribes who copied the Old Testament before the time of Christ. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest copy of the Old Testament was from about 1000 AD. But that changed in 1947.

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd boy tending his flock in Qumran, near the Dead Sea, left his sheep and goats to search for a stray. Tucked into the cliffs, he spotted a cave and he picked up a stone and tossed it in the interior. The stone shattered something, so he went inside and found large clay jars, many of which were still intact, their lids still in place. While most of the jars were empty, some contained seven scrolls wrapped in linen that had turned black over the centuries. The seven scrolls, initially thought to be of no value, turned out to be the Dead Sea Scrolls that contained biblical texts.

This was truly an amazing discovery. Every book of the Old Testament was represented (except Esther), and many non-biblical writings as well. The scribes who copied these manuscripts had been alive when Jesus was alive, and these pieces of paper and parchment were as old as Jesus!

The manuscripts were hidden in caves in 69 AD when the Romans were about to attack Jerusalem and lay undisturbed for almost two thousand years. Suddenly, we could compare our Bibles to Old Testament texts that were not 1000 years old—but 2000 years old!

Let us take Isaiah as an example of a biblical writer: back around BC 700, Isaiah writes his prophecy. (The book of Isaiah discovered near the Dead Sea was dated approximately BC 100. [REF-DDS02]) About 800 years later, Jesus is crucified. Then, around 1000 AD, the oldest manuscript containing the Old Testament is copied by the Masoretes; that is the oldest piece of paper with Old Testament writing on it in existence. In modern times, people had their Bibles, based on the Masoretic text that is 1000 years old - but that is still 1700 years after Isaiah wrote it.

The obvious question was, "How much had the text changed since Jesus’ day? We could have never known the answer before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, but now we can know! When those copies from the time of Jesus were compared to the copies from 1000 AD, there were no significant alterations – after 1000 years of hand-copying the text! The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the accuracy of the transmission of the Old Testament. The Dead Sea Scrolls dated from around the time of Christ yet were virtually identical to manuscripts from 1000 years later.

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