John,
I read that the thousands of Qumran text fragments are divided into two categories: Biblical and non-biblical. What was discovered has been called an Essene (sect) "library," as such there are many fragments of books, stories, legends, documents etc, that have little or nothing to do with the modern Old Testament. It is where these ancient fragments and modern OT Biblical documents intersect that there is almost perfect agreement. The credibility that the Dead Sea Scrolls lend to the modern Old Testament is absolutely phenomenal. The ultimate quest for an ancient textual critic is to get as close to the original documents, time-wise, as is humanly possible. No other book on the planet gets as close to the original documents while at the same time confirming the accuracy of the modern texts as the Hebrew Old Testament. The complete text of the book of Isaiah, discovered in a clay jar at Qumran, was 1,000 years closer to the original text than anything previously in existence. It matches modern translations almost word for word.
People who claim that Hebrew Scripture cannot be trusted, believed in or relied upon because it was has been copied countless times over the centuries with changes made with every copy simply do not know what they're talking about.
Not only am I nearing the end of my knowledge on this subject, but as Monday approaches the lurkers on this board will certainly grow less tolerant of this discussion. It has been fun.
Aloha, Mike |
