Famed archaeologist W.F. Albright called them the greatest archaeological find of modern times. When they go on display, they draw record-breaking crowds, such as 260,000 in Grand Rapids in 2003 and 390,000 in San Diego in 2007.
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest extant copies of the Old Testament books, dating as far back as 250 BC. Before their discovery, the most ancient Hebrew Bibles dated to about the tenth century AD.
The first 45 years: 1946 to 1991
Near the end of 1946, a Bedouin boy happened upon the first seven scrolls in a cave at Qumran on the shore of the Dead Sea. At the time, no one realized the significance of the dirty old pieces of parchment, and they were treated accordingly.
Four scrolls (including the Great Isaiah Scroll, the centerpiece of the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem) were sold to the Metropolitan Samuel on July 16, 1947.* On November 29, 1947, Israeli archaeologist Eleazar Sukenik took an extremely dangerous bus ride to Bethlehem to purchase the other three from an antiquities dealer. He was bringing them back as the United Nations was voting to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. A few hours later, that transaction might have been impossible.
Sukenik wanted the other four scrolls, but the Metropolitan had realized they were of great value and was not ready to sell them. Years later, on June 1, 1954, the Metropolitan placed a small classified ad in the Wall Street Journal, offering “The Four Dead Sea Scrolls” for sale. Coincidentally, Sukenik’s son, the famous Yigael Yadin, was in the United States when the ad appeared. Negotiating secretly through an intermediary, Yadin purchased them. By July 1 all seven scrolls from Cave 1 were in Israeli hands.
Meanwhile, the Bedouin and archaeologists were exploring other caves around Qumran. Cave 4, discovered in 1952, contained the mother lode — almost 700 scrolls. In all, a total of 900 scrolls (222 of them Biblical) were found in 11 caves. For many years the scrolls from Caves 2 to 11 were stored at the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem. They have now been moved to West Jerusalem.
The first Scrolls were published in the 1950s and early 1960s. Then money ran out and politics took over. While fiercely guarding their monopoly, the editors published nothing.
This hiatus offered a heyday for conspiracy theories. Why were the Scrolls not being released? Was it because they challenged the very core of Christianity? In 1970, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, by John Marco Allegro, claimed that the Scrolls showed Christianity developed from a fertility cult under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. More recently, books like The Da Vinci Code, The Isaiah Effect, and others have shamelessly alluded to the Dead Sea Scrolls to support outrageous claims.
At last, in 1991 the monopoly ended. The Huntington Library in California opened to researchers its complete set of photographs of the Scrolls, forcing the Israel Antiquities Authority to lift its restrictions on their use.
Proof the Bible is accurate
Now we know that the Old Testament we have today is 99 percent the same as the Scriptures that Jesus would have read. Before the Scrolls were discovered, this could not be said with certainty because the oldest texts were only medieval. Although they had been copied with painstaking care and reverence, critics could assert that they had been changed over the years, and no one could prove otherwise. The Scrolls offer proof positive that the Old Testament text is essentially the same today as it was over 2,000 years ago.
Most of the differences that do exist are trivial: for instance, spellings. (Compare the British “honour” to the American spelling “honor.”) Some Scroll readings add clarification or resolve textual difficulties. Bibles published in the last few years either use the Dead Sea Scrolls in the translation, or have marginal notes showing DSS readings.
The Scrolls have yielded parts of almost every book of our Old Testament, confirming their validity and accuracy — and refuting skeptics. Until last year, Nehemiah was missing, but a fragment has recently surfaced.
Esther is the only Old Testament book not found. The Essenes, who lived at Qumran, likely rejected Esther for a number of reasons. The most obvious are that it does not mention the name of God, and that it portrays the marriage of a Jew to an unconverted Gentile. The main reason, however, may be that it introduces Purim. A few non-Biblical scrolls present controversies about the Jewish calendar and the feasts. The Essenes observed only the feasts of the Law of Moses and did not recognize Purim.
The three books of which the most copies were found are Isaiah, Deuteronomy and Psalms. Amazingly, these are also the three books most often quoted in the New Testament. The Essenes were looking for the Messiah, so their favorite Scriptures were the same as those of the early Christians. Isaiah talks about the coming Messiah. Deuteronomy stresses the Covenant (the Essenes called themselves the Community of the New Covenant), and the Psalms center on David, whose throne the Messiah was to possess.
Insights from the Scrolls
Three versions of the Jewish Scriptures were found at Qumran: the Palestinian (the basis for the Samaritan Pentateuch); the Egyptian (ancestor of the Septuagint); and the Babylonian (which became the Masoretic text). All three were apparently equally accepted. Among the Biblical scrolls were a few Greek versions.
Our King James Version (also called the Authorized Version) is based on the Masoretic text. Where Scriptural quotes in the New Testament do not seem to match their Old Testament sources, the wording often matches the Septuagint. This shows that Jesus and the apostles recognized the Egyptian text as authoritative. One example is Isaiah 7:14, quoted in Matthew 1:23. Does it prophesy a miraculous “virgin” birth, or simply a “young woman” having a baby (as critics claim)? The Septuagint resolves the issue; the Greek word definitely means “virgin”.
There are hardly any differences between the Scrolls and the Masoretic Text, which is the basis for the KJV. These differences are not radical, and in no way undermine the accuracy of Scripture.
Take, for example, Psalm 145 (“I will extol thee, my God, O king”). This well-loved psalm of praise, with its 21 verses, is an acrostic minus the Hebrew letter “nun”. Acrostic writings use the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet sequentially to start each verse. Thus, they have 22 verses, or some multiple thereof.
The Septuagint adds a “nun” verse after verse 13, and so does the Great Psalms Scroll from Cave 11, completing the psalm. Current Bible versions include the missing “nun” verse either at the end of verse 13 or in a marginal note: “The Lord is faithful in all His words, and gracious in all his deeds.” The Psalms Scroll is a Babylonian text; these words must have disappeared from the Masoretic Text during later transmission.
Another example comes from Isaiah 53:11. The KJV reads: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” The wording is somewhat cryptic. What does this passage mean? How would the Messiah be satisfied by his own suffering? And why the odd expression “of the travail”?
Three Isaiah Scrolls have this verse, and they are all consistent. The ancient reading is: “Out of the suffering of his soul he will see light, and find satisfaction.” Seeing light, obviously, is a prophecy of Christ’s resurrection. No alleged Christian editor could have tampered with the words, because those scrolls date to at least 100 years before Christ was even born. Many modern Bibles use, or reference, this reading.
Surely the providential hand of God has been at work to preserve this marvelous library from the time of Christ. It has come to light in an era when the Bible — indeed the very existence of God — has never been more under fire.
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