The Dead Sea Scrolls

Today while doing a little bit of research on the dead sea scrolls, I found an awesome website.  Now, instead of having to get a passport to examine the scrolls, all you need is a computer.  The scrolls have been made available to view online, but in a way that lets you zoom in and really take a look at them up close.  You can also click on a portion of the text and get the English translation of the passage you're looking at!  So amazing!


Here's a link to the website that lets you examine them interactively: http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/


The Dead Sea Scrolls are considered to be the most important archaeological find of the 20th Century.  Discovered near Qumran, these excavated scrolls contain portions of ancient manuscript evidence for the Bible.  The scrolls now give us early bible manuscripts that were written 1,000 years earlier than any Bible text we had previously.  The "Isaiah Scroll" is the single oldest ancient manuscript evidence we have, and the entire Isaiah prophecy has survived in its completeness.  This is extremely important to Christians, as well as historians.  By examining it, we are able to see how much of our Bible has been changed or has been "lost in translation" over the past few thousand years...and what we find is astounding!  It has remained the same, through all of this time.  


It is in that very book of Isaiah (40:8) where it was said "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."  How fitting that the oldest Biblical manuscript we have in existence should preserve these very words, words that have proven to be fully true.  


Here is a link to a YouTube video, that talks specifically about the website that I linked above: The Dead Sea Scrolls Online  If you don't have time to check out the website, at least take the time to watch this 2 minute video that shows you what the website is about, and what you're able to do through it.


A small glimpse at how our marvelous God is more than capable of keeping His word to us.  Hopefully this modern look at God's unfailing faithfulness will encourage your heart.

Valley of Siddim...Dead Sea and Tar Pits

I was reading in Genesis 14 when verse 10 caught my eye.  It starts out "Now the Valley of Siddim was filled with tar pits..."


I thought that I'd like to see what those tar pits look like now, or see if there was evidence of them ever existing.  Since I believe the Bible to be accurate in every aspect, I figured it would be easy to find.  And it was!


Here's what I discovered.  The Valley of Siddim is no longer an empty valley...it is now the Dead Sea (also called the Salt Sea).  Not only that, but it still has it's tar pits!  Here's some of the info and photos I found.  I'm so grateful that I not only have a Bible that I accept as truth on faith, but that has proven itself as truth again and again.


The Dead Sea is a lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel to the west.  It lies over 1,000 feet below sea level, and is the Earth's lowest elevation on land.  At 1,237 ft. deep, it is the largest hypersaline lake in the world!  It has a salinity of 33.7%, and is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean.  It is called the "Dead Sea" because animals cannot flourish in it's environment because of the salinity. It is 42 miles long, and 11 miles wide.



The Dead Sea's salt has been used in cosmetics and herbal sachets, and the Dead Sea has been the supplier of a wide range of products from balms used in Egyptian Mummification, to fertilizer.  It was also a site of refuge for biblical King David.

With a density of 1.24 kg/L, swimming is actually more like floating.  Every year the Dead Sea has over 1 million foreign tourists visit this natural wonder.

From deep seeps in the sea, is a constant discharge of asphalt.  Occasionally an enormous chunk will float up (like the one pictured left), but it is more common to see pieces like the one pictured below.  The sea is constantly spitting up small pebbles of the black asphalt substance and bitumen (aka pitch or tar).  Asphalt coated figurines and Neolithic skulls have even been found washed up from the sea.  Which answered my question about whether or not I could dig around in an under water pit and find remains of folks from Biblical times.  Creepy, and yet cool!