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.
Glenn Kimball
ReplyDeleteThe "Hidden Story of the Childhood of Jesus" comes directly from the records written by Jesus' two brothers. They were included in the body of documents called the "Only Rule of Our Faith", which was the original Bible before the Bible. The first half of the book is a historical explanation of the ancient texts and the second half of the book contains the actual story of the family of Jesus translated from the ancient manuscripts themselves. The book is deliberately very small. At the time I felt one of the reasons more people didn't know about the histories of Jesus' life was because they were buried in huge ponderous anthologies and unintelligible scholarly texts. The scholarly historians, who have verified the ancient manuscripts, have largely been atheists and therefore not credible to believers. The Believers have shut the doors to Extra-Biblical documents and therefore haven't looked for additional history for themselves. This book is purely historical, and though I am a believer, it allows "the cards to fall where they may".
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