New Dead Sea Scroll Discoveries

 Fifth Wednesday of Lent

Lectionary Texts:

Hebrews 5:1-10

John 11:27-45

Thanks to Pat. I will need to hear from more of you, if you are interested in my Daily Office project. Your only obligation would be to try it out, read and pray through it a couple of times with the possibility that you might adopt it as a part of your devotional practice.

Many of you have hear of the recent Dead Sea Scroll (DSS) discoveries. The PBS show Nova tonight at 9:00 will be about them. You might want to watch or record it.

 

Here are a few things to know. First, these are real, legitimate discoveries through the work of the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are not like the fake Dead Sea Scroll fragments sold by unscrupulous antiquities dealers to the super-wealthy but very naive Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby and the Museum of the Bible. 

The documents discovered are all fragments, dozens of them. They include parts of two OT books, Nahum and Zechariah. The fragments come from the time of the Bar Kochbah Revolt, 132-135 AD. The fascinating thing for me is that the fragments are in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic. A very few other Greek Biblical fragments have been recovered in earlier DSS discoveries. 

Are these texts of the Septuagint (LXX) Greek version of the OT, which was the Bible of the NT writers, or are they another Greek version. We know of four other early Greek OT versions that existed. The LXX was originally translated from the Hebrew in the third century BC. It has considerable variation from the Hebrew in some OT books. The LXX was copied and preserved almost entirely by the early Christians. All of our complete copies are from Christian scribes. These newly discovered fragments are among a relative few that were copied by Jewish scribes. I am eager to learn how they will compare with our extant Christian copies.

An example problem, which will not be resolved by these particular fragments, is Isaiah 7:14. The Hebrew reads, "Behold, a young woman has conceived and will bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel..." The LXX reads, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel." Matthew read and quoted the LXX as a prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus. Was Matthew's LXX the same as the 2d century BC LXX, or had early Christians doctored it. It seems unlikely that Matthew, writing as early as he did (80-90) , could have had a Christian doctored manuscript but some have so contended. The discovery of a Jewish LXX that had Isaiah 7:14 would answer that question. 

The discoverers of the newly found fragments had to rappel down over 200 ft. of rock face to enter the cave to retrieve the fragments and other artifacts. Drones were used in the discovery of the cave. It's a fascinating story 

I'm very concerned about the potentially dangerous storms forecast for tomorrow. Our two teenage grandchildren will be staying with us, while their parents are in West Virginia. Please pray for minimal damage and minimal injury for all.

God of the wind,

We pray for your help in the forces of nature to minimize damage and aid us in recovery. In the name of Christ, who stilled the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Amen.

Faithfully,

Christian