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Renew Your Mind
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Brad Harrub, Ph.D.

Most Christians have heard about the Dead Sea scrolls, but few know specifics about this amazing piece of archaeological evidence. In 1948, an Arab boy was looking for a lost goat amid the limestone cliffs near Khirbet Qumran. Along the way this young boy entertained himself by throwing rocks as he walked. He threw one of those rocks into a small cave, and heard the sound of pottery breaking. Scampering up the hill and into the cave, the boy found some leather scrolls with ancient writing on them. Amazingly, the cave contained hundreds of clay pots, each containing scrolls, most likely written by a group of people known as the Essenes. Since that initial find, additional discoveries have been made in surrounding caves.

Among the important discoveries from the caves were copies of the Old Testament books. These copies were produced from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 100, making them almost 900 years older than the oldest available copies of Old Testament books. (Keep in mind the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1948, and the King James Bible was translated into English in 1611.) One scroll found in the Dead Sea caves was of particular importance. It was a 24-foot long of parchment that contained practically the entire book of Isaiah! What was amazing about this scroll was that, when it was compared to the text of Isaiah produced 900 years after it, the two matched almost word for word!

In addition, this cave also contained portions of the book of Daniel (on three small pieces of leather), the Habakkuk commentary that contained the first two chapters of Habakkuk's prophecy. In 1952, ‘cave 2' yielded portions of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Ruth, Psalms, and Jeremiah. ‘Cave 4' was a sensational find—with 330 manuscripts, of which about 90 were biblical books. All the books of the Old Testament are represented with the sole exception of Esther. This discovery contained five manuscripts of books of the Pentateuch, ten of Psalms, and twelve of Isaiah, along with fragments of Ecclesiastes. As more and more discoveries were made, one fact became clear—the text we are reading in our Bibles today is exactly the same as text found on the parchments of the Dead Sea scrolls. Thus, we can be confident that the Old Testament we hold in our hands today is worded exactly as the original writers wrote it.