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Truth and Time
Truth and Time
“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed” ~II Peter 1:19
In 1946, a group of children were shepherding in the desert and came across a small cave. One picked up a rock and threw it inside, and the others started to do the same until they heard breaking pottery. Intrigued, they went in and found one of the largest archaeological finds of this century: a trove of scrolls which had been stashed in the pottery, some of which was freshly destroyed by a rock. Each scroll was dated to the late first and early second centuries. Included were many stories, biblically and non-biblically based, hymns of thanks, some historical documentations, and two scrolls of the book of Isaiah. This trove of information was around the area of Qumran, which is on the north-west side of the Dead Sea, about ten miles due east of Jerusalem, so the trove was named the “Dead Sea Scrolls.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls did not offer much in the way of new information on any subject, but the importance of the find made huge waves in the world of biblical study because of the books of Isaiah were almost complete despite their age. The Great Isaiah Scroll found in the first cave is the single oldest transcript of the Book of Isaiah that has ever been discovered.
So, why is it so important? Can’t any one of us who own a bible, open our bibles, and read Isaiah? Why do we need this old copy of it? Is it any different from ours?
The answer is that any of us can open our bibles and read Isaiah, and the text is, barring minor scribal and spelling errors, and slight linguistic shifts, identical. That is the point, though! The text is identical! Surprisingly identical! The Word of God verses the other texts in the same trove have widely differing degrees of accuracy. Most of the other texts have had many alterations and changes throughout the millennia since these scrolls were written with one shining exception: the only truly biblical text found within them, Isaiah.
The dead sea scrolls provide one of the strongest pieces of evidence to date of the preservation of God’s Word that is unlike any other text. For some reason, the Word of God is special in that, despite being written over centuries, in multiple languages, over many geographic areas, and by many men separated by culture, distance, and time, it is not subject to the normal variations in text and meaning which morph stories over time.
What about the story of the cannon used in the city of Colchester in the siege of 1648? You know it well! It was positioned upon the wall of the city to protect it as the siege engines threatened to breach the walls. This cannon located right next to St. Mary’s Church fell as part of the wall was heavily damaged and smashed to pieces upon the ground. The siege failed, and the Royalist army lived to surrender another day at the Battle of Preston later that year, which may have been partially because of the loss of this large cannon; this Humpty Dumpty which all the king’s men could not put back together again. How much does a story written by man change, even over the course of only four hundred years? What will the cannon look like in another four hundred years? Will it still be an egg?
The Word of God is proven repeatedly for its miraculous infallibility. Many, including other religions, try to claim that the bible is not reliable; that it has been changed over the centuries or are only stories made up by men. The Dead Sea Scrolls offer yet another piece of evidence to the contrary. God has His hand on His word, and it will never change until the day every manuscript is burned up as promised by Him on that day of judgment.
Lance Byers
May 10, 2025
- Truth_and_Time_05-10-25.pdf (31.02 kB)
