Last of Dead Sea Scrolls About Ready to Publish

Associated Press ^

[Ethan_Allen]

The work "leads us to believe that the Bible went through many stages of changes," Tov said.

When I saw the title, I knew the above would be the punchline......Revelation 22:18-19.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

scrolls

Breaking: Sun rose from the east this morning. Many predict it will set in the west this evening.

[Henchman]

Fact is Fact - the Bible shouldn't change - old or new - nor should the US Constitution. Liberals have a way of screwing up everything with (what we hope) are good intentions.

[Zathras]

My one regret was not seeing them when I was in Israel 2 years ago.
I'm sure glad I didn't miss Yad Vashem!

[PJ-Comix]

I remember we had a copy of the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls in our home when I was a kid. I was sort of under the impression that the Dead Sea Scrolls had already been translated. Or were there some parts not translated? And if not, how much material has been untranslated until now?

[Lurking Libertarian]

There were lots and lots of Dead Sea Scrolls (actually, mostly bits, pieces and fragments of scrolls) that were never released until now. (The best preserved mss. were released first.) I'm not sure what the percentage was.

[PJ-Comix]

I just found this description at Amazon of "The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception." Has anybody out there read this book? I had it and only briefly leafed thru it before selling it on Amazon or Half.Com. I wish now that I had read the complete book in light of the publication of all the Dead Sea Scolls. Anyway, here is the Amazon book description:

The oldest Biblical manuscripts in existence, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves near Jerusalem in 1947, only to be kept a tightly held secret for nearly fifty more years, until the Huntington Library unleashed a storm of controversy in 1991 by releasing copies of the Scrolls. In this gripping investigation authors Baigent and Leigh set out to discover how a small coterie of orthodox biblical scholars gained control over the Scrolls, allowing access to no outsiders and issuing a strict "consensus" interpretation. The authors' questions begin in Israel, then lead them to the corridors of the Vatican and into the offices of the Inquisition. With the help of independent scholars, historical research, and careful analysis of available texts, the authors reveal what was at stake for these orthodox guardians: The Scrolls present startling insights into early Christianity -- insights that challenge the Church's version of the "facts." More than just a dramatic exposé of the intrigues surrounding these priceless documents, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception presents nothing less than a new, highly significant perspective on Christianity.

[follow your bliss]

Truth is truth, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are a fascinating find.

I think the close parallel to the Sumerian Enuma Elish is very interesting.

Zecharriah Sitchin has written exhaustively on the subject.

[aruanan]

Actually, all of the Dead Sea scrolls have been widely available for decades.

[aruanan]

What happened with the scrolls was not at all unusual. Any scholar that has discovered a cache of valuable historical documents holds onto them for as long as he can wring everything out of them that he can for his own professional purposes. Sometimes they get passed on to his graduate students or associates. This is no different from someone discovering a literal goldmine or emerald and gold-choked shipwreck. Just because a lot of other people could profit from it should the owner give it away, he would be nuts to do so. With respect to the DSS, they've all been available through photocopies for decades, in spite of the control exercised over them. Some people have used the hype about them to promote conspiracy theories about how there were things there that completely undermined the basis of Christianity. This is simply not true. The explanation is much more prosaic, as I described above.

[Lyford]

I just found this description at Amazon of "The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception." Has anybody out there read this book?

I read it several years ago. As I recall, it reads like much of the Kennedy assassination stuff. Plausible in small snatches, but pretty silly in toto. But I won't swear to that evaluation, as I've read a couple of different things, and it was several years ago...(maybe I'll pull it back off the shelf tonight...)

[codeword]

...a small coterie of orthodox biblical scholars gained control over the Scrolls, allowing access to no outsiders and issuing a strict "consensus" interpretation.

The same thing happened to the Gnostic Gospels--e.g., the Gospel of Thomas--discovered in Egypt at Qumran in 1947, and for the same reason. Fundamentalist Christians don't want any changes in the canon. Elaine Pagels has a very interesting book on this, called The Gnostic Gospels.

[sonrise57]

Fundamentalist Christian here . . . fyi, Qumran is in the Judean desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea - not Egypt. The pseudapigraphy, of which Thomas is a part were clearly written a tracts of early Christian cults and were so rightly rejected by the church during the process of canonization of the New Testament. Also, the DSS's document the remarkable accuracy of transmission of the text over multiple centuries. For instance in the Book of Isaiah there are only a few differences between the Qumran text and the Massoritic text (our modern Hebrew text). All of these differences are easily accounted for as normal scribal errors, such as dropping a letter, vowel pointing, etc. None of the changes significanlty modify the content or theology of the book. Also, the Scrolls support the idea that the Hebrew text was complete and codified by the time of Christ. The Scrolls refer to three divisions of sacred writing, the torah, the prophets and the writings. Jesus refered to the same division.

I am always suprised at the knee jerk reaction so many sceptics have toward unbelief and accepting uncritically those theories and propositions which weaken rather than strenthen the possibility that God communicated with His creatures through a process of revelation that is recorded for us in the Bible.

[Ben Ficklin]

In 1991, Wacholder & Abegg released their computer generated version of all the un-released fragments. Shortly there-after, the Huntington Library in Pasadena released there photocopies of everything.

[JmyBryan]

Whatever you do, do not read or read about the Dead Sea Scrolls or any other pre-Christian Judaic literature. It is all a plot by Satan to make you think about the Bible and what it may or may not mean. Soon you'll be questioning what your beliefs are and why you believe them. Next the gates of hell will be open before you. Eternal torment and damnation. Pain. Suffering. Terror.

Other than that, no big deal.

[HarryDunne]

Are you saying that anything after Deuteronomy 4:2 is not the word of God?

[r9etb]

Fundamentalist Christians don't want any changes in the canon.

Unfortunately for your point, the Gospel of Thomas was specifically excluded from the canon back when it was being defined in the 300s -- as were a number of other "gospels".

It's a happy accident that a copy was rediscovered -- but the reason it was lost in the first place, was that it carried no Scriptural weight: nobody wanted or needed a copy.

Mostly, it wasn't needed because it doesn't say anything particularly different from the canonical Gospels. The only difference that stands out in my mind is one little passage where Jesus takes Thomas aside and tells him a secret that he's not supposed to reveal. This is probably a later addition of the Gnostic sects.

All that to say: there are reasons that the Gospel of Thomas isn't in the canon, which do not require the introduction of dark, modern-day Fundamentalist conspiracies.

[HarryDunne]

oh, please

[rebdov]

Are they showing the original scrolls or a translation? I won't trust a translation.