[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.

[Lurking Libertarian]

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.

More in the nature of scholarly quibbles than serious disagreement:

1. The text of each of the books of the Hebrew Bible was certainly fixed by the time of Jesus, but there were a handful of books whose status (in the canon or not) was still being debated until about 170 C.E. (Song of Songs made it in by one vote; Ben Sirach stayed out by an almost-as-close vote; a few others were also in dispute for a while).

2. I am no scholar of the Christian Scriptures, but in the parts I have read, Jesus refers to "the law (torah) and the prophets (nevi'im)"; I've never seen a reference to the "writings" (q'tuvim).

[codeword]

You're right about Qumran. I meant to say Nag Hammadi.

[ET(end tyranny)]

re:Isaiah, probably the biggest difference is where a mis-translation occured which changed the 'young woman' into a 'virgin'. But, I suppose they will keep that error in there, even though the word in question was properly translated in other instances, and the original text was still available.