free
Mar 17, 2006
I was in Jerusaleum and remember seeing Isaiah and some other OT books among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Can anyone tell me if any part of the New Testament was among the scrolls?
I was in Jerusaleum and remember seeing Isaiah and some other OT books among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Can anyone tell me if any part of the New Testament was among the scrolls?
The Dead Sea Scrolls, to my understanding, is material dating before christ.
Hi free...Actually, the Dead Sea Scrolls were probably scribed between C. 50-100 A.D. They were decidedly Jewish in origin. Hence, there are not any New Testament scrolls. Interestingly, there are extra-Biblical scrolls, including scrolls concerning Jewish customs -- as well as scrolls from the Book of Enoch and Jubilees. You will find a wealth of information by performing a simple Google search. But be careful -- there is alot of "questionable" information out there, as is true with all info on the WWW.Hope this helps. :-)
Very right Chris,I found the Extra-Biblical writings published on the Net from the parts of the scrolls that the vatican held.Apparently for a while or maybe still ... they were split up between Israel, Rome, and somewheres else.But the parts that were on the Net that I read were extremely New Age writings with no basis in Scripture whatsoever.Thanks for bringing that up. Blessed are those who have not seen (needing any "proofs") and yet still Believe. 8-)
The Dead Sea Scrolls, to my understanding, is material dating before christ.Although there have been challenges, the Dead Sea scrolls are usually associated with the Essenes; a separatist ascetic sect which functioned around the time of Christ. They seemed to have had a community close to the Dead Sea in the vicinity of Qumran where the scrolls were found.They were 'messianic' (ie the predicted the coming of the Messiah) but their views were pretty much rejected by orthodox Judaism and there is some evidence that they pretty much rejected orthodox Judaism. The archaeologists, who love to create theories which make them newsworthy, sometimes make absurd statements. They have declared that John Baptist was really an Essene. There is absolutely no evidence for this but they are often driven to these peculiar conclusions by the prejudice against the gospel records. If the Bible says it, it must be wrong; what are the other alternatives?Prior to the discovery of the Qumran texts the oldest OT manscripts were several hundred years younger than the oldest NT manuscripts. But these texts were a great discovery, although originally they were declared to be fakes. The texts included an almost complete scroll of Isaiah.Wikepedia is often a useful place to start, but watch for their biases. Try Dead Sea Scrolls
On a side note, it is interesting to note that the Dead Sea Scrolls are on exhibition here in Charlotte, NC through mid-may at "The Discovery Place." They have a lot of special lectures being offered on them as well, though sadly, all of them are only offered on the night I have Greek class! I do look forward to taking a day and going to see them, as many say it's a once in a lifetime opprotunity unless you plan on making regular trips to Jerusalem.
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