“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel (Exodus 34:27).”
In 1970 archaeologists found a charred scroll in a synagogue at En-Gedi, about 20 miles southeast of Jerusalem. The community was burned to the ground nearly 1,400 years ago and the condition of the manuscript was burned so badly it could not be unrolled without destroying it. The date of the scroll’s origin is estimated to be between A.D. 50 to A.D. 300. Thanks to a new technology developed by the University of Kentucky, the document was scanned using technology similar to CT scans and a new software called virtual unwrapping.1 What researchers deciphered on the scroll were portions of the first two chapters of the book of Leviticus. Researchers say that this discovery holds great significance for scholar’s understanding of the development of the Hebrew Bible.2
Many have supposed that transmission of the Bible is like the old telephone game – what we have today are mere copies of copies of copies. Here’s one thing you can take to the bank on understanding the development of the Hebrew Bible – it is the word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and did not develop over time. The Hebrew language developed, as all languages do, but the Bible has been accurately preserved through all succeeding generations.
The Jews preserved the Bible as no other manuscript has ever been preserved. They had special classes of men dedicated to its accurate transmission. 3 The Talmudists, from A.D. 100-500, had an intricate system for transcribing synagogue scrolls, such as this one found at En-Gedi. Every scroll (page) must have contained a certain number of columns, equal throughout. The whole copy first had to be lined and authentic copy was required as the exemplar from which no word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory. Between each consonant the space of a hair must be spaced and many other regulations were imposed to ensure the most precise transmission.3
A concern prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 was “how accurate are the copies we have today compared to the text of the first century?”3 Before that time the oldest manuscript extant dated from 900 A.D. Among the manuscripts found there was a complete scroll of the book of Isaiah dating to 125 B.C, more than 1,000 years older. How different was it from the others since it was written a millennia prior? The exactness of the older to the latter demonstrated the precision of the copyists of Scripture.
Isaiah 53, from which Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:27-38), contained only seventeen letters difference; ten were simply a matter of spelling, four were minor stylistic differences, and three composed the Hebrew word for ‘light’ and does not impact the meaning of the text.3
The Bible you possess today has been divinely preserved and men today may still preach Jesus to others from Isaiah 53, Genesis 3:15, Exodus 12:3-8, etc… While the paper and animal skins upon which God’s word was written may be burned and fade the power of that message endures long after the writers have exited this world. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8).” While technology can now penetrate tattered pages to grasps those ink marks, God’s Word continues to penetrate men’s hearts – the heart that contains His Word will endure forever.
“Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23).”