Were the scrolls copied accurately? Did the scribes whom God raised up among the Jews to protect the Scriptures to copy them with fidelity, did they do their job? When they counted every single consonant to see if a consonant had been added or left out of the entire book of Isaiah. When they counted every single word to make sure there was not a word left out and they would indicate the center consonant of every consonant and the center word. They did that because they wanted to ensure accuracy and fidelity. Did it happen?
This is what was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls and one of the most significant contributions that came out of the scrolls was the book of Isaiah. One of the scrolls, there was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah dated about 125 BC. Up until that discovery, the oldest complete copy of Isaiah was 900 AD. In other words almost 1100 year gap between the 125 scroll of Isaiah and the 900 AD scroll of Isaiah.
Now the amazing thing of the Dead Sea Scroll discovery was this. They took the scroll of 125 BC and the scroll that we had the complete copy, 900 AD and they did a comparison. When they finished, they were absolutely amazed at the accuracy.
Over a thousand year gap with the accuracy of the scroll from 900 AD with the scroll of Isaiah of 125 BC. In fact, in one chapter of 166 words in Isaiah, in a thousand years of transcription, there were only three letters that were different and it was a letter that made up the word “light”. After one thousand years.
This is one reason why I just came to the obvious conclusion to me that I could take the Scriptures, hold them in my hand and say, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” Oh I thank God for the Jewish scribes – for all their discipline, their dedication, their commitment to accuracy. So that we have the Scriptures that we have today, that have been faithfully transmitted down through the years. God went out of His way to give us the confidence, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
Were the scrolls copied accurately? Did the scribes whom God raised up among the Jews to protect the Scriptures; to copy them with fidelity; did they do their job? Did they make mistakes when they counted every single consonant to see if a consonant had been added or left out of the entire book of Isaiah? Did they make a mistake when they counted every single word to make sure that not one word was left out of the Old Testament? Did they accurately indicate the center consonant of every consonant in the Old Testament and the center word? They did these disciplines because they wanted to ensure accuracy and fidelity. Did it happen?
This is what was discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls; and made one of the most significant contributions; and came out of the scrolls of the book of Isaiah. One of the scrolls was a complete copy of the book of Isaiah dated about 125 BC. Up until that discovery, the oldest complete copy of Isaiah was 900 AD. In other words almost 1100 year gap between the 125 scroll of Isaiah and the 900 AD scroll of Isaiah.
One of the amazing things of the Dead Sea Scroll discovery was this. They compared every part of the scroll of 125 BC and the scroll from 900 AD. When they finished, they were absolutely amazed at the accuracy.
There is over a thousand year gap between the scroll from 900 AD with the scroll of Isaiah of 125 BC. How accurate is the later scroll? After a thousand years of transcription in one chapter of 166 words in Isaiah, there were only three letters that were different. It was a letter that made up the word “light”. This is after one thousand years!
This accuracy is one reason why I came to the obvious conclusion that I could take the Scriptures and hold them in my hand and say, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” Oh, I thank God for the Jewish scribes – for all their discipline, their dedication, their commitment to accuracy. The Scriptures we have today have been faithfully transmitted down through the years. God went out of His way to give us the confidence, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
SUMMARY: When questions about the accuracy of the Old Testament arise check out the scribes whom God raised up among the Jews to protect the Scriptures when copying them. In the new copy they made they would counted every letter, mark the center letter and count every word and mark the center word. When the book of Isaiah from 125 BC was compared with the copy from 900 AD, that is a 1,100 year gap, in one chapter of 166 words in Isaiah there were only three letters that were different and it was letters that made up the word “light.” Thank God for the Jewish scribes for all of their discipline, their dedication and their commitment to accuracy. God went out of His way to give us the confidence to say, “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
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