A Solid Basis For Confidence

There is good reason to believe that the Bible has been accurately transmitted down to our day. The evidence consists of existing handwritten manuscripts-an estimated 6,000 of all or portions of the Hebrew Scriptures in Greek. Among these is a Hebrew Scripture manuscript discovered in 947 that exemplifies just how accurate the copying of the Scripture was. It has since been termed "the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times."

While attending his flocks early that year, a young Bedouin shepherd discovered a cave near the Dead Sea. In it he found a number of earthenware jars, most of them empty. However, in one of the jars, which was sealed tight, he found a leather scroll that was carefully wrapped in linen and contained the complete Bible book of Isaiah. This well-preserved but worn scroll showed signs of having been repaired. Little did the young shepherd realize that the ancient scroll he held in his hands would eventually be given worldwide attention.

What was so significant about his particular manuscript? In 1947 the oldest available complete Hebrew manuscripts dated from about the tenth century C.E. But this scroll was dated to the second century B.C.E. -more than a thousand years earlier. Scholars were very interested to find out how this scroll compared with manuscripts produced much later.

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A Book For All People, 1997