The Bible For Normal People Episode 210: Sidnie White Crawford - What You Really Need to Know about the Dead Sea Scrolls
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Jun 20, 2022 AI Snips
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Essence of Dead Sea Scrolls
- The Dead Sea Scrolls are a monumental find of Hebrew manuscripts from a Jewish sect, likely the Essenes, living near Qumran from about 175 BCE to 68 CE.
- They provide the largest collection of Jewish texts from the Second Temple period, overlapping with Jesus' lifetime and early Christianity.
Dating Manuscripts Precisely
- Manuscript dating relies on paleography, studying handwriting styles that changed slowly, enabling dates within about 50 years.
- Carbon-14 dating of some scrolls aligns with paleographic dating, confirming date ranges from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE.
Fluidity of Early Biblical Texts
- Early biblical texts were fluid with variations in order, length, and wording; for example, Psalms had different orders and extra psalms.
- This fluidity shows texts were still evolving during the Second Temple period, not yet fully fixed as in later tradition.