Masoretic Meticulously Maintained
The Masoretic text of today is far superior to the unofficial scrolls of the Essene community living in the desolate wilderness.
"Most of the deviations in Isaiah A which do make a difference to the meaning of the text — additions, omissions, and alterations of words and groups of words — simply show, when subjected to critical scrutiny, that the text of this manuscript, ancient as it is, is not so accurate as the traditional text which was received and handed on by Massoretes" (Bruce, p. 64).
The Dead Sea Scrolls do not consistently agree even among themselves! Yet, the more carefully copied material tends to be more like the traditional Masoretic text.
"As for Isaiah B {a partial text of Isaiah}, the differences between its text and that of the Massoretes are fewer and less significant . . . {the scribe} produced a much neater and more accurate piece of work than Isaiah A, which is rather slovenly by comparison" (p. 64).
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THE DEAD SEA SCROLL finds in 1947 were the first discoveries to be made in the area. Since that time, many important documents have been unearthed. For example, the "Temple Scroll," the largest scroll found to date, did not come into Israeli hands until 1967.
The consensus of scholarly research puts the dates of the scrolls to the time preceding the destruction of the Qumran religious community (which preserved the scrolls) in about 68.
All the finds have centered around five major areas:
Khirbet Qumran. This is the area on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea where the original Dead Sea manuscripts were found. Its name comes from the ruins of the ancient Essene Qumran community who copied the material found in the area.
This was a "monastic" group whose religious beliefs caused it to withdraw from the mainstream of Jewish civilization. Members of the ascetic Qumran community even refused to worship at the Temple.
They were completely outside the official body of Jewish scholarship. So, in addition to fragments of every book of the Bible but Esther, archaeologists have found remains of mystical Essene literature, and Jewish apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings. (These latter are made up of historical and theological writings which vary greatly in scholarly value)
Wadi Murabba'at and the Caves of Nahal Hever and Nahal Se'elim.
Both these finds are in the desolate Judean Wilderness west of the Dead Sea. As well as fragments of the Bible, finds in these areas include evidence from the Jewish revolt (132-135). This includes letters from "Bar Kokhba" (Simon ben Koshiba), the leader of the revolt, himself.
Wadi Daliyeh. In this area north of Jericho were found documents left by refugees from Alexander the Great. This material, written during the time 375-334 before this era, is the earliest extensive collection of papyri yet found in the Palestine area.
Masada. The excavation of this ancient Jewish fortress by the famous soldier-archaeologist Yigael Yadin turned up, among other things, material from both the Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha.
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Yet some few critics would still use such slipshod, careless pieces of work in an attempt to "correct" the officially preserved text!
Other Finds Confirm Textual Accuracy
But other Biblical scroll finds from Murabba'at in the Judean wilderness, especially those from the "Bar Kokhba" era (132-135) and from Masada (ancient Jewish fortress which fell in 73), confirm the accuracy of the present text to an even greater degree. Bruce points out that "the Biblical Hebrew texts at Murabba'at conform exactly to the consonantal text preserved by the later Massoretes" (p. 57).
Biblical fragments from Masada "contain a text which, like those of Murabba'at, bear the stamp of the traditional recension, and push back the date of this stabilized Hebrew text to a time no later than the first Jewish revolt" ("Dead Sea Scrolls," Encyclopedia Britannica, 1970 edition).
The finds lend confirmation to what other evidence had told us all along. Ancient and medieval historians have maintained down through the ages that our Hebrew Bible has been accurately handed down from the edition made by Ezra.
The Jewish historian, Josephus, a priest of the scholarly ranks, tells how carefully the Holy Scriptures were preserved. After pointing out how the Hebrew Bible was finally completed in the days of King Artaxerxes of Persia, he states:
"It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time; and how firmly we have given credit to those books of our own nation, is evident by what we do, for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take anything from them, or to make any change in them" (Contra Apion, I, 8).
No wonder the official Jewish community preserved it so faithfully. They venerated the text as divine — and would have considered any alteration a sin in the extreme!
Sectarians and heretics treated the text quite differently.
Qumran Texts Corrupted
The Essene group at Qumran accepted and preserved more than one form of the Bible text. In discussing these variants, one scholar points out "there is one thing which is quite certain: these pages did not have the approval of the Palestinian rabbinic authorities" (H. E. Del Medico, The Riddle of the Scrolls, translated by H. Garner, p. 194).
Another authority tells us: "Moshe Greenberg reminds us that the sect which left us this treasure of manuscripts had rejected the authority of the Jerusalem priesthood and withdrawn from the mainstream of Jewish history. Forms of the text which it was willing to use and copy may have been already rejected by the more orthodox leaders of Judaism" (Burrows, More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 161).
This is how the Jewish authorities viewed the situation. Since these inaccurate Qumran texts were refused approval of the official authorities, they therefore would not have the approval of Israel's God!
We do not have to go to the Qumran scrolls to try to find the Words of Israel's God. That word has been carefully preserved over the centuries, in the officially approved version. And the great importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is this: they confirm the authority of and correctness of the traditional text.
The Positive Contribution
Another valuable contribution made by all the manuscripts is in the matter of language. The scarcity of ancient Hebrew manuscripts makes each additional one, even though fragmentary, potentially of great value. The notable contribution toward Semitic philology, palaeography, and epigraphy of the manuscripts is beyond dispute.
The Scrolls contribute to the total sum of this knowledge, including geographical, historical, and biographical details of the times.
A significant point, which some of the more conservative theologians tend to minimize, is the additional light some of these variant texts throw on Bible understanding itself. Even when realizing the faithful conservation of the Masoretic text, there are some passages which are still not dear.
Some Bible translations will insert footnotes with the statement, "Hebrew obscure" or "passage obscure." The text is not at fault, but the knowledge of how to translate this particular Hebrew idiom is lacking! It is inevitable that the present-day knowledge of ancient Hebrew would be imperfect.
But sometimes in such cases, a variant text, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Septuagint, will give a paraphrase which elucidates the real meaning of the obscure passage. These unofficial paraphrases give us the possible meaning of the official text in some few cases where our knowledge is otherwise deficient.
M. H. Goshen-Gottstein of the Hebrew University explains this important point quite clearly: "The Scrolls help us thus to solve a number of cruces {difficult problems} in the Masoretic text and to gain a deeper insight into it. But we must remember that they only present to us in a clearer light certain facts which are found also in the MT {Masoretic Text}" (Text and Language in Bible and Qumran, p. 87).
Above all, these finds confirm the authenticity of the Bible. Writing specifically of the Qumran Isaiah, Scrolls, Yigael Yadin, famed soldier-archaeologist, gave this summary:
"There is no question that the overwhelming significance of the texts lies in the fact that these scrolls, which are about a thousand years OLDER than any Hebrew text hitherto discovered, vary only slightly from the text as it is known to us and used today. It thus proves the antiquity and authenticity of the Masoretic text" (The Message of the Scrolls, p. 89).
Of this there is no question!
The Masoretic text has been very accurately preserved. But you may say, "That's interesting, but of what real IMPORTANCE is it?"
Why has such painstaking care been taken to maintain the text — and WHO was really responsible?
You need to understand the answers — the reasons. They're made plain in our FREE reprint article, "Do We Have the Complete Bible?" and our booklet Proof of the Bible. Sent only by personal request.