More Observations on the Stone Dead Sea Scroll Text

Bock's Blog ^ | 7/08/2008 | Darrell L. Bock

[Oyarsa]

More Observations on the Stone Dead Sea Scroll Text July 8, 2008 (from Taiwan)

By bock - Posted on July 8th, 2008

am writing from Taiwan, but I am not immune to the news about the new Stone "Dead Sea Scroll".

I have made available by link in the News We Are Watching window Time's latest article on this. Thanks to Craig Blomberg for noting where access to the text can be found. The BAR site also in the News We Are Watching window gives access to both English and to the Hebrew text. Now you do not have to go to the helpful MSN article Craig cites to get a look at the text. Go to the site and look at the text for yourself in English or in Hebrew (or both). It will save as a pdf file afteryou request it.

The key part of the text is here:

[xzins]

Bugg/XS, do either of you have any background and/or impressions on this 'stone'?

69. Thus He said, (namely,) YHWH of Hosts, the Lord of Israel …:
70. Prophets have I sent to my people, three. And I say
71. that I have seen …[…]…
72. the place for the sake of(?) David the servant of YHWH[ …]…[…]
73. the heaven and the earth. Blessed be …[…]
74. men(?). “Showing mercy unto thousands”, … mercy […].
75. Three shepherds went out to?/of? Israel …[…]
76. If there is a priest, if there are sons of saints …[…]
77. Who am I(?), I (am?) Gabri’el the …(=angel?)… […]
78. You(?) will save them, …[…]…
79. from before You, the three si[gn]s(?), three …[….]
80. In three days …, I, Gabri’el …[?],
81. the Prince of Princes, …, narrow holes(?) …[…]…
82. to/for … […]… and the …
83. to me(?), out of three - the small one, whom(?) I took, I, Gabri’el.
84. YHWH of Hosts, the Lord of(?)[ Israel …]…[….]
85. Then you will stand …[…]…
86. …\
87. in(?) … eternity(?)/… \

[Quix]

Thanks.

Fascinating, for sure.

Precursor prediction, sounds like, to me.

[xzins]

I’m not even sure it’s authentic yet. Buggs will know.

[Quix]

I realize that research is ongoing.

But what I heard on C2C the other night was fairly convincing, to me.

Time will tell.

Thx.

[xzins]

I’m not familiar with it at all. This article is the first I’ve heard of it.

[Buggman]

The stone has been authenticated--meaning, it's not fake, and it so far seems to be from the time before Yeshua walked the earth. What it means is open to debate.

Here is a blog post which links to a number of articles about the stone, for those who want to pursue the matter.

From the New York Times article on the stone (which gives a fairly good overview):

Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language, the text dated from the late first century B.C.

. . .

A chemical examination by Yuval Goren, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University who specializes in the verification of ancient artifacts, has been submitted to a peer-review journal. He declined to give details of his analysis until publication, but he said that he knew of no reason to doubt the stone’s authenticity.

A few in the Christian world may find it "shocking" that the concept that the Messiah would die and rise again in three days predated Yeshua. (William Lane Craig may need to revise his apologetic that the disciples of Yeshua came to a "unjewish" belief, for example.) But most of the reaction has been excitement--it establishes Yeshua's roots in His native culture even further.

There are, of course, those who are trying to claim that the Apostles just "copycatted" an earlier Messianic figure. That doesn't fly: First, the earlier proposed figure, Simon, failed to actually rise from the dead. Second, an antecedent doesn't explain how the disciples--and a significant number of Jerusalem's population, came to believe that Yeshua's grave was empty and that He had walked around with them for forty days after his death. And third, we have all sorts of antecedents for such an event: It's called prophecy.

There will always be those who will attempt to twist this into an attack on Christianity. But based on the evidence that we actually have so far, this is actually a great find for faith in Yeshua the Messiah, demonstrating that the belief that an individual might be Resurrected before the general Resurrection of the Dead in the eschaton indeed predated a small band of women followers finding an empty tomb guarded by angels.

Shalom!

[Quix]

AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

THANKS BIG.

[xzins]

Good review, buggs. Thanks.

[Uri’el-2012]

Bugg/XS, do either of you have any background and/or impressions on this 'stone'?

I look to BAR for authenticity.

shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai

[fproy2222]

Brigham Young University is doing a lot on reading and filming of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and making copies available to those who want them.

You can find more information on how to read them here:

http://dssel.byu.edu/dssel/default.htm

[redgolum]

If you look at contemporary Jewish traditions from the time of Christ, there was a lot of people that expect Jesus to do what He did. Many of the early Christian writers talked of this.

But they were not in the power structure, or very popular. Many people really wanted a Messiah who would kill all the Romans and enslave the Gentiles. Which goes to show that people are the same today as they were back then.

[Quix]

Interesting.

Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]