Isaiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Isaiah scrolls found at Qumran closed that gap to within 500 years of the original manuscript. Interestingly, when scholars compared the MT of Isaiah to the Isaiah scroll of Qumran, the correspondence was astounding. The texts from Qumran proved to be word-for-word identical to our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent of variation consisted primarily of obvious slips of the pen and spelling alterations (Archer, 1974, p. 25). Further, there were no major doctrinal differences between the accepted and Qumran texts (see Table 1 below). This forcibly demonstrated the accuracy with which scribes copied sacred texts, and bolstered our confidence in the Bible’s textual integrity (see Yamauchi, 1972, p. 130). The Dead Sea Scrolls have increased our confidence that faithful scribal transcription substantially has preserved the original content of Isaiah.
Qumran Vs. The Masoretic Text
Of the 166 Hebrew words in Isaiah 53, only 17 letters in Dead Sea Scroll 1QIsb differ from the Masoretic Text.2
10 letters = spelling differences
4 letters = stylistic changes
3 letters = added word for “light” (verse 11)
17 letters = no affect on biblical teaching
References
Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Rev. ed. Chicago: Moody, 1974, p. 25
Yamauchi, Edwin (1972), The Stones and the Scriptures: An Evangelical Perspective (New York: Lippincott).
Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible Rev. Chicago: Moody, 1986, p. 382
Copyright Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Taken from: “The Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Integrity” by Garry K. Brantley, M.A., M.Div. http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/266
