Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Dead Sea Scrolls online for free!

Looks like everyone will be able to see the Dead Sea Scrolls if this story is on the mark. For free no less. Of course the scrolls were a fascinating discovery, but the hype and the frenzy, and the myth that remains in the minds of some, turned out to be a dud. Much to the disappointment of many, the scrolls merely showed a remarkable accuracy rate for ancient texts, especially when set in juxtaposition to the development and transmission of other ancient writings. Many had hoped it would prove, once and for all, that the Bible had been so manhandled that if you could find ancient copies, it would prove that half the stories had been turned upside down. Not so much. The Dead Sea Scrolls showed that the Hebrew scriptures had been copied and transmitted with as much love and meticulous detail as the New Testament Scriptures. And despite what some, such as Bart Ehrman, would have us believe, that is an amazingly accurate track record that our own modern times would do well to emulate.

8 comments:

  1. Great! This was truely an amazing discovery. God is amazing!

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  2. Have you actually read Ehrman? He spells out how many mistakes are in the New Testament. You would have to be desperate or a fool to see it other than a fairy tale.

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  3. I say to you that yes I would imagine he has read Ehrman if he is referring to it.
    Have you read the New Testament? You obviously have nothing but contempt for those of faith. You said in an earlier comment that you didn't think Christians were being persecuted. Well - you may not have any hold on me but my faith was just persecuted by your comment - might I even say you are bullying Dave G. here? Cyberbullying does come in so many different forms. If your comment was to me- then I will ignore your comments on this post from now on and let others discuss things with a bully - NOT ME! Please think before you write- to say my faith is a fairy tale is call "PERSECUTION". So if you feel that Christians in America are not being persecuted why dont' you look at your own comments for awhile. Look in the mirror and ask yourself "Am I a Cyberbully?"

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  4. Cyberbullying! If you can't handle criticism of your faith, then maybe you are the one who should stop posting. It's not cyberbullying to debate an issue, or to disagree with a belief. It's not even cyberbullying to disagree with a fact. If you want to say there is no gravity, go ahead. I can think you are a fool for doubting it. But don't sit there and think you can hide behind a threat of cyberbullying just because you haven't addressed the substance of the issue.

    My post was aimed at Dave G. He either hasn't read Ehrman, or didn't understand what he read. Judging from his other posts, that latter is probably not too much of stretch to imagine. But if you think that someone saying your faith is false is persecution, then you obviously have never known what it is to be persecuted.

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  5. I'm willing to say Anon. went overboard by suggesting your comment was cyberbullying, if you are willing to concede that various outlets, like CNN, trying to suggest that saying anything critical of homosexuality equates to bullying are equally wrong. That would be fair enough.

    As for the rest, yes I read and understood Ehrman. I happen to like him from what I've seen. Part of my response comes from graduate school. I studied the NT, Greek, and the history of the compilation of the NT texts. Ehrman's problem is he assumes the entire Christian world sees things as a Protestant Fundamentalist who believes that God dropped the Bible in our laps in the King's English. Because of that, he therefore assumes anything contrary to that is a smoking gun. It isn't. Most of his arguments are well known by believers, especially scholars. Several are also based either on a sleight of hand, or on turning the world of literary scholarship on its head. Neither of which I feel gives weight to his ultimate argument that the NT is clearly a flawed document.

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  6. Ah you said you can think I am a fool but it is called bullying in the media when you call someone names so since you called Dave G names you are a bully by their definition of bully and are no better than people who called the kid "gay"
    If you will be cordial I will debate with you, but if you continue to do things such as this on a blog that is clearly about "Christian' beliefs and choose to come in call what we believe a fairy tale then I am afraid you are nothing but trying to pick a fight and in all instances that is a bully.
    Would you do the same to a Muslim or a Jew. Thinking before you write may do you some good. Didn't you even learn any mannors or do you just get you kicks off of calling ones faith "fairy tales"
    So Now I leave it to Dave G. He can say what he wishes, but by all definitions - though I dont' believe you have any clue what a definition of bully is - maybe you never experienced it- you are a bully.

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  7. "I studied the NT, Greek, and the history of the compilation of the NT texts."

    Where did you study? Any graduate school will teach you that the greek manuscripts have endless errors in them. Entire stories are added. Plus the gospels are nothing but mythology in the first place, and present the story of Jesus based upon hundreds of similar myths of the ancient world. If Anon, or you, or any believer can't accept that, then your faith is based on denial.

    Anon.

    Whoever you are, there is a difference between telling someone that they are foolish for believing something that any rational person would reject, and telling someone else that they are subhuman and unworthy of the same rights we are given by the Constitution. If you think that is rude, then you must be offended by truth.

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  8. The errors are, for the most part, minor and insignificant. There are a few, but that doesn't impact the Historic churches (Orthodox/Catholic). They don't see the Bible the same way as Protestants. Most of the secular criticisms of the Bible only work if we assume all Christians are Protestant fundamentalists. Otherwise, they are of no real concern.

    As for the 'Gospels were like Myths', first of all they weren't. Gospels were their own genre of literature, similar in some cases, but unlike other mythical stories in others. Plus, that only counts if the Gospels were the foundation of the faith. They weren't. They were written to explain a faith already embraced, and shown in the earliest Christian writings - the letters. And the letters in no way read like classical mythology, but as statements of fact. So that entire point, much lauded by modern secularists, is actually quite pointless.

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