Dead Sea Scroll Discovery & Birth of the Nation Mere Coincidence?

"The discovery at Qumran is the kind of miracle modern science has taught us not to recognize. The fact that these scrolls, hidden in a cave circa AD 70, when Rome was crushing the last of the Zealots, were not found for two thousand years, until a Jewish army was fighting for a Jewish nation--well, it's uncanny... 'It's as if these manuscripts had been waiting from the destruction of Israel's independence until the Jewish people returned to their home and regained their freedom.' "  - Rich Cohen, Israel is Real, 236.

Qumran, Goats & The Dead Sea Scrolls

Qumran is at the very north-west tip of the Dead Sea. It's the place where the Essene community hung out, and whose scribes produced the famous Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947.

A couple of Bedouin boys were trying to get their goats down from a cliff and threw stones at them (DISCLAIMER: this blog does not endorse any forms of animal cruelty except for the purposes of discovering sacred biblical texts).

The rocks the boys threw entered a cave and hit clay pots. Or perhaps it was the goats hitting the pots, but sounding like rocks. Whatever the case, the rest is history.

The value of the DSS for the Bible can't be overstated. Prior to their discovery, the earliest manuscripts of the Old Testament were from the middle ages. The DSS manuscripts, dating from the time of Christ, were a full 1000 years older. So now we could compare and trace an additional 1000 years of manuscript tradition using manuscripts that were that much closer to the original, and see how reliable the text was and is. The conclusion? The copyists were scrupulously careful and we have even more basis for full confidence in the integrity of the text.

Pretty cool to be able to see the actual cave of the original discovery. It's right behind me in the photo above, and here's a closeup.