Day 2506 – Theology Thursday –Do The Dead Sea Scrolls Answer the Canon Question – I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible

Welcome to Day 2506 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday – Do The Dead Sea Scrolls Answer the Canon Question? – I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible. Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2506 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2506 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.   Today is the thirty-first lesson in our segment, Theology Thursday. Utilizing excerpts from a book titled: I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible written by Hebrew Bible scholar and professor the late Dr. Michael S Heiser, we will invest a couple of years going through the entire Bible, exploring short Biblical lessons that you may not have received in Bible classes or Church. The Bible is a wonderful book. Its pages reveal the epic story of God’s redemption of humankind and the long, bitter conflict against evil. Yet it’s also a book that seems strange to us. While God’s Word was written for us, it wasn’t written to us. Today’s lesson is: Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Answer the Canon Question? The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered between 1947 and 1956, transformed biblical studies. Found in a series of caves near an archaeological site on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea known as Qumran, they contributed to research on ancient scribal practices and the history of the Hebrew language. But beyond this research, the scrolls also directly affected an issue that has long been debated—the Old Testament canon. Did this find solidify what should or should not be included in our Bibles? The word “canon” refers to the collection of books considered sacred and authoritative by a religious community—in this case, Judaism and Christianity. Historical evidence reveals that within the Jewish community, there was still uncertainty about some books (e.g., Esther and the Song of Solomon) or portions of books (Ezekiel 40-48) after ad 100. The question of whether Jewish leaders of earlier centuries had similar doubts—or different ones—was shrouded in mystery before the discoveries at Qumran. Fragments of all the Old Testament books in the current Protestant evangelical canon have been found among the scrolls—all except the book of Esther. However, its omission by the Jewish community at Qumran does not indicate much about its canonical position today. The omission of the book tells us nothing about how the Qumran community actually felt about Esther. The Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in modern times are only a fraction of the material originally stored at Qumran. The ravages of time have left us with an incomplete picture, nullifying such a definitive conclusion. In addition, the Jews at Qumran were one sect of Judaism among several. Even if there was evidence that they had rejected Esther, that position would have represented only a segment of opinion. Even today, major segments of modern Christendom do not agree on the canon.- That certain books meet approval or disapproval provides no guidance as to which opinion is correct. Beyond this, Qumran scribes often indicated a book’s sacred status by citing the book as authoritative for some point of belief or practice in their community documents. They also indicated a book’s sacred status through produced commentaries. However, not every biblical book of today’s Old Testament canon meets this criterion. For example, Judges, Jeremiah, and Job are never cited in...