A project launched by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) seeks to protect all the caves in the region against vandals who might steal any artifacts. The IAA set out on a mission to investigate every cave in the region, and this project has led to some amazing discoveries, (photo: Israel Antiquities Authority).
In the latest, 2,000 year old Biblical fragments were discovered in a Dead Sea Cave. The first such discovery since 1947 and 1950, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a nearby cave.
This new discovery contained two scrolls which are the Biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. They were not complete, but partial scrolls. It is amazing to think how they have survived all these years, just waiting to be discovered.
A Message For Humanity
I found the verses that remained to be so fitting for humanity today. It contained one of two things Jesus told us, if we adhered to, we would follow all of the Law, (Matthew 22:37-40).
The verses are,
Zechariah 8:16-17
16 These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:17 And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.
Truer words of love and peace were never spoken.
Variation Of The Biblical Text
In the fragments, the word “gates” is replaced by the word “streets.”
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The Jerusalem Post reports,
“We had never seen this before,” Dr. Oren Ableman from the IAA said.
It is not uncommon for texts appearing on the Dead Sea Scrolls to be different than the biblical text we know today. Scholars rely on these differences to understand more about how the canonized version of the Bible developed.
“In this manuscript, we can see the effort of the translators to remain closer to the original Hebrew compared to what happened with the Septuagint,” Beatriz Riestra of the IAA Dead Sea Scrolls Unit said, referring to the earliest Greek translation of the Bible from the third century BCE.
God’s name was also found in this Greek text, but His name appeared in the ancient paleo-Hebrew.
“This was probably a way to show the importance of the name of God,” Ableman said.
Roman Arrowheads
Other discoveries include; Roman arrowheads, a 6,000 year old skeleton of a child. In another nearby cave, a basket in remarkable shape that is estimated to be 10,000 years old.
You really should take a moment to follow the link and look at some of the photos. More of history that documents God’s Word. You should be happy and proud of that.