FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
gleaned from the Scrolls. If this happens, will the new material be used
to buttress the scriptures as being Holy Spirit inspired- or will they
take on the spin of a pre-Christ Christianity, and further contribute to
the taking of Christ out of the Christianity of main-line churches, so
that the role of Jesus is reduced to that of just a teacher or a political
visionary.Since I believe that Jesus taught only what was given unto Him
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what legitimacy should be
given to the Dead Sea Scrolls, if any.Beyond a shadow of a doubt, they are legitimate documents, and not
the result of an incredible forgery, as far as being done shortly before
their discovery. Therefore, we have to look in another direction. Now
that other scholars have access to them, I would think that any
incorrect translations would be revised; which brings us to the
reconstruction of the actual fragments themselves. We have been
forced to rely on the accuracy of de Vaux’s team, and their ability to fit
the quagmire of pieces together into some sort of coherency. It would
seem that gaps in the assembled fragments of text (especially in the
case of the Essene documents) would make it difficult to actually
grasp its full meaning, especially since missing words may have a
bearing on how other words are translated. The complex techniques
utilized in this process have brought very little criticism in regard to its
accuracy.Another point of contention is the procedure used to date the Scrolls.
Carbon-14 dating has long been criticized as being inaccurate.
Originally only the wrapping around them were tested, because they
didn’t want to destroy any text in order to date them. However, new
techniques need less material to achieve the same results. But
remember, what is being dated is the material that was written on. If a
fragment was dated back to 200 BC, there is no way of knowing
whether it was actually written on at that time, or maybe 300 years
later. This knowledge makes it difficult to assume the accuracy of any
dating.We must also take into account, whether or not a document is
describing actual events, or if it is just plain fiction. For example, it is
commonly accepted that some apocryphal books such as Tobit, and