I am writing from Taiwan, but I am not immune to the news about the new Stone "Dead Sea Scroll".
I have made available by link in the News We Are Watching window Time's latest article on this. Thanks to Craig Blomberg for noting where access to the text can be found. The BAR site also in the News We Are Watching window gives access to both English and to the Hebrew text. Now you do not have to go to the helpful MSN article Craig cites to get a look at the text. Go to the site and look at the text for yourself in English or in Hebrew (or both). It will save as a pdf file afteryou request it.
The key part of the text is here:
69. Thus He said, (namely,) YHWH of Hosts, the Lord of Israel …:
70. Prophets have I sent to my people, three. And I say
71. that I have seen …[…]…
72. the place for the sake of(?) David the servant of YHWH[ …]…[…]
73. the heaven and the earth. Blessed be …[…]
74. men(?). “Showing mercy unto thousands”, … mercy […].
75. Three shepherds went out to?/of? Israel …[…]
76. If there is a priest, if there are sons of saints …[…]
77. Who am I(?), I (am?) Gabri’el the …(=angel?)… […]
78. You(?) will save them, …[…]…
79. from before You, the three si[gn]s(?), three …[….]
80. In three days …, I, Gabri’el …[?],
81. the Prince of Princes, …, narrow holes(?) …[…]…
82. to/for … […]… and the …
83. to me(?), out of three - the small one, whom(?) I took, I, Gabri’el.
84. YHWH of Hosts, the Lord of(?)[ Israel …]…[….]
85. Then you will stand …[…]…
86. …\
87. in(?) … eternity(?)/… \
The lines generating the discussion are 80-87. One can see in the context how the number three is important to this text (see lines 70, 75, 79, 80, 83). There is a lot to be filled in here making any reading suspect. This is the nature of ancient texts sometimes. The words with a question mark (?) are not even certain themsleves, making matters even more unclear. The use of ... means there are gaps in the text, so those words are not legible. Translation placign words here have filled them in and are conjecture.
Now the key to the claim is reading line 85 "Then you shall stand" as "you shall be raised," as well as connecting it to the remarks and figures of the previous lines. The previous lines with their gaps make all of this conjecture, not to mention that line 86 is completely missing so that whatever link exists to eternity, which itself is not clear as the word intended, also is not clear.
That is where we stand given what has been released to the public. I have looked at the Hebrew and the English renderings from BAR in making these observations.
If the analysis is true, this is very helpful to Messianic Jews who argue that their view of the Messiah is rooted in Judaism and not foreign.
Glenn:
Yes, that might be true depnding on how it worked. But the evidence we have right now is too flimsy to go there.
dlb
I remember watching a Dead Sea Scrolls documentary in which they use radio imaging technology to find missing text (or to highlight faint text/letters) that weren't visible to the eye. Can they use something like this on this stone? Perhaps we could find the missing letters?
Edgar
Edgar:
It is possible. It is still early in the discusion. If this were feasible (we have stone here, not papyrus), it woudl likely have been tried already.
dlb
Might we have another Talpiot Tomb here? You know, where the media gets all hyped up on this one scholars opinion. Nevertheless, it is a serious find brought forth by a serious scholar. The debates in these followng months ought to be good.
At least they didn't wait until Easter next year to reveal it right? :)
On not waiting til Easter: True enough!
dlb
Concerning the actual stone itself, is it not extremely problematic to the overall theory that a)the New Testament itself doesnt seem to portray anyone expecting a ressurected messiah (besides Jesus himself) and b) there are plenty of conversations concerning messiahship going on in the period before, during, and after the first century and essentially none of them refer to a messiah like figure who dies and is ressurected, excluding, of course, Christian sources?
Do the claims that this is about messianic expectations come from the reference to David? Is it possible it is about a renewal of Israel as a political entity rather than an individual messiah?
Steve:
No the claim is rooted in a supposed Messiah tied to Ephraim and a son of Joseph. These connections are not clear, not to mention the lack of clear connections in the text itself.
dlb
Dead Sea Products
I find this all very interesting. Thank you for enlighting me.
Nancy
Post new comment