The story of
the Ten Commandments is a familiar one. Moses received them on top of Mt. Sinai. (The link takes you to Rembrandt’s 1659 depiction.) Two tablets of stone set forth 10 clear lessons on how to live a good life. What about the rest of The Bible? How did it come to people living in the 21st century?
As far as anyone knows, none of the original material exists anymore. We are left with manuscript copies. Since we don’t have original documents, how do we know those manuscript copies are accurate?
Long before the days of the printing press, Hebrew scribes copied the Scriptures by hand. Their task was sacred; their standard was zero errors. If a single mistake was made, the scroll could not be used.
Before 1947, copies of Hebrew scrolls dated from about the 10th century. But in 1947, the
caves of
Qumran, near the
Dead Sea, yielded a long-lost treasure. Ancient manuscripts that had been
buried for nearly 2,000 years were found.