Dead Sea Scrolls

So I had a chance to view the actual Dead Sea Scrolls at the Science Museum of Minnesota. It was very cool, especially at a place of science. It was a mixed bag of emotions. It was hard to believe I was looking at items from the region and time of Jesus, in some ways Jesus became more real. I also didn't realize that there were more than books of the Bible in the clay pots, but other popular religious writings of the time. I guess it would be the equivalent of putting a copy of 'The Purpose Driven Life" or the latest Andy Stanley message in a time capsule along with a Bible. I also learned the Scrolls weren't immediately accepted or seen as valuable and were even smuggled to america and offered for sale to Duke University for $1 million, but they declined. They were later sold for $250,000 in an add in the paper and returned to their home in Israel.

A final thing I learned again both strengthened my faith, but also gave me more questions. In the scrolls there was a copy of all but one book from our version of the old testament and they're nearly identical to the versions we have today. This rocks! What doesn't rock is the small discrepancies like the fact that their book of Psalms has 7 extra chapters and references hundreds of more in other volumes. It also has a few extra books, anybody up for a reading from the Book of Noah? I guess I can just take the view that our Bible is the pure word of God, but perhaps other parts were lost over time? Maybe the scrolls were from a sect that had a few parts wrong and it was part of God's plan to have those books and parts of books lost? Well my head hurts from thinking of such things. Overall it was a faith strengthening experience and if you ever have a chance to catch such an exhibit I highly recommend it!