Friday, September 30, 2011

Google and The Dead Sea Scrolls


This may not interest a lot of people, but I found it fascinating when I read about it a couple of days ago on the Net. Then I saw it on the evening world news on TV a day later. We can now see The Dead Sea Scrolls online. They have been digitized by Google. (If you are interested in seeing them, the link is: http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/ I took a couple of screen shots to show you here.)

One reason I was especially interested in this is our youngest son, Brandon, and son-in-law, Dan, both worked for Google in their scanning department. They were scanning the complete library of The University of Michigan. Unfortunately, they were not permanent positions. A person could only work for Google in the scanning department for two years, and then they had to leave.

 
The second and more important reason I find this fascinating is now any of us who are truly interested in whether the Bible has been translated accurately can look at the Dead Sea Scrolls online. I know I will never have a chance to see them in person.

Many years ago, a friend of mine gave me a copy of The Jerusalem Bible.  That translation received a lot of attention at that time, because it was authorized for use by the Catholic Church. The big change was that God's name had been put back in every place it had been taken out. It proved that God's name was not Jesus, but as shown in Hebrew in The Jerusalem Bible, Yahweh. The English equivalent is Jehovah. It can be found in the original translation of The King James Version of the Bible at Psalm 83:18.

That [men] may know that thou, whose name alone [is] JEHOVAH, [art] the most high over all the earth.

Many "newer" translations of the Bible have removed God's name from there, too, replacing it with LORD. The importance of The Dead Sea Scrolls is, anyone can see that God's name was indeed in the older scrolls. It is found written in the form known as the Tetragrammaton. It raises the question, why did the Catholic Church turn around and take God's name back out? The version that is now authorized for use by Catholics is The New Jerusalem Bible. You will not find God's name in it. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Bill. One day i mean to read them.
very interesting post.
take care for now
June

bluegiraffe (Sherry) said...

Thanks for posting this, Bill! I may actually get to see the Scrolls later this year. If all goes well, we're going to Israel for my niece's wedding.

M said...

How fascinating! Thanks for sharing this.

Junibears said...

I found that very interesting.
We shall never know why 'they' removed the name of God.
I've always been interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls but I'm afraid I'm not a translator.
It reminds me of the Essene Scrolls and I have a book of the Gospel of the Essenes which I shall start reading again.
Hugs xx

Anonymous said...

Hey Bill,

I went to the website too. It's fascinating.