Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight program. I’m Rebekah Schipper.
Voice 2
And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
In July 2006, scientists found what they called, “one of the most important discoveries in archaeology in many years.”
What did they find?
Voice 2
Today’s Spotlight is on the discovery of two different ancient writings with similar importance.
Voice 1
In July 2006, a worker was digging near a bog, or wetlands , in Ireland. While digging, he saw something strange. He saw pieces of vellum, animal skin that people wrote on in the past. He could see writing on the vellum. The writing was not in English. The worker could not read it. But, he thought it looked very old. He knew that people do not use vellum to write on anymore. He believed the writing may be important. So, he marked the place. When he returned he brought a team of scientists with him. One of the scientists was Dr. Pat Wallace. Dr. Wallace works for the National Museum of Ireland.
Voice 3
“Nobody has found anything like this for centuries.”
Voice 2
The worker had discovered an ancient text, or writing. Written on the animal skin was a copy of the Book of Psalms, from the Christian Bible. The scientists believe that people recorded this Book of Psalms in the year 800.
Voice 1
When scientists first looked at the writing, they recognized Psalm Eighty-three [83]. In this Psalm, God is listening to the people of Israel. Other nations are looking to destroy Israel. And Israel is looking to God for help. Part of that Psalm says, “Your name is the Lord. Let them know that you alone are the Most High God over the whole earth.”
Dr. Wallace was extremely happy about the find.
Voice 3
“In my wildest hopes, I could only have dreamed of a discovery as rare as this. When we saw it in the bog, we were able to read one of the psalms in the Latin language. It is not so much the pieces that are important. But it is what the pieces represent that is of such great importance. This discovery says something about the great richness of the Early Christian people of Ireland.”
Voice 2
This ancient copy of the Book of Psalms was a wonderful discovery. It made scientists think of a similar discovery in Qumran in 1946.
Voice 1
Lonely. Dry. Rocky. This describes the land of Qumran. Qumran lies just north of the Dead Sea. And it is the place where a small shepherd boy made an important discovery.
Voice 2
In 1946 a small Bedouin shepherd boy was watching his sheep. To the side of him were great walls of rock. Looking up he could see many small caves, or openings in the rock.
Voice 1
As the boy followed along behind his sheep he began to throw stones. One after the other he tossed the stones high into the air. Sometimes he tried to throw his stones into the caves. One particular stone flew through the air right into one of the caves. And the boy heard a loud CRACK!
Voice 2
The boy wanted to see what had made the sound. He climbed up the rocks to the cave. Inside he found a few containers made of earth. Inside the containers the boy discovered pieces of animal skin with words written on them. He did not know it at the time. But, the boy had found the oldest copies of the Bible’s Old Testament. Every book was included, except for the book of Esther. People called this discovery the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Voice 1
Scientists believe the scrolls were written by the Essene people between 200 B.C. and 68 A.D. The Essenes were a Jewish group. They believed in God. And they followed the laws God had given them - the laws in the first five [5] books of the Bible. Most likely they copied the books of the Bible onto the animal skins. They wanted to keep a record of the Bible. Scientists found over eight hundred [800] scrolls in eleven [11] different caves.
Voice 2
Most of the scrolls were written in the Hebrew language. But some were written in Aramaic--the common language for the Jews living at that time in Palestine. Many of the scrolls were in pieces. But, the longest scroll is just over eight [8] metres long. All of the pieces are now kept safe in museums.
Voice 1
Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the writing found in Ireland are important finds. First, they are some of the oldest copies of the Old Testament Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written in the second [2nd] century! And second, the words and meaning are almost exactly the same as later copies of the Old Testament.
Voice 2
For example, scientists compared two [2] copies of the book of Isaiah. They compared the Dead Sea Scrolls to a later copy of the Old Testament called the Masoretic Text. This copy belonged to a group called the Masoretes. They had copied the Old Testament a thousand [1000] years after the Dead Sea Scrolls. Before the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Masoretic Text was the oldest copy of the Old Testament. The scientists decided to compare Isaiah, chapter fifty-three [53]. And they found the two copies to be ninety-five percent [95%] the same! Only seventeen [17] words were different.
Voice 1
But, what does this all mean? Well, the discovery of these two [2] ancient writings from Ireland and Qumran proves that the Old Testament was correctly passed and copied through many years and generations of people. What Christians believe today about the Bible is the same as what people have believed for many many years. The truth of God’s word is as true today as it was yesterday. And it will continue to be as true tomorrow as it is today.
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