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There is a complete version from 1008 AD 950 AD (Kelley, Mynatt and Crawford, The
that is nearly the same, and fragments of all but Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia,
one book of the entire Old Testament have pp. 15-22). What of the centuries prior to that
been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, period? A fundamental goal of the Masoretes
which are more than 2000 years old" (Michael was to establish a standard Hebrew text from
Drosnin, The Bible Code, p. 38). among at least three competing older textual
traditions, each with its own set of variant
"Jesus Christ, Himself, affirmed that the actual readings numbering in the thousands if not tens
letters composing the Scriptures were directly of thousands. Few of these textual variants af-
inspired by God and were preserved in their fected the substance of the OT. Most involved
precise order throughout eternity" (Grant Jef- differences of spelling and the like that would,
frey, The Signature of God, p. 258). however, affect the number and order of
characters.
"All Bibles in the original Hebrew language
that now exist are the same letter for letter" As to the claim that the Isaiah scroll found
(Michael Drosnin, The Bible Code, p. 194). at Qumran contained "only a handful of single-
letter or punctuation differences," the statement
"When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, is totally false. Over forty-five hundred spell-
including the complete scroll of Isaiah, the ing variants exist between the Isaiah scroll and
most remarkable aspect was the absence of the Masoretic Text (Ernst Wurthwen, The
discrepancies when compared with our current Text of the Old Testament, p. 32). And the
copies of Isaiah. Only a handful of single- claim that the oldest complete manuscript of
letter or punctuation differences were found! It the OT (1008 AD -- Codex Lenengradensis
was this rigor that has preserved the remark- (ibid., p. 35)) is "nearly the same" as the OT
able encodings that are still with us today" books found among the Dead Sea Scrolls is, at
(Chuck Missler, The Cosmic Codes, p. 123). best, completely misleading. As priceless as
the scrolls of Qumran are, a complete copy of
In several of the preceding quotations the the OT HAS NEVER BEEN FOUND. Discov-
key point is missed. The question is not ered at Qumran were one complete Isaiah
whether all present versions of the Hebrew scroll, one almost complete Isaiah scroll, and
text are in agreement, but whether or not they fragments from all the rest of the OT books
preserve the character arrangement as origi- except Esther. The majority of the manuscripts
nally written. Due to the work of a group of found at Qumran were from extra-biblical
Jewish scribes known as Masoretes (from Jewish writings. There is simply insufficient
which the name of the present Hebrew text, the data upon which to claim that the Dead Sea
Masoretic Text, is derived) the Hebrew text Scrolls demonstrate that we have in the Ma-
we use today was indeed "set in stone" hun- soretic Text a pristine copy of the original text
dreds of years ago. The Masoretes established of the Hebrew Bible. Codex Leningradensis
an elaborate system of regulations governing is still the oldest complete manuscript of the
the copying of OT manuscripts. They also entire Hebrew OT in existence.
fixed the meaning of words by inserting vow-
els amongst the consonants. Their efforts were The Key Issue
so successful that textual variants between me-
dieval manuscripts and those printed today are It is to be remembered that the books of the
rare. However, the work of the Masoretes oc- OT were written over a one thousand year pe-
curred between approximately 600 AD and riod from approximately 1400 BC to 400 BC.

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