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Dead Sea Scrolls To Go Digital On Internet
mernil writes to mention that the Dead Sea Scrolls are headed for the internet. The Israel Antiquities Authority, custodians of the scrolls, plan on digitizing the 900 fragments to make them available to the public via the internet. Unfortunately they are claiming the project will take somewhere in the neighborhood of two years to complete.
I love FICTION!
Buanzo Consulting - 15 Years of GNU/Linux experience, for you.
My big concern is over the principle that once these are made publicly digitally available, they will be easily tampered with. How are we going to be able to validate the good copies from the publicly tampered ones?
So what? You're talking about a religion that has had its primary texts re-written countless times over the centuries, already. Nobody today can point at any kind of original "Bible". Whether or not these are "accurate" is pretty irrelevant, even if you're somebody who is Christian/Jewish.
I don't respond to AC's.
We can typically defend our belief with reason and solid premises rather than some strong emotional tie to it.
Feel free to begin anytime. I'm willing to bet that you can't.
You don't have to share the beliefs of the writers of it to understand that this is an immensely important piece of history.
It's not important for anything other than an old curiosity. I'd wipe my ass with it on camera just to see the reaction of the religious nuts.
> the fact that the text as we have it today differs little from the original.
Oh please.
- Gen 1:1 The creation myth comes from the Summerians
- Gen 8:1 The flood comes from the Summerian story of Gilgamesh
- The 10 Commandments come from the Egyption Book of the Dead
- Psalms shows many parallels with the Vedic Hyms
- John 1:1 "Logos" comes from the "Pagan" Greeks (Plato)
- In 1707, John Mill demonstrated 30,000 various readings from 80 manuscripts
- Regarding the Codex Bezae, Dr. Vincent Taylor writes that: "It is characterized by a series of remarkable omissions in Luke, especially in chapters XXII and XXIV, and by many striking additions and variations in the Acts"
- Adam Clarke Commentary on 1 John 5:7 states that: "But it is likely this verse is not genuine. It is wanting in every manuscript of this letter written before the invention of printing, one excepted, the Codex Montfortii, in Trinity College, Dublin: the others which omit this verse amount to one hundred and twelve. It is missing in both the Syriac, all the Arabic, Aethiopic, the Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, Slavonian, etc., in a word, in all the ancient versions but the Vulgate; and even of this version many of the most ancient and correct MSS. have it not. It is wanting also in all the ancient Greek fathers; and in most even of the Latin".
I could go own, but I'll let this article on Biblical Corruption provide with more references.
And I'm not even going to get into the fact that "The Book of Enoch" was the 3rd most popuplar book found in the Dead Sea Scrolls -- which starts the debate of WHO decides what even is scripture?
Originals my ass.
ALL the religions have their strenghts and weaknesses, but originality is not their strength.
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You will never understand what happens during Life if you don't even understand what happens after Death.