Five Dead Sea Scroll Surprises Repudiate Centuries Of Tradition

The Dead Sea Scroll surprises which shook the scholarly world still remain unknown to the general public. The Dead Sea Scrolls have completely repudiated some of the most entrenched, long held traditional beliefs about the Christian Bible and the original first century faith. Below are five of the many unexpected findings unearthed in the eleven caves near the Dead Sea.

1. The Old Testament section of the Christian Bible contains what scholars long believed was the only version of the ancient Jewish scriptures. But the Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave four documented the existence of three different versions: A Babylonian version (which is currently used in modern Bibles), an Egyptian version (which was the basis of the Greek Septuagint translation), and a Palestinian version (which was the basis of the Aramaic Peshitta translation). And now here's the shocker: Jesus and his earliest followers quoted from the Egyptian version. That's right, it turns out Jesus and his original followers followed a different version of the Jewish scriptures than is contained in modern Bibles today.

2. For centuries scholars speculated that the Book of Enoch was written after the Biblical book of Jude. This was an important assumption since both Jude and the Book of Enoch share a critical quote. Scholars had long insisted that the Book of Enoch was a later work which quoted Jude. However the Dead Sea Scrolls document the opposite is true. The Book of Enoch preceded Jude. Jude quoted the Book of Enoch - not the other way around. And scholars are still dealing with the theological implications of this new realization.

3. For centuries scholars had been debating the meaning of the Apostle Paul's phrase "the age of Belial." The Dead Sea Scrolls document that this phrase was commonly used by first century Jews. The scrolls also reveal its first century meaning. And the newly discovered meaning happens to turn the modern Christian understanding of Biblical eschatology (predications about future events) upside down.

4. Many of Jesus' teachings appeared unrelated to any known aspect of first Jewish culture. This opened the door for a broad range of speculative interpretation as to the meaning and motivation of even his most central teachings, including his famous Sermon on the Mount. However many of the cultural shortcomings that Jesus was responding to have been found within the Dead Sea Scroll writings. For example, teachings which encourage love of fellow believers and hatred toward unbelievers have been unearthed, shedding a tremendous amount of light on the meaning and motivation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

5. For centuries scholars believed the first century Jews spoke and wrote in Aramaic. They believed the Jewish nation's use of Hebrew was only revived centuries after Christ. However the Dead Sea Scrolls document that Hebrew was a language the first century Jews were intimately familiar with. This new realization has sparked a firestorm of first century Hebraic studies. And this research into Hebrew and Hebraisms is now revealing that many of Jesus' teachings are even opposite of what was believed for almost fifteen hundred years.

The examples above are only the tip of the iceberg. The twentieth century brought with it literally tens of thousands of new pieces of information regarding first century language, culture and Law. The Greek papyri discovered in Egypt, the Hebrew scrolls discovered near the Dead Sea and the Aramaic manuscripts unearthed in Wadi Murabbat are yielding new surprises almost on a daily basis. The world is soon going to learn the historical truth regarding the original Christian faith. But is the religious world ready for it?

Written by Cryptographer Michael Wood, author of Breaking the Romans Code (a book which reveals a newly decoded Dead Sea Scroll which could forever alter the course of the Christian faith).


At age 19 Michael Wood designed REDOC-II, an unbreakable code.

Later he applied his cryptanalytic skills to embedding automated decoding of network traffic into commercial network management software.

He also transferred his cryptanalytic skills to FDA cleared medical biofeedback (by embedding real-time decoding of the human body's parasympathetic nervous system).

Recently he transferred his cryptanalytic skills to the decoding of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

http://www.michaelwoodcrypto.com