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Originally posted by CocoNut:
Dead sea scrolls?
What is hidden??
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Ibrahim says: Greetings of Peace to one and all
The Dead Sea scrolls…. ( summary)
** What is this stuff? Some kind of a sea food?**
Well, these are writings, that had been written (believed to be) at about 150 B.C till about 68 AD and hidden in caves, at Qumran near the region of the Dead Sea, located about 15 miles from Jerusalem. ** (Sorry folks, was there a Jerusalem? **At that time?, well if the letter "J" did not exist in Hebrew, how could there be one? So it was actually "Yerusalem")
** What's so great about some writings? **
Well, since we know that our current Gospel was actually put together at about 325 AD (current Torah is actually dated 1008 AD) and have no surviving original manuscripts that could be dated at about the time of Christ, this scrolls are the oldest manuscripts available for mankind to retrace and verify the accuracy of the current Bible.
** How did they get hidden in caves? **
Now, you don't expect us to tell you for sure, do you? Get real will you! This took place some 2000 years ago. Can you honestly recall everything you did 3, 6, 12 years ago? Please just try ! , then ask your parents to try and recall what you used to do, now try asking your friends, then try asking your wife or neighbor. get it ! Have you noticed how accurate the media is in reporting an event? Most autobiographies is normally recorded in favour of certain individuals and events. Could anyone honestly write about how you think, feel, behaved, sinned, slept, ate etc? History itself had been re-written, many times. Get the picture? Now, We could sort of give you some kind of a picture based on the history records (which is full of holes) at that period, but it is debatable, anyway we will give it a try based on what little we know.
From the miracle of Christ's birth (preached as an infant) and from his knowledge of the Torah, which he would have imparted (confirmed) to the public from his birth, divisions would have arose from those who held to the Torah as taught by the wicked priests and the Torah imparted by Christ, his Mother , his Priestly Relations and Yahya (John the Baptist) . These corrected teachings would have serious implications for the wicked priesthood and the Roman authorities that were in control of Yerusalem. The aggressions and corrupt practices of the priest are clearly recorded in the scrolls as well as the current Bible. Since the priests who held power at Yerusalem were in close concert with the governing Roman (pagan) authorities, it would be easy for them to alter the Torah, isolate and persecute the pious Priests, Christ , his priestly family members and his followers, including John (sorry folks no "J" remember, so his name was Ioannen, as recorded in Greek texts or as Yahya as recorded in Arabic texts) the Baptist who had been preaching and had been driven out of Yerusalem (the calling in the desert).
Since the Elders ( Pious Levi priests) would have been forced out gradually, they would have ensured that the property entrusted to them (tithes, the ark of the covenant and accumulated temple wealth ) was hidden, away from the temple and the caves at Qumran, would have been an ideal place for these purpose, if they had failed , it would mean that the wicked priests who were actually puppets of the Roman empire, would have got a hold of the property entrusted to them. (They had managed to do this from the writings which reveal the 64 locations, where they had hidden the property belonging to the temple as written in the copper scroll, that was found in these caves)
** So it goes without saying, persecution generally leads to isolation and thus a hidden community ( in the desert) had to be formed in order to establish correct temple worship, to survive and also to reveal the Truth that had been hidden by the wicked Priests, who had occupied and corrupted the temple at Yerusalem.**
This Qumran community had to live by the Torah. This Qumran community should have consisted of the Elders ( the true and Pious Levi lineage) Yahaya (John), Esa (Jesus) and their disciples , plus the most trusted followers who were able to understand the corruption of the Torah, by the wicked priests at Yerusalem. This communities main purpose, would off course be to live by the Torah ( establish correct temple worship) and fulfill God's commandments and off course to reach out to their brethren, to save them and to reveal the truth about the priests and re-capture the temple at Yerusalem.
Being hidden this community would also consist mainly of males as the women and children would be much safer living in their own homes in the towns and the work at hand was more a question of propagation (redirection) to the masses and family life would be better kept separately for their own safety at least and also because women’s monthly periods would make them impure for staying too close to the temporary temple being built at Qumran. ( which should have held the ark of the covenant, that disappeared before the Romans try to enter the temple). Secrecy would have been the name of the game, so no names, no identity were revealed to anyone, if the wicked priest knew the people responsible, they could have used the roman authorities to persecute the entire family lineage)
This Qumran community had to form elaborate rules for everything including rules for actually joining this congregation, anyone who wanted to join had to be observed for a period of two years before being admitted into the mainstream of the community. This provided security as well as insurance against corruption of the teachings. This meant that new recruits had to live outside (away from the main community hall, which would be the temporary temple, until the temple at Yerusalem can be purified and the corrupted priests be punished) the community in caves that had to be curved out by these recruits who had wanted to join the community. ( it would also be probable that in order to maintain secrecy the new recruits would be brought to this location blind folded such that if they left or were found to be a spy, before their probation term, they will not know its location or the contents of the temple or the names of the elders)
Sometime before 68 AD, the wicked priests were able to convince (or force) one of the disciples of Christ to identify him and thus enabling them to make an attempt on his life. Although Christ had been preaching at various locations, very few seem to know his identity or his movements. Anyway, this event is currently assumed as the crucifixion of Christ, immediately Christ would have been saved from that situation and it was made to look as if they had actually hanged the Christ. Thus the temple at Yerusalem was destroyed by the CREATOR (earthquake) for this un-relenting action taken by the wicked priests against the sign of the CREATOR. (This destruction of the temple is recorded in the current Gospel)
This turn of events (loss of Christ and the destruction of the temple), would have let to a revolt by the Jews against the Roman empire, who would have assumed that it was the Romans who had destroyed their temple followed up by the Romans, who must have decided to eradicate the Jewish nation once and for all, hence, Jews all over the land would have been slaughtered, remaining Jews would have decided to flee, some would have regrouped at the Masada, which was the last stronghold for the Jews. But since those who lived at Qumran had also to flee in order to protect their families who would be living with the town folk, (Fundamentally being spiritual they would have also decided to protect their brethren against the Romans, who were their pagan masters) they would have hidden the scrolls in the caves in order to protect them from the Roman onslaught, hoping that they will be able to return to the scrolls, plus to their valuable property that also would have been hidden in various locations. (in addition to the temple wealth, that is hidden in 64 other locations as recorded by the true priests in the copper scroll, copper had been used such that it will last a longer time, this scroll must have been used for many generations) The hiding of the scrolls itself reveals the order of importance, the older texts, temple guidelines, community guidelines had been put away into a pot that were meant to keep them save, but the other newer texts that had been used, were left in the caves, in a hurry, probably due to lack of time.
Apparently the Jews were defeated and most likely this Qumran community building could have been occupied by the Romans, which meant, that they was no way anyone who knew it could return or none of those who knew its location survived the battle or it was too dangerous for any Jew to return to this region.
** But surely some one would have managed to escape and inform the world about the hidden scrolls?**
This is very likely, since there is evidence of Greek followers living in the caves, Greeks would have been able to escape with some scrolls, when or before the Romans attacked and most likely could have conveyed the information to others too. (At the same, time Jews too could have wondered off in different directions, teaching and spreading the knowledge they had learned)
This could be the reason why much of Christianity had its main source from Greek writings, re compiled 325 years later.
The Jews who fled in different directions, would also have carried the teachings contained in the Torah and passed them on to their children in various forms. But surprisingly no one was able to pass on the correct information or maybe, they did and were rejected by the Nicea council at 325 AD, which accepted the versions that, were similar, acceptable to them and rejected the others. ( which they would have declared as heresy and made sure the rest were destroyed or they had been kept at St. Peters in Rome, which was destroyed by fire at 1600 AD). Here we also need to note the Gospel of Barnabas and the Gospel of Thomas are still available and these are currently considered as heretic books and were actually found outside of Israel.
** Hey wait a minute! ** They were these group of people who called themselves, Muslims, actually claiming that their Book was hidden in a cave and surprisingly these people denied the Qur'an ( means "reading" which is technically a Book ) and claimed their Book was three times bigger and they had twelve apostles and actually their last apostle, who was only five years old was living with the scripture in a cave till today. Could these be the true followers of Christ? Could they have left some women and children in the cave's to await their return? are indeed possibilities.
Come to think of it , the person who began this was actually a Jew who had converted , and he was very sure that their Muslim community had 12 apostles, that their scripture was much bigger than the Islamic scripture. (This is very likely, since Jews who followed the true teachings of their prophet would be called Muslims and they did have 12 patriarch, Elders who were of the same family (Levi) tree. the Biblical scripture, the Torah is very much bigger than the Qur'an) Since this info was revealed some 800 years later, they could be a mix-up about which Muslims, he was taking about).
** This group later grew to become the Shi ite's that now occupy Iran and are to this day claiming that their Scripture is hidden in a cave.** But unfortunately the current shi'ite community (which started at about 1500 AD) understand it to be the Qur'an but in our view many things can get twisted and many things have come to be written, that never existed. We will know how much, when the dead sea scrolls, can one day be revealed as is without being hidden or cooked by those who had been entrusted to publish it..
** This is interesting, but all this is only a conjecture that cannot be proved, now what actually was found? **
Hey nothing in history can be proved for sure ! Now, over a period of 9 years, 11 caves had been discovered as of 1947 till 1956, which contained various scrolls, the first discovery at cave one (QS1, was well preserved, kept in a sealed pot) which revealed the complete book of Isaiah which was so significant that in 1952 itself the RSV Bible (revised standard version) was published with 13 variant readings taken from the Isaiah scroll.)
Then the rest of the caves were discovered one after the other, the scrolls are actually called QS1 to QS11 according to the cave they were discovered in. Altogether at least 15,000 fragments (about 850 scrolls) of the scrolls were compiled that contained
** 1) all the Books of the current Bible except for Esther & NO New Testament
2) The Community Rule, ( how this new community is to govern itself)
3) The temple scroll ( which affirms the law of Moses and strict guidance of it),
4) The copper scroll ( stating the location of the wealth of the temple at Yerusalem that had been hidden at Qumran for save keeping), This is the clearest proof that the temple had been moved to Qumran
4) The war scroll, ( the way to fight the sons of darkness) Another proof that the pious were planning to recover the temple that become corrupted.
5) Compiled thanks giving psalms, (that had been used by the elders)
6) Commentaries on the Torah ** ( this could be the work of Christ) and details of certain passages that are not found in our current Bible
** So what's the problem, now we can put this fragments together and correct the Bible can't we? **
Not so simple, it would mean the change of theology / dogma of what the church had practiced for 1,675 years in Christianity and 2,000 years for orthodox Jewry. And once such information is revealed in would mean the collapse of those institutions, which had kept alive the wrong teachings.
** So, what's the solution? **
Reveal what is not contradicting and hide / destroy / alter what is contradicting and carry on with the existing version, who cares if mankind are misled, after all God is not punishing anyone for his crimes, yet!
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Seems to be the policy currently practiced by most of the religious institutions, which claim that they are divinely guided.