The June issue of Cell describes a seven-year project to use DNA testing to trace the divergent sheep that were used to make the Dead Sea Scrolls. The research was done by a team from Tel Aviv university, joined by other scientists. The DNA testing is being used to piece together fragments, among other things. A report says, “The findings support the notion that for contemporaries, the most important aspects of the scriptural text were its content and meaning, not its precise wording and orthography (the conventional spelling system of a language)” (“DNA Extracted from Animal Skins,” Breaking Israel News, June 2, 2020). The Dead Sea Scrolls offer a very tiny, but fascinating window into the history of the Old Testament Scripture. But it is a wonderful thing that we aren’t dependent on 25,000 fragments to piece together the Word of God. The God who gave the Scripture has kept it. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). (See “The Dead Sea Scrolls,” www.wayoflife.org.)
(Friday Church News Notes, July 10, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)