Take the time to open your Bible to the Book of Isaiah. Now ask yourself the following questions: "How did this book that I am reading today develop?" "Are there any extant (original) copies of this book?" "How do I know that this book (that I am holding) was copied correctly?"

The Dead Sea Scrolls are an entire library which contains over 800 volumes and 15,000 fragments that were placed together in safe keeping over 2000 years ago. In 1947 Bedouin shepherds, members of the Taamireh tribe that lived in the area, were searching for lost sheep when they tossed a stone into an opening of a cave and heard a cracking sound. The next day they returned with some other boys to examine the cave. This find consisted of the famous seven scrolls including the Great Scroll of Isaiah. Until that time the oldest copy of Isaiah was from a codex (a bound book) dating back to the ninth century A.D. (C.E.). This codex contained the oldest copy of the book of Isaiah and was known as the Codex Leningrad, the oldest Hebrew Bible in the world.

The Scroll of Isaiah found at Qumran was twenty-four feet in length. It’s interesting that it was sold to a cobbler in Bethlehem (along with three other scrolls) for only $64.00, and then finally the four scrolls were purchased in New York for $250,000. Ironically, the Qumran Scroll was purchased because someone had read the Wall Street Journal, in which an ad read: "The Four Dead Sea Scrolls. Biblical manuscripts, dating back to at least 200 BC, are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group. Box F 206, The Wall Street Journal" (New York, Tuesday, June 1, 1954). Professor Elazar L. Sukenik, who held the chair of archeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem had originally purchased the first three of the seven scrolls. He also had the opportunity to examine four other scrolls (including the Great Scroll of Isaiah), but failed to purchase them at that time. Sukenik died in 1954; however his son Yigael Yadin was in New York almost one year later when the ad appeared in the Wall Street Journal. To the Nation of Israel this was just one of many miracles. The Great Scroll of Israel was returned to the children of Israel.

Isaiah was written between 701 and 740 B.C.E. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we now have a copy of Isaiah that dates to 167 years before the time of Jesus. "Theoretically and in a chronological way, Jesus could have read from this scroll" (according to Dr. Westen Fields, Director of the Jerusalem-based Dead

Sea Scroll Foundation). At least we know that this scroll existed during the days of Jesus. This is a very humbling thought as you stand before this great scroll at the Shine of the Book in Jerusalem (today the original is stored in a climate controlled area). In 1972 I stood before the original scroll and thought to myself, "Jesus could have read from this scroll." I will not go so far as to say that this might have been the Nazareth scroll mentioned in Mark 6:1-6 and Luke 4:16-21; however it did exist at that time.

"The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down."

An interesting discovery was found in Isaiah 53:11. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities" (KJV). Most of our versions were copied from the Masoretic text which is based on the Masora. The Tanakh (Old Testament) reads: "Out of his anguish he shall see it; He shall enjoy it to the full through his devotion. My righteous servant makes the many righteous, it is their punishment that he bears." The New International Version reads: "After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." This rendering follows the recent discoveries in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in this case, the Qumran Scroll of Isaiah. The Masoretic Text does not have the phrases "light of life," or "by knowledge of him."

"This is one of those occasions that the textual tradition from Qumran confirmed the existence of a ‘non-Masoretic’ Hebrew tradition which had been preserved in the Greek translation of the LXX (Septuagint). "Light"’ is a noun. Neither in the Qumran Isaiah Scroll nor in the LXX can I find the term "of life." I think thus that perhaps this is a part of the translators’ interpretation of the sense of "light" [i.e., He will see light]. Nevertheless, "light" only occurs in the Qumran Isaiah Scroll and the LXX."1

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, Norman H. Snaith wrote: "He (God) will see of his (the Servant’s) travail, and will be satisfied by His knowledge. That is when God sees the suffering of the Servant and knows it, then He will be satisfied."2

I believe that the New International Version gives a good translation of the Great Scroll of Isaiah: "After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light ["of life" is not in the Qumran Scroll however it is in the NIV] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Yes the Lord will be satisfied with his knowledge [translation using the preceding verb]." Another way of translating this verse would be that He would "be satisfied knowing of His vindication."

My own translation of this verse would be: "After the suffering of his soul, He [God] will see the light [i.e. "life over death"] and be vindicated by his knowledge that my [His] righteous servant will justify many, and bear their iniquities."

2 Norman H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament (London: The Epworth Press, 1945), p. 92.