SECRETS

OF THE
DEAD SEA
SCROLLS
Contents
Map of the Qumran Area.................. 2
The Discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls ............................ 5
Why are they important?................ 16
How was the copying of the
Bible so accurate? ......................... 17
How to study and understand
the Bible...................................... 32
SECRETS OF
THE DEAD
SEA SCROLLS
Map of the Qumran area

Cave 11

Cave 1
Cave 2

Cave 5
Cave 6 Khirbet Qumran

Cemetery

Cave 7-9
Cave 10 Cave 4
SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 3

Qumran Location

Ramallah

Jericho

Qumran
Jerusalem

Bethlehem

Hebron

ISRAEL
4 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Israel and the Middle East

Turkey

Cyprus
Syria
Lebanon
Mediterranean Sea

Palestine
Jerusalem
Qumran
Israel

Jordan

Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Red Sea
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 5

The Discovery of the

Dead Sea Scrolls
Early in March 1947, a fifteen-year-
old boy unintentionally set off a train
of events which shook the world.
A young Bedouin shepherd, Mohammed
the Wolf, was looking for a stray goat
among the caves along a sandstone
ridge in the Judean Desert near the
north-west shore of the Dead Sea.

Picking up a stone, he threw it into the

cave to flush out the goat. But he was
startled to hear the sound of shattering
pottery. Dreaming of hidden treasure,
6 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

he invited his cousin to accompany him

to examine his discovery. Crawling into
one of the many natural caves that dot
the mountains beside the Dead Sea,
they found a number of dust-covered
pottery jars standing on the floor of
the cave.
Removing the lids, they hoped to
find gold and silver. Imagine their
disappointment when, instead, the jars
contained rolls of old leather covered
with strange writing, all carefully
wrapped in cloth. The foul-smelling
leather wasn’t the treasure they were
looking for. But they had found treasure,
even if they didn’t realise it.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 7

The boys picked out the seven best-

looking scrolls and jars and hurried
back to their family tent. Their Bedouin
tribe had roamed the western shore
of the Dead Sea for centuries - now
they were engaged in smuggling goods
to the black market. At the time, this
territory was part of British Palestine.
The seven scrolls weren’t the usual
contraband, and for some weeks they
were left in a bag hanging on a tent
pole. Finally, they took the scrolls and
two jars to a shopkeeper friend in
Bethlehem to sell.
This was risky because excavating
antiquities without a licence was illegal.
At first no one was interested in the
dirty old scrolls. Even an employee of
Palestine’s Department of Antiquities
called them ‘worthless’.
Kando, an antiquities dealer and
cobbler, wasn’t interested in the scrolls,
but agreed to try to sell them. If he
8 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

was unsuccessful, he would use the old

leather scrolls for mending shoes.
Kando took four scrolls to the head of
his church in Jerusalem. Archbishop
Samuel, of the Syrian Orthodox
Monastery of St Mark, thought they
might be quite old and bought them for
one hundred US dollars.
These were the last days of British rule
in Palestine. Violent confrontations
between Jews, Arabs and British soldiers
were frequent. It was impossible to find
scholars who were able to authenticate
the manuscripts.
Eventually, the archbishop managed to
send the scrolls across Jerusalem to the
American School of Oriental Research.
The acting director, John Trever,
photographed the scrolls and sent
the prints to Professor W F Albright,
a renowned archaeologist and historian
at Johns Hopkins University in the
United States.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 9

Albright studied the prints with a

magnifying glass – he dated the scrolls
at around 100 BC and described them
as the ‘greatest manuscript discovery
of modern times’.
Meanwhile Elazar Sukenik, Professor of
Archaeology at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, learned that the other three
scrolls were for sale in Bethlehem. It was
dangerous for the Jewish archaeologist
to travel to Arab Bethlehem, but Sukenik
decided to go anyway. He bought the
three scrolls and returned to Jerusalem
just in time.
In May 1948, the United Nations voted
to create the State of Israel. Jerusalem
was partitioned and the city exploded
in violence.
Three of the original seven Dead Sea
Scrolls came into Israel’s possession on
the very day that the state of Israel was
born. But the other four scrolls were
about to embark on a strange journey.
10 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Having confirmed their authenticity,

Archbishop Samuel offered to sell the
four remaining scrolls to Professor
Sukenik – but then decided not to
sell. Professor Sukenik was terribly
disappointed. It seemed that these
priceless scrolls were lost to the Jewish
people. He died in 1953, believing this
to be the case.
The archbishop smuggled the four
scrolls in his possession into America,
hoping they would bring a high price.
The scrolls caused a sensation. But
even after an extensive publicity tour
the archbishop couldn’t find a buyer
willing to pay his price – a million
US dollars.
For the next five years the archbishop
tried in vain to sell the scrolls. Finally, in
desperation, he placed an advertisement
in the Wall Street Journal in New York.
By sheer coincidence Yigael Yadin, the
son of the Jewish archaeologist Sukenik,
was in America at the time on a lecture
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 11

tour. A newspaper journalist called

Yadin’s attention to the advertisement.
He read it again and again but couldn’t
believe his eyes. The four remaining
Dead Sea Scrolls were for sale.
The delicate negotiations to buy the
scrolls began. After some anxious
moments Yadin purchased the scrolls
on behalf of the state of Israel for two
hundred and fifty thousand US dollars.
That’s worth about two and a half
million in today’s money. Yadin’s only
regret was that his father did not live
to see the scrolls come home to Israel.
The Israeli government built a special
room, The Shrine of the Book, attached
to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, to
house the scrolls. All seven scrolls from
the first cave, found by the Bedouins,
were together again in one place.
When news of the value of the scrolls
was made public, the hills west of the
Dead Sea became a beehive of activity.
12 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Bedouins and archaeologists began

searching the region, combing every
conceivable crevice, rock formation and
hillside cave for more of these valuable
scrolls.
Discovery after discovery was made.
They found more caves containing
pieces of scrolls. Cave 4 at Qumran,
had about forty thousand pieces in it,
representing more than four hundred
scrolls.
Most of these scrolls had been broken
into small pieces. The Bedouin took
some, then the archaeologists caught
up with them. Altogether, about forty
thousand pieces came from Cave 4.
Each one had to be bought from the
Arabs who found them, at an
average price of four dollars per
square centimetre. These thousands
of fragments were brought to the
Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 13

There they were laid out in the

courtyard and sorted. Then specialists
began the long and tedious task of
piecing the scrolls back together again
– and deciphering the strange writing,
an ancient form of Hebrew.
Archaeologists returned to the rugged
Dead Sea shoreline and re-explored
the area. Their efforts were rewarded
when they found a cave that contained
a most unusual scroll. They discovered
three strips of finely beaten copper that
had been inscribed and rolled up into a
scroll.
As the archaeologists searched the
caves and found more fragments, they
realised that these scrolls had been
part of a large library. But who wrote
them, and why did they store or hide
them in the desert? The answer lay less
than one hundred metres from the cave
where they found the largest cache of
scroll fragments, in ancient ruins long
known to the Arabs as Khirbet Qumran.
14 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

The ruins were revealed to be the town

of a Jewish sect, the Essenes, from
about BC 100 to AD 68. The Essenes
were a devout religious group. They
lived in seclusion in their remote
desert community, spending their lives
copying out the Hebrew Scriptures,
commentaries, and other religious
works.
Ruins of the sect’s communal site
remain, including a watchtower, a
dining hall, cisterns, and cemeteries.
Significantly, the main building
contained a writing room, the
scriptorium, with remains of a long
table and some inkpots, one even
containing dried ink. Even a complete
jar was found identical with those in
the cave.
In the year AD 68, Roman troops were
marching through Palestine to crush the
Jewish Revolt. On their way to attack
Jerusalem, they advanced to Jericho
and the Dead Sea. As the Romans
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 15

approached Qumran, the Essenes

carefully wrapped their valuable scrolls
in linen and placed them in large pottery
jars, then hid them in nearby caves
which they sealed with rocks.
The owners of the scrolls probably
perished in the First Jewish Revolt
against the Romans or were deported
as prisoners and became slaves. So no
one returned to claim the scrolls. Over
the centuries some of the scrolls were
lost in landslides or through dampness.
But many survived and lay undisturbed
in the desert caves for almost two
thousand years, to become the greatest
manuscript discovery in history.
Eventually fragments of about eight
hundred and fifty scrolls were found in
eleven of the caves that pockmark the
cliffs of the Qumran area overlooking
the Dead Sea. The scrolls include at
least parts of every book of the Old
Testament except the Book of Esther.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest
16 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

existing copies of the Old Testament and

confirm the accuracy of the Bible. And
this is what makes them so important.

Why are they important?

Before the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, the oldest manuscripts of the
Old Testament were from the ninth
century AD. So, nobody could be
certain that the Bibles we have today
are accurate copies of the original.
But as scholars deciphered the Dead
Sea Scrolls, they were surprised to find
portions from all the books in the Old
Testament except the Book of Esther.
So, the Dead Sea Scrolls are nearly
one thousand years older than any
complete biblical Hebrew manuscript in
existence.
So it’s the age of these scrolls that
makes them so valuable. In one stroke
we are brought nearly one thousand
years nearer to the original manuscript.
And when the words of these ancient
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 17

scrolls were compared with the words

of our Bibles today, they were found to
be virtually identical.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a discovery
that is still being discussed and
researched. More articles and books
have been written about the Dead Sea
Scrolls than any other archaeological
discovery with Biblical significance. All
the research relating to the Dead Sea
Scrolls shows that the words of the Old
Testament have not been changed over
the millennia. They provide evidence
that we can trust the accuracy of
the Bible.

How was the copying of

the Bible so accurate?
The Bible is the best-selling book of
all time. Every year over one hundred
million Bibles are sold. But how can
we be sure the Bible we read today
is accurate?
18 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

The Bible consists of sixty-six books

that are arranged in two parts, or
Testaments. The Old Testament was
written before the time of Jesus Christ,
and the New Testament was written
after He came.
The first five books of the Bible
were written by Moses, probably on
sheepskin. These books are called The
Law. Then came The Prophets – the
writings of the ancient prophets whose
predictions have been found to be
reliable and accurate. And then there
were the Psalms and books of poetry.
We call these books the Old Testament.
Approximately four hundred years
elapsed between the writing of Malachi,
the last book of the Old Testament, and
the writing of Matthew, the first book in
the New Testament.
The books of the Old Testament were
first written in Hebrew, the ancient
language of the Jews, except for a small
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 19

segment written in Aramaic. The New

Testament was written in Greek after
Jesus left this earth. Four accounts of
His life were written down by those best
qualified. These books were called the
Gospels. Later came the letters written
by Paul and other apostles to the new
churches. And of course, the revelation
written by the Apostle John.
Now people often ask, “How did we
get the Bible?” “Where did our English
Bible come from?” Remember, the Old
Testament is the holy writings, or the
Scriptures, of the Jewish people. They
were first written on leather just as
were the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In the centuries before Jesus Christ,
many Jews emigrated to Egypt, and
settled in the city of Alexandria.
Although located in Egypt, Alexandria
was a Greek city, founded by Alexander
the Great who intended to use the city to
spread the Greek way of life throughout
Egypt. Alexandria quickly became
20 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

the greatest centre of Greek culture

outside Athens.
The Jews who lived in Alexandria spoke
Greek and lived in the Greek way. As
time passed, they largely forgot how
to speak and read Hebrew. So, when
the lessons were read in the synagogue
from the Hebrew Bible, they couldn’t
understand them. Something had to be
done about this.
So, sometime in the middle of the third
century BC, Jewish leaders authorised
the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures
into Greek. This Greek translation
of the Old Testament was called the
Septuagint, and this became the first
Christian Bible. As the apostles wrote
to the various Christian churches,
their writings came to have special
significance and so were accepted by
the early churches and became our
New Testament.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 21

There is a story of the amazing

discovery of one of these early Greek
Christian Bibles. The dramatic discovery
was made by a German student in
May 1844. His name was Constantine
Tischendorf, and he was on a journey
round the churches and monasteries of
the Near East searching for the oldest
Christian Bible in the world. After twelve
gruelling days in the blistering hot sun
of the Sinai desert he reached the
Monastery of St. Catherine, perched at
the base of the traditional site of Mount
Sinai where Moses received the Ten
Commandments.
At a height of two thousand two hundred
and eighty-five metres, the Mount
towers over St. Catherine’s Monastery,
built inside the fortress walls on the
order of Emperor Justinian to protect
Christians from raiding desert Bedouins.
Tradition has it that the emperor ordered
the execution of the architect who built
the monastery, because he built it there
22 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

in the valley rather than on the summit

of the mountain.
Originally there was no entrance to the
monastery. The only way in was to be
hauled up by rope through a window
in the wall. St. Catherine’s is believed
to be the oldest unrestored example of
Byzantine architecture in the world. The
monastery possesses many treasures,
including jewel-studded crosses,
hand-carved wooden furniture, and
exquisite icons.
However, it was the monastery library
that interested Tischendorf. He had
heard that St. Catherine’s owned a great
number of ancient texts. To his delight
he found all sorts of manuscripts stacked
in the library. Unfortunately, when he
began to show unusual interest in any
of the many manuscripts sorted in the
monastery library, the monks grew
suspicious. Despite this, Tischendorf
painstakingly sorted through all kinds
of manuscripts, but didn’t find anything
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 23

of real value in his search for the oldest

Christian Bible.
However, he came across a basket in
the middle of the great hall. It was
filled with old parchments. He picked
up a page from the basket. One of the
monks accompanying him explained,
“We plan to throw those away. We’ve
already burned some pages like that.“
As Tischendorf looked closer at the
pages he realised that they were
sheets of a copy of the oldest Bible
he had ever seen. There they were in
a rubbish bin in the Monastery of St.
Catherine, only a hair’s breadth from
complete destruction. Fortunately,
when the monks sensed the importance
of the condemned manuscript, they put
it in safe keeping. Only after a lot of
negotiation was Tischendorf permitted
to examine the entire manuscript –
fifteen years later.
It was then presented as a gift to the
Czar of Russia. There was one more
24 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

journey for this Bible. In 1933 the Soviet

government decided to raise money by
selling it. The British Museum bought it
for one-hundred thousand pounds, and
it can be seen in the manuscript room
there today. This is almost a complete
Bible in Greek, the Codex Sinaiticus,
dating from around AD 350, and is
considered to be one of the oldest
Bibles in the world.
Another important translation of
the Bible came around AD 400. In
Bethlehem, near the traditional site of
the birth of Jesus, Jerome translated
the Bible into Latin. Now Latin was the
official language of the Roman Empire.
His translation is called the Latin
Vulgate. The first English Bibles were
translated from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.
Then we go to England as we search
for the roots of the English Bible.
Lindisfarne is considered to be a
holy island and is connected to the
mainland by a five km causeway that is
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 25

submerged at high tide. The missionary

Aidan came here in AD 635 and built
a church and priory. From this base,
Aidan proclaimed Christianity to the
Anglo-Saxons. He trained missionaries
who travelled throughout Britain taking
the Christian message.
It was at Lindisfarne that the earliest
translations of the Gospels into English
were completed. The work is in Latin with
an accompanying interlinear translation
in English. The Lindisfarne Gospels
are indeed works of art. Each page is
beautifully coloured and decorated with
intricate designs.
Around AD 871 England’s noble King
Alfred translated small portions of the
Bible into the English language without
the Latin text. Almost five-hundred
years later, in 1397, the entire Bible
was translated into English for the first
time. This was due largely to the work
of John Wycliffe. He was a scholar at
Oxford University who believed that the
26 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Bible was so important that it must be

made available to everyone. He became
master of Balliol College at Oxford
where he earned the University’s
respect and loyalty. While here he
determined to place the entire Bible
in the hands of the common people
in their own language. Using Jerome’s
Latin version, he translated the Bible
into English.
Wycliffe was not very popular for
doing so. His chief opponents were the
leaders of the established church. They
believed that the Bible should not be
read by the common people. In fact,
they felt so strongly about it, that thirty
years after his death he was formally
condemned.
Orders were given for his writings to be
destroyed. They exhumed his bones,
burned them and scattered the ashes
on the nearby river Swift. They then put
the epitaph on his grave: “Here lies the
devil’s instrument, the church’s enemy,
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 27

the people’s confusion, the heretic’s

idol”. All because he translated the Bible
into English!
Now soon after the time of Wycliffe, an
important event took place in Mainz,
Germany, which changed the whole
intellectual and religious atmosphere
in Europe. About 1450 Johannes
Gutenberg, a goldsmith in Mainz,
invented the first mechanical printing
press. Now it was easy for the common
people to obtain a Bible of their own.
In 1525 William Tyndale published the
first New Testament in English. Tyndale
translated directly from Greek to English.
He also translated large portions of the
Old Testament directly from Hebrew.
When the authorities discovered that
Tyndale was translating the Bible into
English, they threatened to execute
him. He faced terrible persecution for
translating the Bible into English, so he
fled to Europe where he lived in exile
– continuing to translate the Bible into
28 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

English with his life under threat. He

lived in Wittenberg, Germany, for some
time but he had to keep on the move
to avoid English spies and informers.
He was eventually captured near
Brussels in Belgium in 1534 and thrown
into prison.
In 1536 he was strangled and then burnt
at the stake. His last words were, “Lord
open the eyes of the King of England.
Make the boy who drives the plough
to know more about the Bible than
the leading churchmen in England.”
Tyndale’s translation was so well done,
that it has been the basis of many of
the more recent English translations.
The next significant step in the
translation of the English Bible took
place in Switzerland. Because of
persecution in Britain, many Bible-
loving Christians fled to Geneva. The
city became a centre of Bible Study.
The arrival of so many English-speaking
Christians created a problem. Their
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 29

leader, the famous Scottish reformer,

John Knox, urged that a new Bible
translation be started. It was completed
and published in Geneva in 1560 and
became known as the Geneva Bible.
Shakespeare cited it in his plays. John
Bunyan used it when he wrote Pilgrim’s
Progress. Then in 1611 the much-loved
King James Version was produced.
In 1885 the Revised Version was
completed. Then in 1951 the Revised
Standard Version was also finished.
Since then, many others have followed,
one of the most popular modern
translations being the New International
Version produced in 1978.
We now know that every single copy
of the Old Testament and the New
Testament was hand copied up until
the printing press came along in the
fifteenth century AD. Some of the books
of the Old Testament were copied over
and over for thousands of years. So,
is it possible that a document copied
30 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

so many times by hand could truly

be accurate?
Well, history tells us that the Hebrew
people were meticulous copyists of the
Scriptures. Scribes were so aware of
the immense importance and sacred
significance of their task that they would
go to great lengths to make sure their
hand-written copy of Scripture was free
from error. Hebrew scribes were bound
by the following rules:
1. 
They could only use clean animal
skins, both to write on, and even to
bind the manuscripts.
2. Each column of writing could have
no less than forty-eight, and no
more than sixty lines.
3. 
The ink must be black, and of a
special recipe.
4. They were not to write a word from
memory, they had to look at each
word and say it aloud while they
were writing it.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 31

5. 
They knew how many words and
how many letters each book of the
Old Testament contained. If the
number of the words and letters in
the copy didn’t match the original,
they discarded the copy.
6. They must wipe the pen and wash
their entire bodies every time
before writing God’s name.
7. There must be a review within thirty
days, and if as many as three pages
required corrections, the entire
manuscript had to be redone.
8. The letters, words, and paragraphs
had to be counted, and the
document became invalid if two
letters touched each other. The
middle paragraph, word and letter
must correspond to those of the
original document.
9. 
The documents were to be only
stored in sacred places, like
synagogues.
32 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Today there are many more recent

versions of the Bible available, but
what we do know is that the text is
always essentially the same in all these
translations.

How to Study and

Understand the Bible
All of us at some time, have heard of
or read passages from the Bible. Some
of us may own a Bible and read it.
Approaching Bible study may seem to
be a daunting task, but here are a few
suggestions that will help you to read
and enjoy your Bible and discover what
a very beautiful and wonderful Book it
really is:
1. 
Begin with one of the easy to
read and understand books in the
Bible, such as the Gospel of Mark.
This is the earliest record of the
life and death of Jesus as told by
eyewitnesses. Mark’s gospel is full
of action, and you will find it very
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 33

easy reading.
2. 
There is something in the four
gospels for everyone. Each of the
gospels is written by different men
who wrote in their own style and
with their own emphasis.
 The book of Matthew is a thoughtful
and detailed record of the life
of Jesus.
Mark’s gospel is fast-moving and
full of action.
The book of Luke was written by a
physician and provides a down to
earth record of the facts and details
of the life of Jesus.
John’s gospel is a warm, friendly
recount of Jesus’ life written by a
friend.
3. 
Look for the stories in the Bible.
There are hundreds of wonderful
stories covering an amazing variety
of subjects. When you study the
34 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Bible stories, you will see how God

reveals Himself to us through the
lives of people. Here are a couple of
famous people in the Bible:
•N
 oah (and the Ark): Genesis
5:32–10:32
• Abraham: Genesis 12–25
4. The Bible is full of biographies. It
tells the good and the bad points
of its various characters. You could
look first at the story of Joseph and
read all that is said about him, from
his birth as Rachel’s first-born to
the proud day when Pharaoh placed
the destiny of Egypt in his hands.
You can read his story in Genesis
37–50.

Another great biography is the
story of Moses, the emancipator
of the Hebrews from bondage in
Egypt. It begins from the day his
mother placed him in a basket in
the bulrushes by the river Nile, till
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 35

he stood on Mount Sinai and talked

with God ‘face to face’. You can find
his story in Exodus 1 to 20, 24, 31
to 35 and then in the Book Numbers
10 to 27.

The Book of Joshua has many
thrilling moments, from the
astonishing battle to capture Jericho
and Ai and finally all Palestine. These
stories can be found in Joshua 1
to 24.

Elijah is another outstanding
character you will want to study.
He and his successor Elisha were
the greatest Hebrew prophets in
the ninth century BC. You can read
these stories from 1 Kings 17 to
2 Kings 13.
5. 
Another approach to reading and
studying the Bible is to consider it
as a library in which to pursue a
variety of studies. It is very helpful
to have access to a concordance or
a Bible app on your phone to give
36 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

further information. A concordance

lists all the words of the Bible
in alphabetical order. You might
decide to study the subject of
prayer. The concordance will show
you hundreds of uses of the word in
the Bible.
You will discover the names of
people who prayed, why and when
they prayed, and the results of
their prayers. From such a study
will emerge the reasons why God
answers prayer, and why sometimes
He doesn’t answer them in the way
we would like Him to.

Faith offers another intriguing
subject. What is it? How does God
value it, and why? How important
is it in the Christian life? Your Bible
will answer all such questions
for you.

Another fascinating subject is
prophecy. The Bible is full of it.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 37

There are many predictions on

record, and their fulfillment has
been recorded in history. Nothing
will increase your confidence in your
Bible as much as the discovery that
the forecasts of its prophets have
accurately and assuredly come
to pass.
6. Mark your Bible. If you are happy
to underline texts you can cross
reference topics, and it will help
you link texts that are relevant to
a particular topic. Or you may just
prefer to mark the texts that are
relevant to your life and have a
special meaning for you.
7. 
Jesus demonstrated the best way
to study the Bible is to let the Bible
explain itself. In the Book of Isaiah
28:10, it says, “For precept must
be upon precept; precept upon
precept; line upon line, line upon
line; here a little, there a little.”
38 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS


So, the way to understand the
messages in the Bible is to bring
together what all the various Bible
writers say on a particular subject.
So, if we want to know what the
Bible teaches about the second
coming of Christ, about Heaven or
about death, then we look at what
Jesus said about it and what all the
Bible writers said about that topic.
And then we will have the true
and correct Bible teaching on that
subject. The more scriptures are
brought into line on a single subject,
the safer the interpretation.
8. Study the Bible by chapters. Seek
to find its main subject or teaching.
Make a simple outline of the
chapter and look up a concordance
on a Bible app or on your phone,
for extra understanding of words.
The concordance will help you find
the meaning of the words and the
history of the chapter.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 39

9. Study the Bible by verses. Look for

the deeper meaning of the verse.
Here is an example in John 3:16:

“God”
— the greatest Person
“so loved”
— the greatest devotion
“the world”
— the greatest number
“He gave”
— the greatest act
“His only begotten Son”
— the greatest gift
“that whoever believes”
— the greatest condition
“should not perish”
— the greatest mercy
“have everlasting life”
— the greatest result
10. Study the Bible by reading a book
of the Bible.

•Look for the central theme of
the book.
40 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

• What is the author trying to say?


•
What does this book tell me
about the people in the book
and how they dealt with their
circumstances in life?
• I s there any other information or
source that could tell me some
more about this book?
11. Enrol in a Bible Study course where
each guide will introduce you to
some of the great subjects in
the Bible.
12. An enjoyable and beneficial way to
do Bible study is to join with others
and study as a group. Many times,
other people will have the same
sorts of questions about the Bible
that you will have. As a result,
studying and discussing the Bible
with others will help everyone grow
in their faith and give you a network
of friends.
 SECRETS OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS 41

You can test everything you hear and

everything you see and everything you
read by the Bible. Isn’t that reassuring?
Reading and studying the Bible can be
a lifelong adventure. It contains both
simple and practical precepts, but also
profound and moving insights that will
help everyone grow in their faith. Bible
study should never be just an academic
task. Always keep in mind that the
overarching point of studying the Bible
is to know God better – and that the
entire Book centres around the Person
of Jesus and God’s plan to save us. It’s
all about His love for us that climaxes
in Christ’s death on the cross. The Bible
can be an endless source of wisdom and
enjoyment. Knowing God and having
faith will change your life forever.
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