ISRAEL - Dead Sea Scroll Discoveries

For decades, Dead Sea Scrolls scholars have sought to uncover the secrets of the 7.34-meter-long (24-foot) artifact, one of the original seven scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947.

Taking the scholarship a step further, Dead Sea Scrolls expert Prof. Marcello Fidanzio of the Università della Svizzera Italiana says his research shows that the incongruities between the two sections stem from the fact that they were created as two separate scrolls and became one at a later point in time.

Since the very beginning, researchers studying the scroll registered some discrepancies between the first section, including chapters 1-33 of Isaiah, and the second, featuring chapters 34-66 (according to the medieval chapter division of the Bible). These differences included text morphology and orthography, and a significantly higher number of parchment repairs in the first part than in the second. In addition, three lines were left blank at the end of the first section.

Traditionally, the Isaiah scroll was dated by paleography (the analysis of letter shapes) to the last quarter of the second century BCE. A more recent study combining digital paleography and radiocarbon analysis suggested that it might be a few decades older, placing its creation between 180 and 100 BCE.

While modern scholars typically view the Book of Isaiah as having two distinct parts—from chapters 1-39 and chapter 40-66—the division seen in the parchments does not mirror that split.

-www.timesofisrael.com, 3 January 2026

Commentary: It is definitely of great significance that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947—one year before Israel declared its sovereign State. It was also in 1947 when the United Nations General Assembly voted to divide the land into a Jewish and an Arab part. We recall that exactly 50 years earlier on 3 September 1897, Theodor Herzl made this proclamation: “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word—which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly—it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty years, everyone will perceive it.”

Other Research states: “The Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah is remarkably similar but not identical to the Bible’s Isaiah, being over 95% the same, with most difference being minor spelling variations or scribal errors that don’t change the core meaning, though some variants (like missing verses in one copy) offer textual insights, confirming the text’s stability while revealing earlier textual tradition.”

It is of interest that in the introduction to the book of Isaiah, the Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible has this to say: “Isaiah’s name literally means ‘salvation of the Lord,’ the underlying theme of the entire book. In fact, the plan of salvation is so comprehensively revealed in Isaiah’s work that Augustine called it ‘the fifth Gospel,’ and others have referred to it as ‘the Bible in miniature.’”