Objection · Case 03 · Reliability of Scripture

Nearly all the Genesis scrolls are small fragments. You can’t compare a fragment to the medieval text and conclude the whole book was stable.

One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.

Suggest a correction

Response

True of each fragment individually; the argument is cumulative. Around twenty copies covering different portions of Genesis, all agreeing with the later text where they overlap, give a broad sample of the book across two centuries and many scribes. No single scrap proves stability, but two dozen scraps from different hands and decades, none of which shows a different Genesis, is strong sampling evidence. The claim is that nothing in the sample points to another version, not that any one piece proves the whole.

About this exhibit

This objection is to Genesis.

About 19 to 25 copies of Genesis were found, including one written in the older paleo-Hebrew script. They date across the Hasmonean and Herodian periods.

Under Claim 02: The Dead Sea Scrolls show the Old Testament text was copied with remarkable stability across about a thousand years, alongside a documented plurality of text forms.