Objection · Case 03 · Reliability of Scripture

The site says every Old Testament book except Esther is represented, then admits no verse of Nehemiah has been identified. Isn’t that a contradiction?

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

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Response

It is a real wrinkle in wording. Ezra-Nehemiah is one book in the Hebrew canon, so every book except Esther is defensible on a technicality, but a plain reader hears it as Nehemiah is there, and it is not. The accurate statement is that Nehemiah is unattested at Qumran apart from its pairing with Ezra. A small Nehemiah fragment has been reported from the antiquities market, but its provenance is disputed and the fragments once held by the Museum of the Bible proved to be modern forgeries, so nothing should be built on it.

About this exhibit

This objection is to Nehemiah.

No verses of Nehemiah have been identified among the scrolls. Because Ezra and Nehemiah were treated as one book in the Hebrew Bible, Nehemiah may have been present alongside Ezra, but there is no…

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.