The Great Isaiah Scroll

I don't know how many times I've heard or read this: "The Bible can't be trusted because it's been changed by _______ (fill in the blank).  Put in the Pope.  Put in the Disciples. It gets a little tiring to hear.  What people don't understand is that modern Christians and archaeologists are constantly trying to falsify the present text.  They seek out as many early texts as they can to compare to what we have now.

The results?  Astounding.  Little has changed:

  

BSM: What do readings like Isaiah 53:11 tell us about the accuracy of the Bible?

FLINT: The Scrolls demonstrate that your Bible is 99% accurate. We are confirming the Word of God and getting to that 1% of readings that are difficult. The NRSV adopts 85 readings like the “He will see light” reading. The NIV has adopted 22. At this early stage, there are about 100 better readings discovered in the Scrolls that have been proposed for English translations. Some of the bibles that adopt these readings are the RSV, RSV and NIV. However, there are some that stick to the traditional Hebrew text, like the KJV. Those translations will not adopt the 1% better readings.

For those of you who don't keep track of this stuff - and to be honest, I don't track this stuff day in and day out.  The Dead Sea Scrolls is considered the most important find of the last and of this century.