Updated American Standard Version
Giving Bible readers what God said not what translators think God meant
In the spring of 1947, a Bedouin shepherd threw a stone into a cave, marking an event that would be heard around the world, making the name “Dead Sea Scrolls” more known than any other associated with archaeology.
Judaism has always been a book religion: it stands or falls with the Old Testament, especially with the Pentateuch. Although no manuscript of the Hebrew Old Testament is older than the 10th-century B.C.E, save for one papyrus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, we know, from citations, translations, etc., that the consonantal text of the Old Testament was in the 1st century C.E. practically what it is today.
The Old Testament, the inspired Word of God, how was it copied, maintained as to the textual reliability, and handed down throughout the past three thousand five hundred years?
How do paleographers place an accurate date on very old ancient Hebrew Old Testament Bible manuscripts? In 1948, this was the problem that was before Dr. John C. Trever (1916 - 2006) was a Biblical scholar and archaeologist, who was involved in the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. When Dr. Trever first laid eyes on the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, he pondered just this question.
How the Hebrew Scriptures, as part of the inspired Word of God, were copied, preserved as to textual integrity, and transmitted down to this day.