‘The most stable of all the ancient texts there are’
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(Photo by Joe Kovacs)
(FAITHWIRE) — The Bible — the world’s bestselling book — has shaped cultures and societies for millennia, but what’s known about its origins?
A new documentary from CBN Films, “Oracles of God: The Story of the Old Testament,” relies on reenactments, expert interviews, and stunning visuals to help bring the Bible’s history to life, with director Erin Zimmerman explaining how God placed the project on her heart.
“The New Testament canon, while that took about 300 years to develop, the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible canon, was fairly quick,” she said. “There weren’t really disputes. The Jewish people … they sort of accepted the books as they came along.”
In addition to the fact the books presented in the Old Testament were well-accepted, she was also captivated by something else.
“What really struck me was the continuity of the text,” Zimmerman said. “And this really couldn’t have been proven before 1947, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.”
The director said the film explores how the Book of Isaiah — the only fully complete scroll among the Dead Sea Scrolls — is a standard that dates back to before Christ’s life. Prior to its discovery, the oldest copy of Isaiah went back to 1,000 A.D., but the older version exhibited the aforementioned continuity.
“When they found that Isaiah scroll in 1947, they did the comparisons and they found that the two texts are 95% identical, and the other 5% can pretty much be chalked up to grammar and spelling differences over a thousand years.”
This remarkable fact makes the Bible uniquely reliable.
“What our experts say is that the Bible is the most stable of all the ancient texts there are,” Zimmerman added. “And we’ve got the proof in the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Zimmerman said “Oracles of God” takes viewers on a remarkable journey of understanding the Bible’s unique story, with the project also having a profound impact on her own faith journey.