c. 125 BC complete 7.34-meter Hebrew parchment scroll from Qumran Cave 1 confirming the textual preservation of Isaiah
The crown jewel of the Dead Sea Scrolls: a complete 54-column leather scroll containing all 66 chapters of the Book of Isaiah, written a millennium earlier than the previously oldest surviving Hebrew manuscripts (Aleppo and Leningrad Codices).
Rigorous 4-part empirical analysis separating ancient text from bias and consensus
Column XLIV preserves Isaiah 53 (the Suffering Servant): 'Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.'
Demonstrates the staggering, virtually word-for-word textual fidelity of the Hebrew biblical text over 1,000 years of transmission, with 95%+ identical correspondence to the medieval Masoretic Text in Isaiah 53, with only minor orthographic and spelling variations.
In Isaiah 53:11, 1QIsaa reads 'Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see light and be satisfied', matching the Greek Septuagint against the Masoretic Text (which omitted 'light'), proving the ancient antiquity of the Septuagint reading.
Sacred communal scriptural text copied with extreme scribal reverence by the sectarian Essene community of Qumran.
