It has already been mentioned on several other blogs recently but since I'm such a huge fan of Glenn Beck (tongue-in-cheek), I thought I'd weigh in too. Once again, the nonsensical Beck with all of his twisted theology and out of whack history, has given his -2 cents on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Instead of me recounting the entire rant in type here for you, just go ahead and listen to the video.
Adding to some points that have already been made (e.g. that the Apostle's Creed was not the product of Nicea but rather, the Nicene Creed was, that the DSS were not from the Constantine era but rather centuries before, that the DSS do not contain ANY NT documents but rather OT ones (all of which were rejected for canonical inclusion), and that neither the canonization nor binding of the Bible happened at Nicea), I wish to shed some light on the matter.
First, the significance of the DSS comes first and foremost in the fact that they tell us about the period of 2nd Temple Judaism. Again, there are no New Testament documents among the DSS manuscripts. So, Beck, you are way off base here when you are speaking about "scripture" and the precise importance of the DSS. Second, the texts really have nothing to do with the Jesus Movement. In fact, what they show has to do with ancient Jewish sects (e.g. the Essenes) and how they lived and thought. This is a far cry from having anything to do with the Constantinian era!!! Third, while the DSS may well be the greatest archeological find ever, they really reveal nothing ground-breaking in terms of "Christian heritage." So much for your history-object lesson Glenn! Fourth, the DSS contain a host of manuscripts that both shed light on and prove the reliability of the Hebrew & Aramaic portions of the Hebrew Bible (especially from a text-critical standpoint). Indeed, they add credibility to the much later Textus Receptus of the MT which underly a great majority of our English translations. Glenn, it looks like you're just a little more than a handful of centuries off (forward and backward) on your theories, so, please, just shut up already! Fifth, if you had just made an analogy without trying to act like you knew what you were talking about, you might have made sense. But alas, as usual, you let your ignorance and arrogance run the show and for that, many people are now stupider than they were before they listened to you (which I suppose is often the case)! Sixth, it was the Essenes, which may sound a little like the last half of "Constantine" that are responsible for the scrolls! These are people who lived many centuries before a thought of Constantine ever existed! Seventh, among the DSS there are thousands of MSS that are non-biblical, which today are certainly not considered Scripture. Eighth, it has been proven time and again that 7Q4 and 7Q5 (which you, Mr. Beck probably have never even heard of!) have no relationship to the Gospels and as such, had no part to play in the formation of the Nicene Creed nor any other creed. I think you should stop reading religious conspiracy novels like those by Barbara Thiering and start getting your facts straight before you speak about such things! Ninth, the scrolls were hidden during the first century CE in a time of revolt...centuries before Constantine was around; this had nothing to do with Constantine or anyone else during his time corrupting religion and forcing people to ban their faiths! Tenth and finally, if I were you, I would be careful about depositing things in my child's body...you might just get in big trouble for that!
Oh, and one last thing. I know that there are many of you nationalistic Christians out there who love Mr. Beck. Even when he has challenged the heart of the Scriptures and I have called it out on me, I have had so-called Christians come back and accuse me of being in the wrong, not him. I anticipate that may happen again. Whatever! It is time for Christians in this country to stop worshiping the idol of politics and the idols of political voices. I think it is high time to get Beck off air, send him out into the wilderness where his voice cannot be heard and to shut him up. It never ceases to amaze me that people will hang on every word of a figure like Glenn Beck and defend him to his death (by the way, hey Liberty University, have you repented yet?) but not take the time to really see through the shallowness of what he says and does. Come on Christians, get your acts together! Do your homework and stop relying on this bungling bag of hot air for your facts! We've got a lot riding on all this and we need to stop giving our pearls to swine!
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