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Bible scholar James Tabor tries to intervene in the turbulence surrounding Wes Huff, Joe Rogan, Billy Carson und so weiter. The two videos above deal with the "top 10 differences" between the standard Masoretic Text (MT) of the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls (which are over 1000 years older). I have to admit that the highlighted differences aren´t as dramatic as I perhaps expected. I suppose discrepancies between Bible manuscripts are a problem for the absolutely most hardcore Christian fundamentalists, since it raises the question about what exactly is "divinely inspired" and why God didn´t see fit to preserve the "original paragraphs". I´m less sure if anyone else needs to bother. 

On some points, the Dead Sea Scrolls actually strengthen the Christian case (such as it is). Thus, Tabor argues that Psalm 22 really does say "they pierced my hands and my feet". The MT has the incomprehensible "like a lion" instead. Since Christians see this particular psalm as a prophecy about the crucifixion of Jesus, arguments between Christians and Jews or between conservative and liberal Christians concerning the exact wording of the verse can become somewhat heated. Tabor de facto awards the conservative Christians the wreath of victory here.

Another example is the Servant Song in the Book of Isaiah, where the Dead Sea Scrolls says about the suffering servant (interpreted as Jesus by Christians) that "he sees light"  - perhaps a reference to a resurrection? A third example of a "pro-Christian" reading is that Deuteronomy in the Dead Sea Scroll version contains a verse about the Sabbath also found in Exodus 20:11. In the MT, Deuteronomy doesn´t contain this verse. Since Jesus apparently quotes and exegetes Deuteronomy (rather than Exodus) in the Gospels, this explains the anomaly of alluding to an Exodus-like passage not found in MT copies of the Second Law. Jesus had access to an earlier version of the Torah. 

Here, Tabor breaks the narrative to argue for the authenticity of the so-called Shapira scroll, which was discovered during the 19th century but condemned as a forgery. Tabor believes, on the contrary, that the manuscript might have been a "Dead Sea Scroll before the Dead Sea Scrolls". One of the reasons is precisely that it contains the Exodus verse on the Sabbath in a text from Deuteronomy. 

Other differences mentioned: the Dead Sea Scrolls contain 151 psalms with the apocryphal Psalm 151 being longer than in other versions, Deuteronomy 32:8 sounds less "Israel-nationalist" than in the MT, and Goliath wasn´t *impossibly* large (although still an imposing dude). 

Number one on Tabor´s list is the Book of Malachi, which in the Dead Sea version mentions two Messiahs rather than just one. Presumably, these are the Davidic Messiah (a more political figure) and the priestly ditto. In Christianity, these have been fused into one person (Jesus). Not sure what the Septuagint says about this.

Interesting, to be sure, but with the exception of the Shapira scroll, perhaps not the dynamite fanboys of Billy Carson might have hoped for...