29 May
2010

Posted in: Church History
By anabaptist    25 Comments

In defense of Glenn Beck’s beliefs about the Dead Sea Scrolls

Here’s what Glenn Beck said and believes about the Dead Sea Scrolls:

All right. So here’s what happened. When Constantine decided he was going to uh… cobble together an army, um, he did the uh… Council of uh… Nicaea, right, Pat? …
Council of Nicaea. Um… and what they did is brought all of the religious figures, uhh, together, all the Christians and then they said, “Ok, let’s uh, put together the Apostles’ Creed, let’s, you know, you guys do it.” So they brought all their religious scripture together, and that’s when the Bible was first bound and everything else. And then they said, “Anybody that disagrees with this is a heretic and… off with their head!” Well, that’s what the Dead Sea Scrolls are. The Dead Sea Scrolls are those scriptures that people had at the time that they said, “They are destroying all of this truth.” Whether it’s truth or not is, is up to the individual, but that… at that time those people thought that this was something that needed to be preserved and so they rolled up the scrolls and they put ‘em in clay pots and they, they put ‘em in the back of caves where no one could find them. They were hidden scripture because everything was being destroyed that disagreed with the Council of Nicaea and Constantine. That’s what those things are.

What I’m going to do is defend Glenn Beck here on what he got right. I will repost the words and strike what is incorrect. The remainder (what is either correct or at least possibly correct) will be in blue.

All right. So here’s what happened. When Constantine decided he was going to uh… cobble together an army, um, he did the uh… Council of uh… Nicaea, right, Pat? …
Council of Nicaea. Um… and what they did is brought all of the religious figures, uhh, together, all the Christians and then they said, “Ok, let’s uh, put together the Apostles’ Creed, let’s, you know, you guys do it.” So they brought all their religious scripture together, and that’s when the Bible was first bound and everything else. And then they said, “Anybody that disagrees with this is a heretic and… off with their head!” Well, that’s what the Dead Sea Scrolls are. The Dead Sea Scrolls are those scriptures that people had at the time that they said, “They are destroying all of this truth.” Whether it’s truth or not is, is up to the individual, but that… at that time those people thought that this was something that needed to be preserved and so they rolled up the scrolls and they put ‘em in clay pots and they, they put ‘em in the back of caves where no one could find them. They were hidden scripture because everything was being destroyed that disagreed with the Council of Nicaea and Constantine. That’s what those things are.

There you go. Here’s where he was spot on:

• “All right.” Can’t argue with that.
• “uh … um … uh” I won’t take exception to those. We all say them.
• “right, Pat?” Pat exists, and Beck asked him a question.
• “Council of Nicea” A real historical event.
• “Whether it’s truth or not is, is up to the individual,” Can’t really disagree with that when you’re speaking of truth in a relative sense. Some people believe the Dead Sea Scrolls contain truth, others do not.
• “rolled up the scrolls and … put ‘em in clay pots and … put ‘em in the back of caves where no one could find them.” While wrong about who “they” were, it’s quite possible the real folks behind the DSS did what Beck said. Could be someone else moved them around later. Could be any number of possibilities.
• “They were hidden scripture” No problem with that.

As for what was incorrect, I am waiting for those who are Glenn Beck supporters and defenders to speak up. I’d like to see their perspective on this. We all know what the history shows. Is this going to be similar to the Ergun Caner situation? I pray not.

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