The Dead Sea Scrolls With Kipp Davis

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Dan McClellan (0:31)

There have been fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls that have popped up on the market in the last 20 or so years. And so how many of these fragments have surfaced and were purchased, I think since 2002?

Kipp Davis (0:42)

I've counted around 80

Dan McClellan (0:46)

80?

SPEAKER_1 (0:47)

Yeah.

Dan McClellan (0:48)

But you and a handful of others were able to gain access to some of these and conduct some analysis, which resulted in a pretty attention-grabbing conclusion, which was what?

Kipp Davis (1:03)

We're suspicious that probably all of them are forgeries.

Dan McClellan (1:13)

Hey everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:14)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:16)

And you are listening to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How go things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:29)

Good, good. I've made some plans. I've booked a trip to the Museum of the Bible to see fragments of The Dead Sea Scrolls, which I hear is going to be a great...

Oh, wait. Well, maybe that won't work out. We've got an expert on to help us with that.

Dan McClellan (1:46)

Speaking of which, let's introduce our guest for today. This is an old friend of mine. This is Kipp Davis. He is a public scholar of the Hebrew Bible with specializations in early Judaism and The Dead Sea Scrolls. Thank you so much for being here, Kipp.

Kipp Davis (2:00)

Hey, guys. It's good to see you.

Yeah, I'm afraid to tell you, Dan, that if you're going to go see Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Museum of the Bible, you're going to be disappointed.

Dan Beecher (2:12)

What?

Kipp Davis (2:12)

You might have actually been disappointed while they were still there.

Dan McClellan (2:16)

Just as part of your general disappointment with the whole experience.

SPEAKER_5 (2:20)

With the Museum of the Bible.

Dan McClellan (2:22)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (2:25)

I like any show where we can start off by sort of pooping on the Green family's failed attempt at anything.

Dan McClellan (2:34)

So a little inside baseball here. I don't know if anybody gets in trouble for this, but I went to a Bible translation conference several years ago, going on probably eight or nine years ago, and I was talking with some folks, and Bible translation is significantly funded by the Greens through a variety of different organizations. And what some of the consultants were telling me was that it is widely known that the Greens believe or somebody among them, and I'm just passing on what I was told as an outsider that the idea is as soon as the Bible is translated into every language in the world, that will catalyze the second coming.

That that funding is... Is that talked about in their book?

Kipp Davis (3:31)

Some of that is mentioned in here. I mean, this is a phenomenal book.

Dan Beecher (3:34)

What's the book for those listeners who can't see what's happening?

Kipp Davis (3:38)

This is Candida Moss and Joel Baden's book on the Green family.

Bible Nation, the United States of Hobby Lobby, which is just... The title is just...

Dan Beecher (3:50)

Apparently, the hobby that they're engaged in is bringing about the apocalypse. So that's a nice hobby.

Kipp Davis (3:56)

It's a big part of it. It is. That's a fun hobby.

Dan McClellan (3:58)

I've had other folks who also work in Bible translation tell me that one of the huge concerns is that the funding is all going to just pumping out more languages, and they're not doing all the work that goes along with it, like literacy programs, like more research for translators so that they can ensure that their translations are better, all that kind of stuff. It's just pump out more translations, go, go, go.

And in the hopes that they will bring the second coming as an even faster thief in the night.

Dan Beecher (4:35)

Let's get off of the Hobby Lobby Green family and get into some more interesting stuff. Kipp Davis, thank you for joining us.

Dan McClellan (4:42)

You didn't give me an opportunity to say get off the Hobby Lobby horse.