Fragments of the Book of Daniel

Writing in Archaeology and Bible History, Joseph P. Free reports: “Among the manuscripts found with the Isaiah scroll in the cave at the north end of the Dead Sea, three fragments examined by John Trever have proved to be sections of the book of Daniel (1:10-16; 2:2-6; 3:23-30). The forms of the letters are similar to the Isaiah manuscript, pointing to the first or second century B.C. as the date for these fragments of the Daniel text. It is significant that the text is substantially the same as that in the Hebrew Bibles which we now have, the chief differences having to do with the spelling of words. This provides another piece of evidence for the care with which the text of the Biblical books have been brought down to us.”