31. THE TEN COPIES OF ISAIAH IN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE BOOK OF MORMON:
The GREAT ST. MARKS ISAIAH SCROLL from cave 1 of Qumran, "was found to be marked, mainly in the margins, (sometimes between the lines, sometimes in Hebrew written backwards, called ATBASH, and most often by the mark of the Tau, an X, later perhaps incorporated in to XMAS?) with a number of symbols. In the Isaiah MS there are a dozen of these symbols, all different. Some of them look like the letters of the Greek alphabet. One or two of them like combinations of others. It is not in every case possible to determine which is the column and line of the text that is being marked, but it may well be that these symbols represent some kind of exegetical code. By way of experiment let us take first passages marked with one of the symbols as X or Greek chi, and then some marked variously with other symbols" SHONFIELD p. 49. He then identifies from ISAIAH: xxxii. l, xlii. l, 6, and 21, xliv. 28, xlix. 7. Liv. 14, lv. 4, lvi. 1, lviii. 13, lxvi. 5. Compare these with those quoted in the Book of Mormon. Then on page 50, he continues: "It is obvious that some of these passages are identical with those regarded as prophet of Christ and Christianity. But they exactly reflect the Messianic expectations and the teaching of the new Covenant Party." Then SHONFIELD lists another set of references that are identified on the scroll by different symbols: ISAIAH: vii. 8, viii, 16, 19, ix. 2, xxviii, 15, xxix. 13, 21, xxxiii. 1, xl. Ii, xliii. 14, xliv. 1, xlv. 1, xlviii. 20, xlix. 5, 8, li. 7, lii. 7, liii. 1, 5. On page 51, he lists other passages that are also identified by the strange use of symbols: ISAIAH: iii. 1, v. 30, vii. 20, viii. 8, xi. 15, xxi. 12-13, xxx. I., xli. 1, 4, 16, 21, xlii. 12, xlv. 11, xlix. 1, lxi. 9, lvii. 5, lxiv. 12, lxv. 1, lxvi.4. He then points out: "Here again some of the passages were employed as proof texts by Christian as well as by the Qumran Community. .If we are correct in suggesting that the signs have to do with prophetic exegesis we have an important piece of evidence relating to the last period of the Community's existence, where it appears to begin to link on to the Judaeo-Christians." An LDA student of the Book of Mormon will recognize the connection with the use of ISAIAH in the Book of Mormon through these marked passages and the doctrines they expound concerning the Christ. SHONFIELD continues on page 51. "But it is at least obvious that the Nazarenes (a very early Christian group) employed the same method of exegesis as the Commentators of the New Covenant Community. It is also to be noted that out of six passages where Jerome gives the interpretation of the Nazarenes no less than four are identical with marked passages in the Isaiah Scroll. The LDS student will find many many more.