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Show Archbishop Claims Ancient Scrolls Prove Prophecies CHICAGO, 111. Proof that Christ's coming actually was foretold fore-told before He came is contained in ancient religious scrolls discovered discov-ered in the Holy Land, a high Syrian religious authority reports. Mar Athansius Yeshu Samuel, the Syrian archbishop of Jerusalem, recently re-cently brought several of the scrolls to the United States. He said they also reveal where John the Baptist may have got the ideas he preached to the followers of Jesus, and the probable source of many Biblical phrases such as "I am the way, the truth and the life." He reported that as the result re-sult of study of the Isaiah scroll it is regarded as indisputable fact that Christ's coming was foretold long before the event took place. The scroll, which contains the entire en-tire book of Isaiah and verses fore-telling fore-telling the Mesiah, predates Christ's birth by several centuries and contradicts theories that the book and the prophecies were written writ-ten after the coming and merely made to conform with what was an already accomplished fact. The "Habbakuk commentary" scroll reveals the prophecies in the book of Habbakuk as applying to "specific historic events" instead of "vague symbolism," the archbishop arch-bishop said. Many persons believe the Isaiah scroll found in a Dead Sea cave was the same manuscript placed in Jesus' hands in the temple as a youth when His followers wanted to show Him how His coming had been awaited, as described in the New Testament. Many circumstances point to this belief, the archbishop said the location lo-cation of the cave, near where the temple probably stood; the careful state of preservation; and the likelihood like-lihood that these scrolls may have been placed there by close followers of Christ. But proof is difficult if not impossible and this phase of the scrolls' interpretation may remain re-main a permanent controversy. |