mP, different eye witness accounts, different versions. Each witness saw it from a different perspective. The MS are quite uniform in their renderings. There are many differences in spelling, but few major theological changes have been made. Most of these occur in the miniscules, often where a footnote is incorporated in the text.
I remember the dating of the Qumran compound and the times it was inhabited, also involves a major earthquake. This one occurred in 31 BCE. No doubt about that one. The next earthquake can be seen in the layers after that. I can't fault the methods of the archaeologists and geologists.They use the evidence that is available. The website http://www.icr.org/article/greatest-earthquakes-bible/ has the following report:
In 31 BCE, a large earthquake occurred along the Jericho Fault on the western side of the Dead Sea. The earthquake dried up Qumran’s main spring and severely cracked the architecture. Spectacular evidence of the earthquake is seen at recent excavations at Qumran in cracked stair steps within the ritual baths. Grooved fault surfaces (what geologists call “slickensides”) and ground rupture within lake sediment can be observed just south of Qumran. Josephus wrote of the regional devastation from the earthquake, and he said 30,000 men perished. The survivors buried the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran lay abandoned after the earthquake.
An outcrop of laminated Dead Sea sediment can be seen at Wadi Ze’elim above the southwestern shore of the modern Dead Sea near the fortress of Masada. In this sediment outcrop is a distinctive one-foot thick “mixed layer” of sediment that is tied strongly to the Qumran earthquake’s onshore ground ruptures of 31 BCE. Thirteen inches above the 31 BCE event bed is another distinctive “mixed layer” less than one inch thick. The sedimentation rate puts this second earthquake about 65 years after the 31 BCE earthquake. It seems that the crucifixion earthquake of 33 CE was magnitude 5.5, leaving direct physical evidence in a thin layer of disturbed sediment from the Dead Sea.In 31 BCE, a large earthquake occurred along the Jericho Fault on the western side of the Dead Sea. The earthquake dried up Qumran’s main spring and severely cracked the architecture. Spectacular evidence of the earthquake is seen at recent excavations at Qumran in cracked stair steps within the ritual baths. Grooved fault surfaces (what geologists call “slickensides”) and ground rupture within lake sediment can be observed just south of Qumran. Josephus wrote of the regional devastation from the earthquake, and he said 30,000 men perished. The survivors buried the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran lay abandoned after the earthquake.