Qumr N Cave 4 Palaeo Hebrew And Greek Biblical Manuscripts By Patrick W Skehan Eugene Ulrich And Judith E Sanderson With A Contribution By P J Parsons

This volume inaugurates the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the main collection discovered in Cave 4 at Qumran. It continues six biblical manuscripts written in ancient Palaeo-hebrew script, four Septuagint manuscripts, and five hitherto unknown compositions. The Hebrew texts antedate by a millennium what had previously been the earliest surviving biblical codices in the original language, and they document the pluriform nature of the ancient biblical textual tradition before the text became standardized. The most extensive and significant manuscript exhibits the expanded textual tradition that formed the basis for the Samaritan Pentateuch and helps illuminate the historical and theological relationship between the Jews and Samaritans.

This volume inaugurates the publication of the series of biblical Dead Sea Scrolls written in the Jewish (or `square') script that were discovered in Cave 4 at Qumran. It contains twenty-six manuscripts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. These Hebrew texts antedate by a millenium what had previously been considered the earliest surviving biblical manuscripts in the original language. They document a pluriformity acceptable in the ancient biblical textual tradition that formed the basis for the Samaritan Pentateuch and helps to illumine the historical and theological relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans. Superior textual variants from these manuscripts have been adopted in recent revised translations of the Bible.

This definitive scholarly edition continues the publication of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran Cave 4. It contains twenty-four manuscripts of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Kings, antedating previous Hebrew texts by a millenium. The scrolls are valuable witnesses to the pluriform nature of the ancient biblical text and have been used for recent revised translation of the Bible.

Originally published in 1968, this volume is being reissued to make the entire series available to students and scholars of biblical and post-biblical Judaism and early Christianity.