The Oldest Bible in the World
Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known Bible dated to the ninth or tenth century.
Biblical Literature
Ben Sira and the Qumran Literature, Manfred Lehmann, Revue de Qumran 3(1961), p.103-116.
Shortly after the first Dead Sea Scrolls became known to the scholarly world, Professor Albright stated (1): «The content of the new documents fits satisfactorily into the picture of Jewish literature in the Maccabean Age, which we have from the pseudoepigraphical literature . . . The undoubted fact that there are expressions and terms which […]
Biblical Literature
Overview Overview- Biblical Literature Primary sources The Letter of Aristeas- How the Jewish Law was Translated from Hebrew to Greek Mishnah Yadayim 3-5- The Debate Over the Biblical Canon Tosefta Yadayim 2-14- The Biblical Canon and Divine Inspiration Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 14b-15a- The Order of Scripture Secondary sources Jeremiah, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the […]
Isaiah Scroll, The, Francolino J. Goncalves, Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman), Doubleday, New York 1992.
ISAIAH SCROLL, THE (1QIsaa) Nineteen copies of the book of Isaiah have been found among the Qumran biblical mss. Most of these are very fragmentary. The most important among them are two scrolls coming from cave 1, in particular the scroll 1QIsa.a The second, 1QIsab, only preserves a part of the text of Isaiah, because […]
The Isaiah Scroll
1QIsaa was among the first mss first discovered by the bedouin at the end of 1946 or the beginning of 1947. It was also the first to be identified. Physically, the scroll is made up of seventeen sheepskin sheets, sewn together by a linen thread. Its average height is 26.2 cm, and it is 7.34 […]
Isaiah Scroll: 1QIsa B
IQIsab is a second copy of the biblical book of Isaiah from Qumran Cave I. The orthography (spelling) in this scroll is defective and more like the Masoretic text (i.e., the ordinary Hebrew Bible) than the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsa) which employs the full orthography more typical of the Qumran scrolls. Excerpted […]
Jubilees, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia 1994.
The Dead Sea Scrolls A more extensive rewriting of the Book of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus (through chapter 14) is the Book of Jubilees, usually dated to the second century B.C.E. Twelve Qumran manuscripts of this text have been identified. Jubilees is quoted in the Zadokite Fragments (dated to c. 100–75 B.C.E.); Qumran […]
Genesis Apocryphon, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia 1994.
One of the works found in cave 1 among the original scrolls was the previously unknown Genesis Apocryphon. Fragments were later found in cave 4 as well. This scroll retells the patriarchal narratives, at least as far as the text has been preserved, covering the period from Lamech to Abraham. It is one of the […]
Overview: Apocryphal Literature
The Dead Sea Scrolls Apocryphal compositions are essentially rewritten Biblical passages which either retell or supplement the biblical text. These compositions are represented as independent works and not as commentaries to the Bible. As similar material was found at Masada, whose inhabitants seem to have practiced Pharisaic law, these types of texts are assumed to […]
The Targumim, Emanuel Tov, Textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Fortress Press, Minneapolis 1992.
The Dead Sea Scrolls B. Grossfeld, A Bibliography of Targum Literature, vols. 1–2 (Cincinnati/New York 1972, 1977). P.S. Alexander, “Jewish Aramaic Translations of Hebrew Scriptures,” in- Mulder, Mikra, 217–253; J. Gray, “The Massoretic Text of the Book of Job, the Targum and the Septuagint Version in the Light of the Qumran Targum (11QtargJob),” ZAW 86 […]