LEVITICUS DEAD SEA SCROLL

MS 4611
MS Short Title

THE LEVITICUS DEAD SEA SCROLL

Text

BIBLE: LEVITICUS 26:3 - 9, 33 - 37

Description

MS in Hebrew on light brown leather, Qumran, 30 BC-68 AD, part of a scroll, 9,0x21,2 cm, column I: (5,0x7,2 cm), 9 lines; column II: (5,0x6,5 cm), 8 lines, in a good Herodian Hebrew book script, upper edge preserved 3,8 cm, intercolumn spaces 2,2 - 2,3 - 2,3 cm, blindruled with 4 verticals and 9 horizontals.

Provenance

1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (30 BC-68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 4 (68-1952); 3. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1952-1956); 4. Private collection, Switzerland (1956-1995).

Commentary

This is a unique, new scroll, not belonging to any other Leviticus scrolls. Leviticus 26:3 - 9 is the earliest witness to this part of the Hebrew Bible, only preceded by the Septuagint 4QLXXLeva (DJD IX:119), dated to 1st c. BC. Leviticus 26:33 is the 2nd oldest witness to the text, only preceded by 4QLev-Numa (DJD XII:23), dated to middle or 2nd half of 2nd c. BC (Early Hasmonaean). Leviticus 26:34 - 37 is the earliest witness to the text.

Published

Émile Puech: Un autre manuscrit du Lévitique, in: Revue de Qumran 21 (2003), 311-313. This was an unauthorized publication, and made without access to the original. The official publication that is part of the Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection series is Gleanings from the Caves (Bloomsbury 2016), lead editor Torleif Elgvin.

Exhibited

NorFa - Nordic network in Qumran studies. Symposium in Oslo 3-5. June 2004.

Place of origin Qumran
Dates 30 BC - 68 AD