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Text |
PENTATEUCH DEAD SEA SCROLL (4QRPB=4Q364/8A)
BIBLE: GENESIS 37:8 |
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Description |
MS in Hebrew on red-brown vellum, Jerusalem, 170-150 BC, 1 fragment of a scroll, 2,9x7,4 cm, (0,3x3,5 cm remaining), 1 line in a late archaic or early Hasmonean semiformal book script, last line of 1 column with 2,3 cm lower margin preserved. |
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Context |
With MS 5439/2 attached to the right end of the MS.
Genesis 37:8 is not preserved on any other Dead Sea Scroll, so that the present MS is the earliest witness to this verse.
The scroll predates the Qumran settlement by 2 generations and was probably written in the Temple in Jerusalem. It was made on carefully prepared vellum with wide margins, which attests to its importance. It was brought to Qumran when or after the Essenes established their community there around 100 BC. The scroll may have been treasured by the Yahad-related community at Qumran as a high quality scroll demonstrating their roots in Jerusalem. |
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Provenance |
1. The Temple, Jerusalem (ca. 170-100 BC); 2. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (ca. 100 BC-68 AD); 3. Qumran Cave 4 (68-1952); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1952-1965), Lebanon (1965-1969), Zürich (1969-1993); 5. The Kando Family collection, Zürich (1993-2010), acquired May 2010. |
