MS in Hebrew on vellum, Qumran, ca. 150-125 BC, 24 uninscribed fragments, largest 2,8x1,1 cm, from a scroll of 17 membranes, 26x734 cm, 54 columns, 28-32 lines.

Context: Part of the Great Isaiah A Scroll, 1QIsa, now in Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Of the present MS, 8 fragments, largest 1,1x1,0 cm, come from the lower edge of the scroll; 6 fragments, largest 1,3x0,9 cm, from the cover; 9 fragments, largest 2,8x1,1 cm, are repair vellum; a repair thread, 3,0 cm sewn into a vellum fragment, 2,0x0,4 cm, comes from the lower edge of column XII. In addition there are 8 bits of linen thread from the cloth in which the scroll originally was wrapped.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (ca. 150 BC-68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 1 (68-1947); 3. Muhammad Adh-Dhib of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1947); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1947-48); 5. Syrian orthodox Monastery of St. Mark (Metropolitan Athanasius Samuel), Jerusalem (1948); 6. Gift to John C. Trever, Jerusalem, Claremont and Laguna Hills, California (1948-1994).

Commentary: The Great Isaiah A Scroll is the earliest complete MS of any of the books of the Bible. The vellum cover of the scroll is lost, apart from the present 6 fragments.

Published: (without the present fragments) Millar Burrows, John C. Trever and William H. Brownlee: The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark's Monastery. vol. I, New Haven, The American School of Oriental Research, 1950; and facsimiles in: John C. Trever: Scrolls from Qumran Cave I, Jerusalem, The Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, and Shrine of the Book.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

MS iin Hebrew on brown leather, Qumran, ca. 80-30 BC, 1 fragment from a scroll, 3,0x8,5 cm remaining, part of 1 column, (3,0x8,5 cm), 4 lines in a good Herodian Hebrew book script.

Context: Judges is only represented on fragments from the 3 Dead Sea Scrolls 1QJudg in Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, and 4QJudga+b, in Jerusalem: Rockefeller Museum.

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

Commentary: The earliest witness to this part of the Bible. The oldest biblical manuscript in private ownership. Preliminary description based on information from Dr. James H. Charlesworth, who will publish the MS in the DJD series and in the Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project.

See also MS 4611, The Leviticus Dead Sea Scroll, Qumran, 30 BC - 68 AD

MS in Hebrew on dark brown leather, Qumran, 30 BC-68 AD, fragment of a scroll, 10x7 cm, part of 1 column, (6,5x5,4 cm), 8 lines in a fine regular Herodian Hebrew book script, upper edge preserved 3,6 cm.

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 Joel scrolls. The text is wholly or partly preserved on the following Dead Sea Scrolls: Joel 4:1 - 16: MurXII (DJD II:88) undated, Joel 4:4 - 9: 4QXIIg (DJD XV:82), 30-1 BC, Joel 4:1 - 2: Septuagint 8HevXIIgr (DJD VIII) late 1st c. BC. The present Joel 4:3 will be the 2nd earliest witness to the text if MurXII has an earlier date, but will be the earliest witness, if MurXII has a later date. The leather is so darkened that the text can only be read via infrared photography.

See also MS 2713, The Joshua Dead Sea Scroll, Qumran, late 1st c. BC - early 1st AD

See also MS 1926/4, The Daniel B Dead Sea Scroll, Qumran, 4 BC-68 AD

MS in Aramaic on papyrus, Qumran, ca. 50 BC, 1 fragment, 6,8x2,1 cm, part of right side of a column, (5,9x1,6 cm), part of 7 lines in a late semiformal Hasmonaean Hebrew book script.

Context: Part of the column next to fragment 8 of 4Qpap.TobitAar=4Q196 (ca. 50 BC). 4QTobitCar=4Q198 (ca. 50 BC) has parts of the same text, both published in DJD XIX, pl. I-VIII.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (ca 50 BC -68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 4 (68-1956); 3. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1956-1972); 4. American priest, later serving in Switzerland (1972-1995).

Commentary: This MS with the other fragments of 4Q196, is the earliest witness to this part of the Bible. Tobit (or Tobias) was written in the 5th or 4th c. BC, and is an apochryphal book in the Hebrew Bible, but part of the Septuagint. The present text is Tobit's instructions given when he was at the point of death in Nineveh, to his son Tobias and his seven sons, ordering them to hurry away to Media, as Assyria and Babylonia will not be safe according to the prophets' of Israel. The present Aramaic text is rather different from the Septuagint, and shorter.

The allocation of this MS to 4Q196 was kindly communicated by Florentino Garcia Martinez.

MS in Aramaic on vellum, Qumran, ca. 4 BC-68 AD, 3 fragments, 2,8x2,5 cm, 2,3x2,9 cm, 1,3x1,0 cm, part of 2+1+2 lines in a Herodian Hebrew book script, from a scroll of 4 membranes, 31x283 cm remaining, 22 columns, ca. 34 lines. Further 2 pieces of contemporary vellum repair material, 3,5x1,1 cm and 3,4x0,6 cm.

Context: Part of the Dead Sea Scroll 1QApocGen, now in Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. The 2 larger fragments from the present MS apparently matches the top of columns I and II. The rest of column I is lost, apart from remnants of the left margin, and fragments from 1Q20. The smallest fragment has not yet been placed.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (ca. 4 BC-68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 1 (68-1947); 3. Muhammad Adh-Dhib of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1947); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1947-48); 5. Syrian orthodox Monastery of St. Mark (Metropolitan Athanasius Samuel), Jerusalem (1948); 6. Gift to John C. Trever, Jerusalem, Claremont and Laguna Hills, California (1948-1994).

Commentary: Originally written 1st half of 2nd c. BC, the Genesis Apocryphon is a form of parabiblical literature, which retells the story of parts of Genesis, embellishing it and adding haggadic details. It should probably be called more properly "Book of the Patriarchs", because it recounts in embellished form the stories of Noah and Abraham. It is related to the kind of literature one finds in the Book of Jubilees. Only one copy has been found of this unique text. This is the earliest Aramaic example of pseudoepigraphic literature that have come down to us, actually copied in the lifetime of Christ and the Apostles.

Published: (without the present fragments) Nahman Avigad and Yigael Yadin: A Genesis Apochryphon, Jerusalem, The Magnes Press of the Hebrew University, 1956. Published by Dr. Bruce Zuckerman and Dr. Marilyn Lundberg in: The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Newsletter, no. 12, Cincinnati, Ohio, Autumn 1996.

Exhibited: XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

MS in Hebrew on vellum, Qumran, late 1st c. BC - 68 AD, 12 fragments, 5,5x2,9 cm, 3,8x2,0 cm, 4,3x1,3 cm and smaller, part of columns 2 and 3, parts of up to 4 lines each on 2 or more layers sticking together, in a developed formal Herodian Hebrew book script by scribe A, from a scroll of 67 columns, 19 membranes, total length 9 m., Linen cloth from the wrapper sticking to most of the fragments. A piece of linen from the wrapper, 1,2x2,0 cm. 3 fragments with modern thick paper sticking.

Context: The Temple Scroll, with the fragments MSS 5095/1 and 5095/4, the scroll's linen wrapper MS 5095/2, and a palm leaf pen, MS 5095/3, were found together in a large jar with lid (still in Kando's shop in Jerusalem), in Cave 11 in 1956. The Temple Scroll is now in Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (early 1st c. - 68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 11 (68-1956); 3. Bedouins of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1956); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1956-1961); 5. Private collection, Switzerland (gift from Kando) (1961-1980) and heirs.

Commentary: The Temple Scroll is the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with its 9 m. The text was originally written ca. 150 BC, and purports to be the second Torah of the Community of Essenes, giving particularly attention to the way the Temple is to be reconstructed. The purpose of the scroll is to be a New Deuteronomy, a law for the remnant of Israel in the future. With the Manual of Discipline, the most important of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls.

Stylus of palm leaf with natural ink groove, Qumran, late 1st c. BC - 68 AD, 8,6x0,9x0,5 cm, dried ink remaining on the tip.

Context: For a Qumran inkwell, see MS 1655/2. The Temple Scroll, with the 12 fragments MS 5095/1, the scroll's linen wrapper MS 5095/2, and a palm leaf pen, MS 5095/3, were found together in a large jar with lid (still in Kando's shop in Jerusalem), in Cave 11 in 1956. The Temple Scroll is now in Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (early 1st c. - 68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 11 (68-1956); 3. Bedouins of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1956); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1956-1961); 5. Private collection, Switzerland (gift from Kando) (1961-1980) and heirs.

Commentary: The only surviving stylus or pen from Qumran.

Bronze inkwell, Khirbet Qumran, before 68 AD, with 2 basket type handles turning opposite direction on the concave top, round corpus, h. 8 cm, diam. 8 cm, with pedestal base, decoration of parallel incised lines around rim and around ink hole. Green patina.

Context: Found 1950 on the Khirbet Qumran site prior to the official excavations, together with a bronze miniature incense altar with 4 protruding horns at the corners, MS 1655/4. 4-5 other inkwells in bronze and clay were found during the excavations at Khirbet Qumran in 1951, 1953 and 1966-67. There exist only 2 more inkwells of the elaborate type of the present item. MS 1987/15 and one published by Nabil I. Khairy, Inkwells of the Roman Period from Jordan, in Levant 12(1980), pp. 155-162, figure 5a and plate 25D.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (until 68 AD); 2. Khirbet Qumran site (68-1950); 3. Members of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (ca. 1950); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1950-1953; 5. John Marco Allegro, Oxford and Manchester (1953-1963)?; 6. Private Collector, USA (1963-1975); 7. Fayez Barakat, Los Angeles, Cat. VI F.Z. 181(1975); 8. Mathias Komor, New York (1975-); 9. American Collector (-1992); 10. David Goldstein, Los Angeles (1992-1993).

Commentary: One of the inkwells found in Khirbet Qumran, and itcontains remains of a carbon ink (lampblack and gum), of the type used on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The 2 inkwells found in the "scriptorium" were of a plain cylindrical Roman type, another had a single vertical handle, while the present one is much more elaborate in the execution.

Published: Stephen Goranson: Qumran, a hub of scribal activity?, in: Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 20 no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 1994), pp. 36-39. The other Qumran inkwells are widely published by de Vaux, Allegro, Steckoll, Goranson and others.

Exhibited: 1. Treasures from the Dead Sea. Manchester museum, 1997; 2. XVI Congress of the International Organization for the study of the Old Testament. Faculty of Law Library, University of Oslo, 29 July - 7 August 1998.

Linen cloth, Qumran, late 1st c. BC - 68 AD, ca. 45x60 cm, the upper edge lacking, in a fine weave of 12x12 S-spun threads pr square cm, the warp and weft of fairly same thickness, the lower edge with border of 2 pairs of thicker parallel threads, 2 cm apart; with stains from the scroll, some tiny black gelatinised vellum fragments stitching. The cord to fasten the wrapper around the scroll, 85 cm long, made from 3 linen threads.

Context: The Temple Scroll, with the 12 fragments MS 5095/1, the scroll's linen wrapper MS 5095/2, and a palm leaf pen, MS 5095/3, were found together in a large jar with lid (still in Kando's shop in Jerusalem), in Cave 11 in 1956. The Temple Scroll is now in Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum. Smaller parts of the wrapper still stick to MS 5095/1. For similar wrappers from Cave 1, see DJD vol. I, Oxford 1955, G.M. Crowfoot: The linen textiles.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (early 1st c. - 68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 11 (68-1956); 3. Bedouins of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1956); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1956-1961); 5. Private collection, Switzerland (gift from Kando) (1961-1980) and heirs.

Commentary: The Temple Scroll is the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with its 9 m. The text was originally written ca. 150 BC, and purports to be the second Torah of the Community of Essenes, giving particularly attention to the way the Temple is to be reconstructed. The purpose of the scroll is to be a New Deuteronomy, a law for the remnant of Israel in the future. With the Manual of Discipline, the most important of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. The common way of keeping books, i.e. scrolls, in the ancient period, was to wrap them up or put them in cases, sometimes both, and then put them in a cupboard. In the later synagogues this cupboard was generally referred to as the Ark of the Law. Representation of it, with the doors open and the ends of the scrolls showing, are seen on Jewish gilt glass vessels found in the catacombs in Roma. To the present day, the Torah is a scroll with a scroll wrapper.

Pottery jar of cylindrical form (complete), Qumran, before 68 AD, h. 43 cm, diam. 21 cm, flattening sharply at top and bottom to a 15 cm wide collared neck, and a ring base respectively, 3 handles or rather horizontal lugs on the shoulders pierced with holes through which a string could be passed to retain the lid in position, lid now missing.

Context: About 40-50 jars were found in Qumran cave 1, nearly all broken and incomplete. 2 complete jars in The Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, 1 in The John Allegro Collection, Manchester, and 1 complete and most of the broken ones at Rockefeller Museum Jerusalem, a few other broken exemplars in museums in Jordan, Western Europe and USA.

Provenance: 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (until 68 AD); 2. Qumran cave, probably cave 1 (68- ca. 1948); 3. Members of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (ca. 1948-1952); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (ca. 1952-1953); 5. John Marco Allegro, Oxford and Manchester (1953-1963); 6. Sotheby's, London 11.11.1963:72; 7. H.M. Serota, Chicago (1963-1987); 8. Fayez Barakat, Los Angeles (1987-1991), Cat. Masterpieces in the Barakat Collection (1989):PF 1123; 9. Leonard Berman, Los Angeles (1991-1992); 10. David Goldstein, Los Angeles (1992-1993).

Commentary: This MS storage jar is mentioned in John Allegro: The Dead Sea Scrolls, Middlesex, Penguin, 1956, p. 77. Illustrated in: The Allegro Qumran Collection. Supplement to the Dead Sea Scrolls on microfiche, Ed.: George J. Brooke, Leiden, E. Brill, 1996, frames 10 (B10-C10), AQ. Pots 9-19, the photos taken 1963 at Prestburg. The jar was probably found in cave 1, the starting point of the most important and widely published and controversial archaeological MS find of this century. The hoard from 11 caves consists of ca. 16 intact or mainly intact scrolls and between 15,000 and 100,000 fragments from ca. 800 scrolls, containing about 600 different texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The discovery was a break-through for the study of Judaism and of the Old Testament with texts about 1000 years older than the MSS of the 10th c. previously known.