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Pentateuch Dead Sea Scroll | MS 5439/1

PENTATEUCH DEAD SEA SCROLL (4QRPb=4Q364/8a)

MS 5439/1
MS Short Title PENTATEUCH DEAD SEA SCROLL (4QRPb=4Q364/8a)
Text BIBLE: GENESIS 37:8
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.
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.
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.
Commentary Probably the oldest Dead Sea Scroll written in square script, among the 10 oldest Biblical MSS known. It represents an independent text family that differs both from the proto-Masoretic and the pre-Samaritan texts.
Published Émile Puech, published as 4QGenesis-Exodusa, 2010. T. Elgvin, ed.: Gleanings from the Caves. Dead Sea Scrolls and Artifacts in The Schøyen Collection, London T&T Clark, 2013.
Place of origin Jerusalem
Dates 170-150 BC