In my own personal study of Isaiah, I’ve come across a less known and less studied Dead Sea Scroll, 4QIsao (4Q68), that preserves some insightful, even peculiar details. It dates paleographically to 100-50 BC which makes it a little younger than the more popular 1QIsaa.
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In this photo of 4QIsao, you’ll notice several yellow underlines, two red underlines, and one blue underline. Seven yellow underlines draw our attention to some peculiar uses of a final mem used in non-final position. From my experience, this feature is seldom evidenced in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Has anyone seen a comparable text?
The red underlines refer to two orthographic variants. In these two instances, the scribe of 4QIsao transcribes the more common form of “night” לילה for the MT’s less common form ליל. The difference here regards spelling and that of only one letter – a heh – and probably represents a facilitating approach to copying the text since the form of 4QIsao is the more common spelling.
Finally, the blue underline draws our attention to an ancient textual variant. Here is a breakdown of the textual evidence in MT, 1QIsaa, and 4QIsao.
The witnesses are all genetically related and concern three interchanges: 1) interchange of bet (MT/4QIsao) and mem (1QIsaa), 2) interchange of vav (MT/1QIsaa) and yod (4QIsao), 3) and transposition of dalet and ayin (MT vs. 1QIsaa and 4QIsao). Each of these interchanges is common in the Jewish Square Script. The MT is probably the more original reading with the two Dead Sea Scrolls trying to make sense of the MT’s difficulty. The difficulty of the MT is further evidenced in the Septuagint’s confused translation of καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν τοῦ εἶναι. Since at least the second century BC, the difficulty of the MT appears to have puzzled scribes and translators.
Overall, this manuscript stands out for its peculiar usage of final mem in non-final position, a feature that marks it as exceptional among Dead Sea Scrolls. The rest of the scroll is typical for Qumran texts, fragmentarily preserving a biblical text that aligns very closely with Codex Leningrad, matching it at 97.77% when excluding two spelling differences. While it contains one insightful textual variant at Isaiah 14:31, this variant appears to interpret the MT in light of its context. In a small but meaningful way, 4QIsao affirms the fidelity of the Masoretic tradition. Its text is nearly identical to it, and when it diverges, it does so in predictable ways.
The red underlines refer to two orthographic variants. In these two instances, the scribe of 4QIsao transcribes the more common form of “night” לילה for the MT’s less common form ליל. The difference here regards spelling and that of only one letter – a heh – and probably represents a facilitating approach to copying the text since the form of 4QIsao is the more common spelling.
Finally, the blue underline draws our attention to an ancient textual variant. Here is a breakdown of the textual evidence in MT, 1QIsaa, and 4QIsao.
MT (Isa 14:31) | 1QIsaa (Isa 14:31) | 4QIsao (Isa 14:31) | |||
וְאֵין בּוֹדֵד בְּמוֹעָדָיו | And there is not one who separates in his ranks | ואין מודד במודעיו | And there is not one who measures (out punishment) for his kinsmen | ואין] בודד בםידעיו | And there is not] one who separates among his friends |
The witnesses are all genetically related and concern three interchanges: 1) interchange of bet (MT/4QIsao) and mem (1QIsaa), 2) interchange of vav (MT/1QIsaa) and yod (4QIsao), 3) and transposition of dalet and ayin (MT vs. 1QIsaa and 4QIsao). Each of these interchanges is common in the Jewish Square Script. The MT is probably the more original reading with the two Dead Sea Scrolls trying to make sense of the MT’s difficulty. The difficulty of the MT is further evidenced in the Septuagint’s confused translation of καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν τοῦ εἶναι. Since at least the second century BC, the difficulty of the MT appears to have puzzled scribes and translators.
Overall, this manuscript stands out for its peculiar usage of final mem in non-final position, a feature that marks it as exceptional among Dead Sea Scrolls. The rest of the scroll is typical for Qumran texts, fragmentarily preserving a biblical text that aligns very closely with Codex Leningrad, matching it at 97.77% when excluding two spelling differences. While it contains one insightful textual variant at Isaiah 14:31, this variant appears to interpret the MT in light of its context. In a small but meaningful way, 4QIsao affirms the fidelity of the Masoretic tradition. Its text is nearly identical to it, and when it diverges, it does so in predictable ways.