The above imaged Dead Sea Scroll fragment is published with the permission of Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California. The IR image is the product of the unusual skills of Bruce and Ken Zuckerman of West Semitic Research in Rolling Hills Estates, California.
For the transcription, see Nota Bene which allows diacritics and thinks right to left. The alignment approximates the arrangement of consonants on the leather and the margins for the edges of the fragment.
Codicology: width: circa 38 millimeters, four lines of text, black ink on brown leather, holes, especially a tear from above line three through line four, no margins, no horizontal or vertical lining visible; no writing on back. There is no division indicated before the beginning of verse six (end of line four).
Date: The fragment is too small to be cut for AMS C-14 analysis. While there are few consonants, one can judge the work to be mostly in a late Hasmonean Book Hand.
Palaeography: The scribal hand represents archaic forms that can be dated perhaps to 175 BCE and later forms that date from around 50 and even conceivably to 30 BCE (but we cannot ascertain when such forms first appeared).
Aleph: two examples, two strokes, stiff left leg as in the late Hasmonean book hand of c. 50 BCE (similar to 4QSama and 1QIsab).
Beth: three examples, two strokes, concave top, sloping lower horizontal line (similar to 4QSama and 1QIsab).
Gimel: one example, two strokes, bent initial vertical line (as in 4QSama and 1QIsab).
Daleth: two examples, two strokes, squared tops (as in 4QSama and 1QIsab).
He: three examples (not identical forms), two or three strokes, thick horizontal line that sometimes extends to the left with higher right shoulder (as in the Hasmonean Script of c. 125-100 BCE; cf. 4QDeute and 1QIsaa).
Waw and Yod: the Waw is longer, but both have a triangular head (as in 4QSama and 1QIsab).
Lamed: seven examples; one stroke, long form with flat horizontal line and curved right vertical extension, as 4QSama and 1QIsab (it continues in the later 1QM).
Mem: Final form with three examples, two forms, similar to 1QIsab.
Ayin: four examples that are different, two strokes showing a full form (not the small Ayin of earlier scripts), curved and sloping initial stroke as in 4QSama and 1QIsab (but also similar to 4QDeute and 1QIsaa).
Resh: two examples, a distinguishing consonant with one flowing curved stroke as in the Hasmonean semiformal script of c. 175-125 BCE (slightly later than 4QQoha).
Shin: one example, three strokes, curved right vertical form as in the Hasmonean Script (somewhere between 4QDeute or 1QIsaa and the later 4QSama and 1QIsab).
Taw: three partially preserved examples which are not identical; the final example has two strokes with raised first horizontal stroke and cured right shoulder as in 4QDeute and 1QIsaa.
It seems an old scribe, using archaic forms learned in his youth, copied this text sometime shortly after the middle of the first century BCE.
The scribe uses a mixture of scriptio continua and separated words. Final forms: three examples of a final Mem and a final Nun [and possibly part of a final Kaph]. The Waw and Yod along with the Resh and Daleth are distinguishable. Against both SP and MT, the author employs scriptio plena in line four: עולות.
Text: Deuteronomy 27:4b-6
Text Type: Either Samaritan Pentateuch or Text with the Original Reading. The fragment preserves two variants; these also appear in the Samaritan Pentateuch [see transcription and notes].
Provenience: The Arab who once owned the fragment claims it is from Qumran Cave IV.
Translation (line numbers denote the extant line, not the beginning of a line):
Line 1 (4) “[And when you have cross]ed the Jo[r]dan, you shall set u[p these stones, about which I charge you]
Line 2 today, on Mount Gerizim, and coat [them with plaster. (5) And there, you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of
Line 3 st]ones. [You must] not wield upon them an iron (tool). (6) [Of unhewn] st[ones you must build the altar of the LORD] yo
Line 4 ur [God], and you shall offer upon it burnt offerings to the LOR[D your God.]”
This text diverges from the MT: “(4) upon crossing the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, about which I charge you this day, on Mount Ebal, and coat them with plaster. (5) There, too, you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. Do not wield an iron tool over them; (6) you must build the altar of the LORD your God of unhewn stones. You shall offer on it burnt offerings to the LORD your God, (7)… .” [TANAKH]
Preliminary Reflections: If this copy of Deuteronomy is indeed from a Qumran Cave [and there are numerous reasons to affirm the reliability of the report], then we have addition evidence of the importance of this document at Qumran. The three books most popular at Qumran, according to statistics, are the Psalms (37 mss), Deuteronomy (30 mss [not counting the present fragment and the massive re-writing of Deuteronomy in the Temple Scroll]), and Isaiah (21 mss [but there are some fragments not yet announced]). When one recognizes that Deuteronomy is the only book in the Pentateuch that claims precisely that it is a record of Moses’ laws (viz., Dt 1:5; 4:8), gives prominence to the Torah (Law) and its interpretation, and mentions God’s covenant with Israel 26 times, one can readily comprehend why the scroll was popular to the Qumranites who stressed the interpretation of Torah (esp. in the Pesharim) and God’s “New Covenant” with them alone.
One should distinguish between a copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch and Old Readings (known in the Samaritan Pentateuch) that appear in pre-70 Hebrew Scrolls. We should resist the temptation to claim Samaritan traditions were present at Qumran (esp. 2QDeutc, 4QDeutd-g,i, o and 4QQpaleoDeutr). As far as I know, the only scholar who argued that fragments of SP were found at Qumran is M. Baillet. Emanuel Tov confirms my opinion (viva voce). Alleged Proto-Samaritan Scrolls at Qumran, namely 4QpaleoExodm, 4QExod-Levf, and 4QNumb, do not contain the striking Samaritan features of the Pentateuch such as the addition of an eleventh commandment and the command to build an altar on Mt. Gerizim (as we have in this fragment).
The close relation between the Samaritan Pentateuch and the received Pentateuch (the so-called MT) – especially in textual tradition and sense divisions – indicates that the Samaritans and Judeans (as conceivably some Galileans) separated late (perhaps during the time of John Hyrcanus) in the transmission of the Pentateuch. The present fragment challenges scholars to refine our terminology, especially the terms “Samaritan Pentateuch,” “Samaritan readings,” and “Proto-Samaritan” texts. We should keep in focus that a text with a reading found also in the Samaritan Pentateuch may well not be the result of editing by Samaritans; it may represent the original reading. Thus, the MT and other related text types may represent redaction by others, notably Jews in Judea, especially after the burning of the Samaritan “altar” by John Hyrcanus in the late second century BCE.
How are we to discern the text-type of this fragment of Deuteronomy? Two hypotheses seem apparent. First, it may be a copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch. In favor of this hypothesis are the following two observations: The fragment preserves the reading found only in the Samaritan Pentateuch: One is to build an altar on Mt. Gerizim. Similarly, it is a commandment (mizwot) of the Samaritans to write “Mount Gerizim” with seven letters (hrgrzim).
One might then add that it is impressive that the scribe wrote bhrgrzim and not bhr grizim. The scriptio continua clashes with the scribe’s practice of separating most words. The scribe probably thinks not of two separate things, a mountain and its name, but compresses all into one expression.
Are there problems with this hypothesis? Yes. It would be surprising to find that the Qumran Library, located in eleven caves, preserved copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch but no copies of texts that are clearly pro-Hasmonean (as with 1 Mac). I choose to refer to the Qumran Scrolls as belonging to a “Library” since it contains differing traditions (as in Princeton’s many libraries) and yet a concentration of texts that reflect a distinct type of sectarian Judaism. I find it significant that no copies of the Pharisaic-like Psalms of Solomon are discovered among the Qumran fragments.
The second hypothesis is markedly different. The original reading, “on Mount Gerizim,” is preserved on this fragment. Here are the reasons for this suggestion.
1) Most importantly, the text of Deuteronomy mentions two mountains: the Mountain of the Curse or Ebal and the Mountain of Blessing or Gerizim: “you shall pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal” (Deut 11:29 TANAKH). One would expect, therefore, that the author or compiler of Deuteronomy wrote that Moses conveyed the instruction to build God’s altar on Mount Gerizim and not Ebal as in the received text of Deut 27:4. Moreover, just a few lines later we hear the following: “After you have crossed the Jordan … stand on Mount Gerizim when the blessing for the people is spoken” (Deut 27:11 TANAKH). One would have expected the author or compiler to have quoted Moses as exhorting the building of an altar (27:5) on Mount Gerizim and not Mount Ebal (as in the MT).
2) It is likely that the copying of sacred texts, with references to specific locations either condemned or hallowed by biblical traditions, may have been copied within a context that implied the original may not be in the present manuscript. Most likely, after John Hyrcanus destroyed the Samaritan places of worship on Mount Gerizim it is conceivable that a Jew, especially one in Judea, in the middle of the first century BCE – or about one hundred years after Hyrcanus’ destruction of the buildings on Mount Gerizim – would have thought that Moses had intended to have God’s altar built on Mount Ebal and not on the Samaritan’s Mount Gerizim which lay in ruins and belonged to the hated Samaritans. This speculation is supported by the regnant force of numerous text types of biblical texts in the late first century BCE.
Of interest to Christians is Jesus’ comment in the Gospel of John: “Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem'” (Jn 4:21 NRSV). Jesus is speaking to a Samaritan woman in Samaria at Jacob’s well which is near Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal.
