The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

154 A NEW EDITION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
This variant is probably the result of an accidental haplography (“single
writing” of something earlier double) in the proto-M tradition. The legal
formulation in Lev 22:18 referring to the “sojourner” (rgh) is nearly
identical to formulations elsewhere in Leviticus:
Lev 17:10
Mkwtb rgh rgh Nmw l)t#y tybm #y) #y)
anyone from the house of Israel or from the sojourners who sojourn
among you
Lev 17:13
Mkwtb rgh rgh l)r#y ynbm #y) #y)w
anyone from the children of Israel or from the sojourners who sojourn
among you
Lev 20:2
l)r#yb rgh rgh Nmw l)r#y ynbm #y) #y)
anyone from the children of Israel or from the sojourners who sojourn
in Israel
Lev 22:18
l)ryb rgh Nmw l)r#y tybm #y) #y)
anyone from the house of Israel or from the sojourners
in Israel
The textual problem concerns the second rgh, “who sojourn,” in Lev
22:18—does it originally belong in the text, as in 4QLev b [= 4Q24], SP,
and LXX, or is the shorter reading in MT to be preferred? The parallel
texts in Leviticus present a strong argument for an original reading rgh
rgh in this passage, which has been accidentally simplified to rgh in
MT. While it is possible that an original shorter reading has been
expanded by a harmonization with the parallel passages, it is more likely
that the legal style referring to the sojourner is generally consistent in
Leviticus. Biblical texts amply attest the kind of scribal error—an accidental
haplography—that plausibly accounts for the MT reading. 12
Numbers 36:1
4QNumb /LXX
[My)y#n]h ynplw Nhwkh rz([l) ynplw h#wm ynpl]
before Moses and before Eleazar the priest and before the chiefs
12. See McCarter, Textual Criticism, 38–39; Tov, Textual Criticism, 237–38. The 4QLevb
(= 4Q214) text was published by Eugene Ulrich, “4QLevb ,” in Qumran Cave 4.VII:
Genesis to Numbers (ed. E. Ulrich et al.; DJD 12; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 182–83.