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

RONALD S. HENDEL 157
Joshua 8:34–35
4QJosh a (at Josh 5:1)
h#m hwc lkm rbd hyh )l hrwth [rpsb]
(#hy )rq )l r#) (w#w[hy t)w]
My#hw [N]dryh t) [wrb(b l)r#y] lk dgn
Mbrqb Klhh [r]ghw Pshw
…[the book of] the Torah. There was not a word of all Moses had commanded
Joshua that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of [Israel
when they crossed] the Jordan, and the women and children and aliens who
resided among them.
MT
(#why )rq )l r#) h#m hwc r#) lkm rbd hyh )l hrwth rpsb
Mbrqb Klhh rghw P+hw My#nhw l)r#y lhq lk dgn
…the book of the Torah. There was not a word of all that Moses had
commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and
the women and children and aliens who resided among them.
LXX (at Josh 9:7–8) …the Torah of Moses. There was not a word of all that
Moses had commanded Joshua that Joshua did not read before all the assembly
of Israel, and the women and children and aliens who resided in Israel.
The reading of 4QJosh a (= 4Q47) is remarkable not for what it says but
where it says it. The paragraph about Joshua’s construction of an altar—Josh
8:30–35 in MT—is located at the beginning of Joshua 5 in the Qumran text.
The place of this paragraph was already known to be a problem, since LXX
has it at Josh 9:7–8. The Qumran fragment shows us that the problem of
where this paragraph belongs is even more complicated than we knew.
The editor of 4QJosh a , Eugene Ulrich, has argued that the place of
this paragraph at the beginning of Joshua 5 is plausibly the earliest or
original textual sequence, and that the differing placements in MT and
LXX are secondary. 18 He observes that Moses’ command (in Deut
27:4–5) to build this altar specifies that it be done “when you cross the
Jordan,” which fits the context of Joshua 5 but not Joshua 8 or 9. Further,
the placement in MT interrupts the continuity of the surrounding
sequence (Josh 8:29–9:1). He also observes that Josephus is familiar with
the sequence attested in 4QJosh a , indicating that this fragment belongs to
a wider textual tradition. For these reasons, he tentatively concludes that
“4QJosh a -Josephus preserve the earlier and/or preferable form.” 19
18. See Eugene Ulrich’s introduction to the edition of the text, “4QJosh a ,” in Qumran
Cave 4.IX: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Kings (ed. E. Ulrich et al.; DJD 14; Oxford:
Clarendon, 1995), 145–46; and idem, “4QJoshua a and Joshua’s First Altar in the
Promised Land,” in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the
International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992 (ed. G. J. Brooke and F. García
Martínez; STDJ 15; Leiden: Brill, 1994), 89–104.
19. Ulrich, “Joshua’s First Altar,” 96.