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

a. An Early Psalter
PETER W. FLINT 243
As seen above, 30 the Psalms scrolls bear witness to an early collection of
psalms whose arrangement was virtually stabilized well before the second
century B.C.E., which represents one milestone in the formation of the
book of Psalms. The lack of complete evidence makes it unclear where
the cutoff point between the largely stabilized collection and the fluid part
of the Psalter should be; Psalm 89 is likely, but the earlier collection may
have ended with another psalm such as 72. It is possible that specific
Psalms scrolls originally contained only this shorter collection of psalms,
but this seems impossible to demonstrate.
b. The 11QPs a -Psalter
This Psalter contains both Psalms 1–89 and the arrangement found in
11QPs a (= 11Q5). The collection is found in at least three manuscripts
on the basis of a common arrangement of key compositions or blocks of
material: 11QPs a (= 11Q5), 11QPs b (= 11Q6) (Catena, Plea, Apostrophe to
Zion, the sequence 141 → 133 → 144, other specific variants), and 4QPs e
(= 4Q87) (the sequence 118 → 104 → [147] → 105 → 146, other individual
variants). While the earlier part of the 11QPs a -Psalter is not found
in 11QPs a (= 11Q5), material from Psalms 1–89 (as well as the later part)
is preserved in both 4QPs e (= 4Q87) and 11QPs b (= 11Q6). 31
c. The MT-150 Psalter
Although several of the thirty-six manuscripts found at Qumran support
the general arrangement of Psalms 1–89, it is surprising that none unambiguously
confirms the longer order of the received MT (1–150) against
11QPs a (= 11Q5). Appealing to arrangements such as Psalms 125–130 32
in 4QPs e (= 4Q87) in support of the MT-150 Psalter is inconclusive, since
we find this also in 11QPs a (= 11Q5). It is both misleading and unscientific
for scholars to presume that all biblical scrolls originally contained the
order found in the MT unless otherwise proved! For firm evidence of the
MT-150 collection, we must turn to Masada, where MasPs b (= Mas1f)—
dated to the second half of the first century B.C.E.—clearly supports this
30. In section 3.1.
31. In 4QPs e (= 4Q87): Pss 76:10–12; 77:1; 78:6–7, 31–33; 81:2–3; 86:10–11;
88:1–5; 89:44–48, 50–53. In 11QPs b (= 11Q6): Pss 77:18–21; 78:1.
32. 4QPs e (= 4Q87) does not actually preserve all these Psalms, but reconstruction
suggests 125 → 126 [+ 127 + 128] → 129 → 130.