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

274 THE IMPORTANCE OF ISAIAH AT QUMRAN
excitement about Qumran. 4 And 1QIsa b (1Q8), the scroll acquired and
published by Sukenik, 5 as supplemented by additional fragments published
later, 6 consists of fragments of chapters 7–66 that are extensive
only for the last part of the book. From Cave 5 comes the remains of
another scroll, 5QIsa (5Q3), a rather small fragment containing only a
few words of Isa 40:16, 18–19. 7 From one of the caves at the related site
at Murabba(at comes another scroll fragment containing portions of Isa
1:4–14. 8 And, finally, from Cave 4 at Qumran comes a number of fragments,
some rather extensive, from about eighteen additional scrolls of
Isaiah, 4QIsa a–r (4Q55–69b), one of which, pap4QIsa p (4Q69), was written
on papyrus. 9 These numbers alone place Isaiah alongside the
Pentateuchal books Genesis, Exodus, and especially Deuteronomy, and
the book of Psalms as one of the most popular biblical books at Qumran.
The date of the Isaiah manuscripts from Cave 4, all of which fall between
the first half of the first century B.C.E. and the first third of the first century
C.E., also suggests that many of these manuscripts could have been
copied at Qumran. 10
Yet despite these impressive numbers, the importance of these manuscripts
for contemporary biblical scholars is somewhat disappointing. It
is true that the numerous marginal notations and corrections in the first
Isaiah scroll discounted exaggerated notions based on much later rabbinic
sources about the absolutely meticulous care with which biblical
scrolls were copied. It is also true that the numerous Isaiah scrolls from
Qumran reflect a wide variety of orthographic practice in the fullness
with which they represent vowel letters. The scrolls are certainly helpful
in tracing the development of the Hebrew language, orthography, and
paleography. But compared to the Qumran contribution to the textual
criticism of such books as Samuel and Jeremiah, the texts of Isaiah are a
disappointment. The variant readings in the Isaiah scrolls do not point to
a textual family or recension distinct from that represented in the MT. In
4. Millar Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery (New Haven, CT:
ASOR, 1950).
5. E. L. Sukenik, The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University (Jerusalem: Magnes,
1955).
6. Dominique Barthélemy and Jozef T. Milik, Qumran Cave 1 (DJD 1; Oxford:
Clarendon, 1955), 66–68.
7. Maurice Baillet, Jozef T. Milik, and Roland de Vaux, eds., Les “petites grottes” de
Qumrân (DJD 3; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), 173.
8. Pierre Benoit, Jozef T. Milik, and Roland de Vaux, eds., Les grottes de Murabba(at
(DJD 2; Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), 79–80.
9. Patrick W. Skehan and Eugene Ulrich, “Isaiah,” in Qumran Cave 4.X: The Prophets
(ed. E. Ulrich et al.; DJD 15; Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 7–144.
10. Ibid.