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

118 EXCERPTED MANUSCRIPTS AT QUMRAN
in the Samaritan Pentateuch (SamP). 59 More recently, Moshe Weinfeld
has pointed out that this passage is the basis for the blessing after meals
(b. Ber. 44a). 60 As for Deuteronomy 32, its poetic character may be
enough to suggest why it was excerpted, especially given the probability
that at least some of the Psalm manuscripts were excerpted (e.g., 4QPs g,h
[4Q89-90] and 5QPs [5Q5] containing only Psalm 119; see §4). Still further,
the liturgical use of Deuteronomy 32 is demonstrated by such texts
as b. Ro4)s Has. 31a, m. Meg. 3:6, and y. Meg. 74b, which state that the
Levites used to recite this chapter in the Temple on the Sabbath. 61
d. Text: Character and Affiliation
The text-critical data from the excerpted manuscripts are mixed. A discussion
of the theoretical problems involved is taken up below (§3). For
now, with reference to the main text groups, the following can be stated—
again employing the Deuteronomy manuscripts as the primary example. 62
• Tov states that 4QDeutq “is of an independent textual nature, with close
affinities to the LXX,” 63 but given its poor state of preservation, it is hard
to be certain how extensive the scroll’s affinities with the (Hebrew
Vorlage of the) LXX actually were.
• Duncan has demonstrated that 4QDeutj,k1,n tend toward a slightly expanded
version of the text; 64 by this they show some affinity with SamP. 65
59. See Stegemann, “Weitere Stücke,” 223–24.
60. Moshe Weinfeld, “Grace After Meals in Qumran,” JBL 111 (1992): 427–28; cf.
idem, “Prayer and Liturgical Practice in the Qumran Sect,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls:
Forty Years of Research (ed. D. Dimant and U. Rappaport; STDJ 10; Leiden: Brill,
1992), 240–58, esp. 251–52. See also Duncan, “Deuteronomy,” 201; idem,
“Considerations of 4QDt j ,” 203; Stegemann, “Weitere Stücke,” 224; and White
(Crawford), “4QDt n ,” 15. Weinfeld believes that the custom of conjoining the
Decalogue (with the Shema) and the blessing after meals might be attested in the epistle
of Pliny the Younger to Trajan (Ep. Tra. 10.96), but see the critique by Reuven
Kimelman, “A Note on Weinfeld’s ‘Grace After Meals in Qumran,’” JBL 112 (1993):
695–96.
61. See Weinfeld, “Grace After Meals,” 428.
62. See Duncan, “Excerpted Texts,” 52–60 for a full list of variants.
63. Tov, “Excerpted and Abbreviated,” 600.
64. Duncan, “Excerpted Texts,” 51. Duncan gives the following statistics: 4QDeut k1
(4Q38) has the long reading in 4 out of 5 variants; 4QDeut j (4Q37) has the long reading
in 6 out of 7; and 4QDeut n (4Q41) is long in 7 out of 12. Elsewhere, Duncan has
noted that “more than a quarter of the variants attested in the [Deuteronomy] scrolls
represent this particular category [expansion] of textual variant” (unpublished paper,
“Deuteronomy in the Judaean Desert Texts”).
65. See Duncan, “Excerpted Texts”; idem, “Deuteronomy,” 199.