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

130 EXCERPTED MANUSCRIPTS AT QUMRAN
“biblical” compositions, on the other hand. Indeed, a kind of continuum
is obvious, represented by the chart below:
Transmission Pole Composition Pole
“Biblical” MSS
E.g.: 1QIsa b
Excerpted
MSS
E.g.: 4QDeut n
“Nonbiblical”
MSS
E.g.: 1QpHab
To be sure, the chart is far too facile for the complex data from
Qumran. Even so, it is heuristic in that it depicts how the excerpted manuscripts
fall somewhere between the “biblical” scrolls and the “nonbiblical”
scrolls (particularly the commentary texts). They have some affinity
to both groups but remain distinct—constituting a kind of tertium quid as it
were. In one sense, they represent a blurred category: that of “‘nonbiblical’
‘biblical’ scroll.” 105 The existence of such a document-type—as well as
the possibility that still other texts, given their poor state of preservation,
might also belong to this genre—raises important text-critical questions
that must now be addressed.
3. THE TEXT-CRITICAL PROBLEM OF EXCERPTED MANUSCRIPTS
Although small in size (usually) and number, 106 the text-critical significance
of the excerpted manuscripts is actually quite large and complex.
There are at least two issues that, while closely related, may be logically
distinguished for the sake of clarity. First, what is the text-critical contribution
of the particular manuscripts themselves? This includes manuscript-form
and how that form impacts the text-critical data contained in
the scroll. Manuscript-form, in turn, raises the second question, which is
105. It is worth noting that PTSDSSP, which intentionally does not publish “biblical”
scrolls but only “nonbiblical”/“sectarian” scrolls, has elected to include an edition
of selected excerpted manuscripts. Included will be, at least, 4QExod d–e (4Q15-16),
4QDeut j,k1,n,q , and 5QDeut. The edition, contributed by Julie A. Duncan and Brent
A. Strawn, is slated for publication in PTSDSSP 6A: Targum on Job, Parabiblical, and
Related Documents (forthcoming).
106. Following the computations of Tov, “D. The Biblical Lists from the Judaean
Desert,” 167–78, and based on the data in Table 1, the statistics are as follows: 18 of
202 “biblical” texts or 8.91% (counting only Hebrew “biblical” texts and excluding
Testimonia, the phylacteries, and the mezuzot). If all of the Psalms scrolls thought by Tov
to be possible excerptions or abbreviations are included, the computation becomes 27
of 202 or 13.37%.