the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH 13
THE IMPACT OF QUMRAN STUDIES ON BIBLICAL RESEARCH
To highlight the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for biblical studies
and theology, I have chosen to focus on four areas. First is the Hebrew
Scriptures. On the one hand, focusing on the Isaiah scrolls found in Cave
1, it is obvious that this text was carefully copied, mutatis mutandis, 7 for
thousands of years. On the other hand, allowing one’s view to include
the Qumran versions of the books of Samuel and Jeremiah, it is obvious
that more than one ancient version of these books was revered as God’s
word at Qumran. The result is a renewed interest in the canon and a
growing recognition that the Hebrew canon was not closed before or during
the time of Jesus. Before 70 C.E., there was, for example, no one finalized
collection or ordering of the Psalms in the Davidic Psalter.
Equally exciting are some readings that definitely help us improve
both the Hebrew texts and the English translations of the Hebrew Bible
or Old Testament. This phenomenon is evident provisionally in both
the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version of
the Bible. The Hebrew text from which all modern translations of the
Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament derive is corrupt in many places.
Although it is often difficult to decide which reading is original and
which is secondary, scholars agree that at least in two major places the
Hebrew text can now be corrected.
First, when we read Gen 4:8 in the extant Hebrew we are left with the
question, “What did Cain say to Abel before he killed him?”
The Hebrew when translated means: “And Qayin (Cain) talked with
Hevel (Abel) his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field,
that Qayin rose up against Hevel his brother, and slew him.” 8 All we are
told is that Cain “talked with” his brother. We are not informed what he
said, and yet the abrupt and disjointed sentence leaves the impression
that the text apparently told us what had been said. The Qumran library
does not provide the answer. The text of Genesis that preserves Genesis
4 (4QGen b ) does not preserve what was said. 9
Other ancient texts do supply what Cain said to Abel. The ancient and
most likely original reading is preserved in the Samaritan Pentateuch: “Let
us go (into) the field (hd#&h hkln).” The Greek translation (Septuagint)
7. See the cautions expressed and illustrated by Shemaryahu Talmon in The World
of Qumran from Within (Jerusalem: Magnes; Leiden: Brill, 1989), esp. 117–30. Also see
Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (rev. ed.; Minneapolis: Augsburg
Fortress, 2001).
8. The Holy Scriptures (Jerusalem, 1988), pp. g and 3 [interpolations mine]).
9. See DJD 12:36–37 (Pls. 6–8).