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

112 EXCERPTED MANUSCRIPTS AT QUMRAN
without accompanying commentary. 17 As Tov claims: “Excerpted texts are
recognized by the juxtaposition of different biblical texts, either from different
books or from the same book.” 18
Since Table 1 presents a list of those manuscripts that are (possibly)
excerpted or abbreviated 19 along with full data for each, only a few comments
are offered below on representatives that are certainly or probably
excerpted (apart from the phylacteries and mezuzot).
Certainly Excerpted:
• 4QDeutj (Excerpted Deuteronomy): Frags. 1–7 cover Deut 5:1–6:3, which is
followed by 8:5–10 (frag. 8), 11:6–13 (frags. 9–10), Deut 11:21(?) 20 and
Exod 12:43–13:5 (frags. 11–13), and, finally, Deut 32:7–8 (frag. 14). 21
• 4QDeutk1 (Excerpted Deuteronomy): This manuscript includes selections from
Deut 5:28–31; 11:6–13; and 32:17–18, 22–23, 25–27. While it is possible
that the preservation of these chapters is coincidental, the passages are also
popular among the phylacteries and other excerpted manuscripts. 22
17. It is largely for this reason that Testimonia is included in Table 1, but such is not
the case for Florilegium and the Catenae texts. 4QTanh9 (4Q176) may be an exception.
See note 103 below.
18. Tov, “Excerpted and Abbreviated,” 586; emphasis mine.
19. It is important to note that these two designations are not necessarily identical.
Excerption may imply more conscious and productive selection as well as selection
from different source texts; abbreviation may imply selection from only one source
text. Even so, the end results of both processes are similar. It should be admitted,
however, that if excerpts are taken from more than one base text, a scroll is more
readily identified as excerpted than if it abbreviates from one composition. Here
again, larger theoretical issues impinge on the analysis (see §3 below).
20. See Tov, “Excerpted and Abbreviated,” 588n28 for the possibility that frag. 11,
line 1 may preserve a reading from Exodus 12 (v. 42?), not Deut 11:21 (so Duncan
tentatively). But see Duncan, “Deuteronomy,” 201; idem, “Considerations of 4QDt j ,”
204–5; and idem, “37. 4QDeut j ,” in Qumran Cave 4.IX: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,
Kings (ed. E. Ulrich et al.; DJD 14; Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), 88. If Duncan is correct,
and her argument is compelling, there is a material join between Deuteronomy
11 and Exodus 12 at this point (frag. 27; see DJD 14, pl. 23). For the ordering, cf.
4QPhyl A and I (Józef T. Milik, “II. Phylactères A–U,” in Qumran Grotte 4.II
(4Q128–4Q157), I: Archaeologie; II: Tefillin Mezuzot et Targums [ed. R. de Vaux and J. T.
Milik; DJD 6; Oxford: Clarendon, 1977], 50, 63).
21. Duncan, “Considerations of 4QDt j ,” 203. Reconstruction of the textual order
faces problems given the state of preservation; it is possible, but not determinable,
that 8:5–10 preceded Deuteronomy 5–6, as in 4QDeut n (4Q41; see ibid., 204).
22. See Duncan, “Considerations of 4QDt j ,” 205; idem, “Excerpted Texts,” 47. On
the latter point, cf. esp. 4QDeut j,n .