Manuscript
The Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5)
Also known as 11QPsa · 11Q5 · 11QPsᵃ
Forty-odd psalms from Qumran — in a different order from your Bible, with extra poems mixed in.
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Overview
The Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5)(First half of the first century AD (c. AD 1–50))— Cave 11, Qumran
It carries about forty psalms, drawn mostly from the last third of the Psalter, arranged in an order that does not match the printed book. Between them sit compositions that are not in the Hebrew Bible at all, including Psalm 151 — which the Greek and Syriac Bibles do carry — and a prose passage crediting David with 4,050 songs.
Scholars read this two ways, and both are worth knowing: either the final shape of the Psalter was not yet fixed at Qumran, or this is a liturgical collection assembled for worship rather than a copy of the book. The scroll itself does not say.
Manuscript Details
- Date
- First half of the first century AD (c. AD 1–50)
- Language
- Hebrew
- Script
- Square Hebrew, with the divine name written in palaeo-Hebrew letters
- Material
- Parchment
- Current location
- Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Discovery year
- 1956
- Discovery location
- Cave 11, Qumran
- Contains books
- Psalms (about forty, mostly from Psalms 101–150) · Psalm 151 · additional compositions
- Tags
- dead-sea-scrolls · old-testament · psalms · canon
Significance
It shows the Psalms being used, ordered and prayed rather than simply copied — and it is honest evidence that the last section of the Psalter was still settling in the first century, at the same time as Isaiah was being copied letter-perfect.
The passages the manuscripts argue over
The places where the manuscripts differ — the ending of Mark, the woman caught in adultery, the three heavenly witnesses — with the case each way.