Manuscript
The Palaeo-Hebrew Exodus Scroll (4Q22)
Also known as 4QpaleoExodm · 4Q22 · 4QpaleoExodᵐ
A copy of Exodus written in the old pre-exilic alphabet — and its text is the Samaritan kind, in a Jewish library.
dead-sea-scrollsold-testamenttorahsamaritans
Overview
The Palaeo-Hebrew Exodus Scroll (4Q22)(c. 100–25 BC)— Cave 4, Qumran
It is written in palaeo-Hebrew, the angular script Israel used before the exile, rather than the square letters that replaced it.
Its text carries the expansions that are characteristic of the Samaritan Pentateuch: where Moses is told to say something to Pharaoh, this copy then writes out the speech being delivered. What it does not carry is the Samaritan community's own addition about Mount Gerizim.
So the expansions are Jewish, not Samaritan. The Samaritans took an existing Jewish form of the Torah and added one commandment of their own.
Manuscript Details
- Date
- c. 100–25 BC
- Language
- Hebrew
- Script
- Palaeo-Hebrew
- Material
- Parchment
- Current location
- Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem
- Discovery year
- 1952
- Discovery location
- Cave 4, Qumran
- Contains books
- Exodus (substantial parts of chapters 6–37)
- Tags
- dead-sea-scrolls · old-testament · torah · samaritans
Significance
It settles a long argument about the Samaritan Bible. That text form was circulating among Jews before the Samaritans adopted it, which means the Samaritan Pentateuch is a witness to an old Jewish version of the Torah rather than a sectarian rewrite — apart from the one commandment the Samaritans added.
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.