Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> Yes, there were Greek texts among the DSS. I understand that the only ones
> at Qumran itself were 18 tiny fragments in one jar in Cave 7 and six
> fragments in Cave 4, and only five of all of these texts are certainly
> biblical. Nothing to compare with the almost complete Isaiah scroll (which
> is also a couple of centuries earlier) and the hundreds of other biblical
> texts and fragments in Hebrew. These Greek texts are also very different
> from the LXX as we know it today; Ulrich counted 15 variants from LXX in 28
> damaged lines of text in 4QLXXLevA (quoted in C.P. Thiede "The Dead Sea
> Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity", Lion, 2000, p.128).
> 
There are also a few Hebrew mss that have a fair percentage of 
agreement with LXX over against the unpointed MT, and there are some 
(as Liz mentioned) fragmentary Torah mss that include additions and 
rearrangements found in the Samaritan version.  However, all of these 
are decidedly in the minority, and it may be significant that they 
all were found in cave 4.  The majority of Greek mss found in cave 7 
are still unidentified (unless we go with O'Callaghan and see them as 
NT, which I don't), and the rest may or may not be actual "biblical" 
mss (as opposed to other documents that include a biblical allusion 
here and there).  So in the main, Peter's statement is correct.  My 
own view is that some textual critics have made a lot more of the non-
MT material at Qumran than is warranted.
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to 
do with it.
                  -Emerson