Qumran Cave 4: X: The Prophets (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert)

This volume continues the publication of the series of biblical Dead Sea Scrolls that were discovered in Cave 4 at Qumran. It contains thirty-three manuscripts of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve Minor Prophets. These texts antedate by a millennium those that had previously held the title of the earliest surviving Hebrew biblical manuscripts. They document a pluriformity acceptable in the ancient biblical textual tradition before the text became standardized later in the Christian and Rabbinic period.

The Book of Isaiah was one of the most widely copied books at Qumran. 4QJerb displays the earlier edition of Jeremiah from which the Septuagint was translated, in contrast to the later edition in the Massoretic tradition. Superior textual variants from these manuscripts have been adopted in recent revised translations of the Bible.