The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls
- Great Isaiah Scroll
The Great Isaiah Scroll
Click to examine the scroll.
The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) •
Qumran Cave 1 •
1st century BCE •
Parchment •
H: 22-25, L: 734 cm •
Government of Israel •
Accession number: HU 95.57/27
Qumran Cave 1 •
1st century BCE •
Parchment •
H: 22-25, L: 734 cm •
Government of Israel •
Accession number: HU 95.57/27
original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. It is the
largest (734 cm) and best preserved of all the biblical scrolls, and the
only one that is almost complete. The 54 columns contain all 66
chapters of the Hebrew version of the biblical Book of Isaiah. Dating
from ca. 125 BCE, it is also one of the oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
some one thousand years older than the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew
Bible known to us before the scrolls' discovery.
The version of the text is generally in agreement with the Masoretic
or traditional version codified in medieval codices, such as the Aleppo
Codex, but it contains many variant readings, alternative spellings,
scribal errors, and corrections. Unlike most of the biblical scrolls
from Qumran, it exhibits a very full orthography (spelling), revealing
how Hebrew was pronounced in the Second Temple Period. Around twenty
additional copies of the Book of Isaiah were also found at Qumran (one
more copy was discovered further south at Wadi Muraba'at), as well as
six pesharim (commentaries) based on the book; Isaiah is also frequently
quoted in other scrolls (a literary and religious phenomenon also
present in New Testament writings). The authoritative and scriptural
status of the Book of Isaiah is consistent with the messianic beliefs of
the community living at Qumran, since Isaiah is known for his
prophecies of judgment and consolation, and his visions of the End of
Days and the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Modern scholarship considers the Book of Isaiah to be an anthology,
the two principal compositions of which are the Book of Isaiah proper
(chapters 1-39, with some exceptions), containing the words of the
prophet Isaiah himself, dating from the time of the First Temple, around
700 BCE, and Second Isaiah (Deutero-Isaiah, chapters 40-66), comprising
the words of an anonymous prophet, who lived some one hundred and fifty
years later, around the time of the Babylonian exile and the
restoration of the Temple in the Persian Period. By the time our Isaiah
Scroll was copied (the last third of the second century BCE), the book
was already regarded as a single composition.
Several prophesies appearing in the Book of Isaiah have become
cornerstones of Judeo-Christian civilization. Perhaps the most renowned
of these is Isaiah's vision of universal peace at the End of Days: "And
they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall
never again know war" (2:4).
Versions and Translations of the Book of Isaiah
As you use the translator tool in the scroll viewer, we would like tocall your attention to the complexities of translating the words of the
Prophet Isaiah of around 2,800 years ago, as reflected in the different
Hebrew variants and subsequent English translations. The museum's
mission here is to provide you the background information required to
reach your own objective perspective when reading this English
translation of the biblical text.
Basic Concepts:
- Masoretic Version of the Hebrew Bible
The evidence emerging from the Qumran scrolls is that there were
several concurrent versions of the biblical text, though one - now
referred to as the proto-Rabbinic or proto-Masoretic - enjoyed a special
status by the Greco-Roman period (3rd century BCE - 1st century CE).
That apparently became the authoritative text for mainstream Judaism
toward the end of the Second Temple, as evidenced by ancient parchment
fragments of several biblical books (1st-2nd century CE) discovered in
other parts of the Judean Desert (Masada, Wadi Murabba'at, Nahal Hever,
and Nahal Tze'elim).
Through the activity of generations of sages (known as "Masoretes"),
who faithfully preserved and transmitted the sacred words across
centuries, an authoritative or Masoretic version of the Hebrew Bible
gradually evolved, containing its definitive correct text, proper
vocalization, and accentuation marks. The Aleppo Codex, transcribed by
the scribe Solomon son of Buya'a and annotated by the scholar Aaron ben
Asher in the 10th century CE in the Galilean city of Tiberias, is
considered the finest extant example of this version.
Since then, the Masoretic version has become the standard
authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible, from which modern translations
were and still are being made. While there are numerous English online
translations of this traditional text, the version you see here is the
authoritative version of the biblical Book of Isaiah, as rendered by the
Jewish Publication Society in 1917 and published by the American
Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. - Great Isaiah Scroll Version
The text of the Great Isaiah Scroll generally conforms to the
Masoretic or traditional version codified in medieval codices (all 66
chapters of the Hebrew version, in the same conventional order). At the
same time, however, the two thousand year old scroll contains
alternative spellings, scribal errors, corrections, and most
fundamentally, many variant readings. Strictly speaking, the number of
textual variants is well over 2,600, ranging from a single letter,
sometimes one or more words, to complete variant verse or verses.
For example, the second half of Verse 9 and all of Verse 10 in the
present Masoretic version of Chapter 2 are absent from the Great Isaiah
Scroll in the Israel Museum's full manuscript that you see here online.
The same verses, however, have been included in other versions of the
Book of Isaiah in the scrolls found near the Dead Sea (4QIsaa, 4QIsab),
and the Hebrew text from which the ancient Greek version or Septuagint
(3rd-1st century BCE) was translated. This confirms that these verses,
although early enough, were a late addition to the ancient and more
original version reflected in the Great Isaiah Scroll.
- Recommendations:
Keeping these basic concepts in mind, we recommend that you use the tools at your disposal in the following ways:
- If you are a Hebrew reader, choose any passage of the Great Isaiah
Scroll, and compare it to the Masoretic version of the same passage in
the Aleppo Codex (http://www.aleppocodex.org/). You may then assess the agreements and disagreements between both versions. - If you do not read Hebrew, please take the following suggested steps:
- Choose a specific passage from the Great Isaiah Scroll version, and
click on the online JPS English translation of the Book of Isaiah in the
online viewer. Note that this translation reflects only the Masoretic
version of the biblical book, and does not specifically reflect the
present text of the Great Isaiah Scroll version. - If you wish to compare both versions, please click here,
and you will see the first five chapters of the Book of Isaiah in
parallel columns: On the left, the English translation of the Great
Isaiah Scroll by Professor Peter Flint (Western Trinity University,
Canada) and Professor Eugene Ulrich (University of Notre Dame), and on
the right, the JPS English translation of the Masoretic version. Thus
you will be able to evaluate on your own the intricate issue of variant
readings, which have obvious literary, historical and theological
implications for the correct understanding of Isaiah's original words.
- Choose a specific passage from the Great Isaiah Scroll version, and
- If you are a Hebrew reader, choose any passage of the Great Isaiah
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