11Q5: Psalm 151 (A Poetic Midrash on 1 Sam 16:1-13)

The Mesoratic text does not include Psalm 151 into the Psalter. It was known in Greek, Latin, and Syriac translation before the discovery of the Dead Sea Psalm Scrolls. Psalm 151 in the scroll (11Q5 Col. XXVIII) is longer than that of the Greek. It has been published with discussion by J. A. Sanders (1963). Sanders defines Psalm 151 [...]

The Problem for Identifying the Qumran Community as the Essenes

One of my students sent me an email today mentioning an article of this week’s Time entitled Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls ‘Authors’ Never Existed. It reports that Israeli scholar, Rachel Elior, claims that the Essenes never existed at all. Elior insists that “the Essenes were a fabrication by the 1st century A.D. Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus.” [...]

Melchizedek in 11Q13 (11QMelch)

The fragment manuscript 11QMelch is interesting enough. It preserves the midrash interpretation of Old Testament themes and the figure of Melchizedek, and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews applied the figure of Melchizedek to Jesus. 
Melchizedek is described as king of Salem as well as a priest of El Elyon in Gen 14:18-20. He is also mentioned [...]

4Q246: 4QAramaic Apocalypse

4Q246 Manuscript

Transcription of 4Q246

Translation of  4Q246
Col. I 
1. [   ] rested upon him, he fell befor the throne
2. [... k]ing, rage is coming to the world, and your years
3. [...]. . . your vision, all of it is about to come unto the world.
4. [... mi]ghty [signs], distress is coming uopn the land
5. [...]  great slaughter in the provinces
6. [...]

F. M. Cross’ Reconstruction of 4Q242

There are five fragments in the Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242 [The Prayer of Nabonidus]) as you can see the picture: 1, 2a, 2b, 3, and 4. In 1984, however, Frank Moore Cross discussed a problem of reconstruction of four fragments: 1, 2a, 2b, 3 (“Fragments of the Pryaer of Nabonidus,” IEJ 34 [1984]: 260-64). He reconstructed a proper replacement [...]

Orthography of DSS

The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by hundreds of diffrent hands. For example, the scribe of 1QS is slightly different from that of 1QH. The Table of Scribal Alphabets (orthography-dss.pdf) by Malachi Marin (The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Vol. 1) helps us to compare and contrast between scrolls.

Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library

The editor of the software, Immanuel Tov, said, “the Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library (DSSEL) provides the users with a comprehensive tool for the study of the non-biblical texts from the Judean Deseart offering transcriptions, translations, images, an inventory, and software for carrying out searches and viewing the images” (Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library, Revised Edition, [...]