4Q41 or 4QDeuteronomyⁿ (often abbreviated 4QDeutⁿ or 4QDtⁿ), also known as the All Souls Deuteronomy, is a Hebrew Bible manuscript from the first century BC containing two passages from the

Book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...

. Discovered in 1952 in a cave at Qumran, near the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

, it preserves the oldest existing copy of the Ten Commandments.

Discovery

The scroll was found in the fourth

Qumran cave Qumran Caves are a series of caves, both natural and artificial, found around the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert. It is in these caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Israel Nature and Parks Authority took over th ...

, which was discovered by Ta’amireh bedouin in August 1952. It was later purchased for "several thousand dollars" on the black market by Frank Moore Cross and Roland de Vaux with money supplied by an anonymous member of the Unitarian Church of All Souls (Mr. Thayer Lindsley) in New York. This then gave rise to the name 'All Souls' Deuteronomy.

Description

What is preserved of the scroll consists of two fragments that were originally sewn together. They were cut evenly at the bottom to a height of 7.1 cm and have a total length of about 45 cm. The first, containing one column of writing, was not the beginning of the scroll, as can be seen from the sewn edges on either side. The second sheet contains three complete and two damaged columns. The scroll was prepared with horizontal and vertical lines, as well as ink dots to mark the beginning of lines. The exceptionally well-preserved parchment used for 4Q41 is quite small compared to other Qumran scrolls.Cohn, Yehudah, ''Tangled Up in Text: Tefillin and the Ancient World'', Society of Biblical Literature, 2008, p. 7

/ref>

Date and script

The manuscript is dated on paleographic grounds to the early Herodian dynasty, Herodian period, between 30 and 1 BC.Van Beek, Gus Willard, ''Scrolls from the Wilderness of the Dead Sea: A Guide to the Exhibition, The Dead Sea Scrolls of Jordan'' University of California Press, 1965, p. 3

/ref> Its script is unusually tiny and the letters Waw (letter), waw and yod are almost indistinguishable, making some readings uncertain. The orthography employed by the scribe is much fuller than the Masoretic text and the Samaritan Pentateuch.

The two sheets contain Deuteronomy 8:5-10 and Deuteronomy 5:1-6:1. Although the scroll was originally longer, the unusual ordering of the texts suggests it probably was not a regular biblical scroll, but contained only excerpts from Deuteronomy, possibly for liturgical or devotional purposes. Another explanation, suggested by Dead Sea Scrolls scholar John Strugnell, is that the scroll was repaired incorrectly. The text of the decalogue generally follows Deuteronomy, but is in some places modified to bring it in harmony with the parallel version in Exodus. One significant variant, unique to this manuscript, is the addition of the reason for the institution of the

sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

, normally found only in the account in Exodus.White, p. 201

References

External links

4Q41
at the Leon Levy ''Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library''

Literature