Manuscript
The Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXII gr)
Also known as 8HevXIIgr · the Naḥal Ḥever Minor Prophets Scroll · the Cave of Horror scroll
A Greek Old Testament from the Judaean desert that somebody had already gone through and corrected against the Hebrew — and that leaves the name of God in the old letters.
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Overview
The Greek Minor Prophets Scroll (8ḤevXII gr)(c. 50 BC – AD 50)— The Cave of Horror, Naḥal Ḥever, Judaean desert (further fragments recovered in 2021)
It carries parts of the twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, found in the Cave of Horror in Naḥal Ḥever, in a ravine used as a refuge during the Bar Kokhba revolt. More fragments were recovered by archaeologists in 2021.
The Greek is not the plain Septuagint. It has been systematically revised to line up more closely with the Hebrew, and Dominique Barthélemy's study of it in 1963 showed that this revision — now called kaige — lies behind several later Greek versions and behind parts of the Greek text quoted in the New Testament.
And the divine name is not translated. Where the Hebrew has the four letters of God's name, this Greek scroll writes them in palaeo-Hebrew characters, in the middle of the Greek.
Manuscript Details
- Date
- c. 50 BC – AD 50
- Language
- Greek (with the divine name in Hebrew letters)
- Script
- Greek book hand, with palaeo-Hebrew for the divine name
- Material
- Parchment
- Current location
- Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem
- Discovery year
- 1952
- Discovery location
- The Cave of Horror, Naḥal Ḥever, Judaean desert (further fragments recovered in 2021)
- Contains books
- The Twelve Minor Prophets (parts, in Greek)
- Tags
- dead-sea-scrolls · old-testament · septuagint · minor-prophets
Significance
It shows Jews revising their Greek Bible against the Hebrew before the New Testament was finished — which explains why some New Testament quotations match neither the standard Greek nor the standard Hebrew exactly. The apostles were quoting a real, circulating text.
The passages the manuscripts argue over
The places where the manuscripts differ — the ending of Mark, the woman caught in adultery, the three heavenly witnesses — with the case each way.