Manuscript
The Second Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵇ)
Also known as 1QIsab · 1Q8 · 1QIsaᵇ
The other Isaiah scroll from Cave 1 — less complete than the famous one, and far closer to the Hebrew Bible we print today.
dead-sea-scrollsold-testamentisaiahtextual-criticism
Overview
The Second Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵇ)(First century BC (commonly dated c. 50–25 BC on the handwriting))— Cave 1, Qumran
It survives in parts, with most of what remains coming from Isaiah 38 to 66.
Its value is in the contrast. The Great Isaiah Scroll is complete but full of spelling variations and scribal freedom; this one is fragmentary but agrees with the medieval Masoretic text almost letter for letter.
Two copies of the same book, from the same cave, from roughly the same period, and they are not the same kind of copy. That is a fact about how Scripture was transmitted that neither scroll shows on its own.
Manuscript Details
- Date
- First century BC (commonly dated c. 50–25 BC on the handwriting)
- Language
- Hebrew
- Script
- Square Hebrew (Herodian formal hand)
- Material
- Parchment
- Current location
- Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Discovery year
- 1947
- Discovery location
- Cave 1, Qumran
- Contains books
- Isaiah (parts, mostly chapters 38–66)
- Tags
- dead-sea-scrolls · old-testament · isaiah · textual-criticism
Significance
It is the strongest single piece of evidence that the Masoretic text was being copied with great precision a thousand years before the oldest complete Hebrew Bible — and, set beside the Great Isaiah Scroll, it shows that more than one standard of care was in use at the same time.
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.