The Second Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵇ)
Summary
The other Isaiah scroll from Cave 1 — less complete than the famous one, and far closer to the Hebrew Bible we print today.
- Copied First century BC (commonly dated c. 50–25 BC on the handwriting).
- Written in hebrew on parchment.
- Kept at Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
- Contains Isaiah (parts, mostly chapters 38–66).
Sources (3)
- The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library (Israel Antiquities Authority) · accessed 2026-08-06The Israel Antiquities Authority's own imaging of the scrolls.
- The Israel Museum, Jerusalem — the Shrine of the Book · accessed 2026-08-06The holding institution's own record.
- Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Fortress Press, 2012) · accessed 2026-08-06The standard handbook of Hebrew Bible textual criticism.
What it is
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
- Held at
- Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Found
- 1947
- Found at
- Cave 1, Qumran
- Contains
- Isaiah (parts, mostly chapters 38–66)
Why it matters
The passages the manuscripts argue over
The words used here: Masoretic Text
- Masoretic Text
- the Hebrew Bible copied and pointed by Jewish scribes, the text the KJV and the ASV translate.
The places where the manuscripts differ, the ending of Mark, the woman caught in adultery, the three heavenly witnesses, with the case each way.