The Palaeo-Hebrew Exodus Scroll (4Q22)
Summary
A copy of Exodus written in the old pre-exilic alphabet — and its text is the Samaritan kind, in a Jewish library.
- Copied c. 100–25 BC.
- Written in hebrew on parchment.
- Kept at Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem.
- Contains Exodus (substantial parts of chapters 6–37).
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.
- Patrick W. Skehan, Eugene Ulrich and Judith E. Sanderson, Qumran Cave 4.IV: Palaeo-Hebrew and Greek Biblical Manuscripts, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert IX (Oxford, 1992) · accessed 2026-08-06The official edition. Cite-only.
- 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 is written in palaeo-Hebrew, the angular script Israel used before the exile, rather than the square letters that replaced it.
Its text carries the expansions that are characteristic of the Samaritan Pentateuch: where Moses is told to say something to Pharaoh, this copy then writes out the speech being delivered. What it does not carry is the Samaritan community's own addition about Mount Gerizim.
So the expansions are Jewish, not Samaritan. The Samaritans took an existing Jewish form of the Torah and added one commandment of their own.
Manuscript details
- Date
- c. 100–25 BC
- Language
- Hebrew
- Script
- Palaeo-Hebrew
- Material
- Parchment
- Held at
- Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem
- Found
- 1952
- Found at
- Cave 4, Qumran
- Contains
- Exodus (substantial parts of chapters 6–37)
Why it matters
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.