INTRODUCTION

The form one of the most fascinating discoveries of the twen- tieth century and they have not stopped intriguing and taunting scholars. The constant advance of research and the unending stream of improved photographs make scholarly editions an ongoing enterprise. We cannot say that any one of the available editions is the final one; there will always be a place for improve- ments and new insights. This is why the present new edition is not superfluous but adds to and improves upon other editions in its own way. Moreover, recent editions—such as The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader 2nd Edi- tion (which arranged and classified the texts according to the list published by A. Lange with U. Mittmann-Richert in the introductory volume to the DJD series1) and especially those put forth by —attempt to classify the works according to type and genres. Furthermore, Qimron boldly proposed works composed of all the available copies in cases that are extant. We judge that the time has not come for such a venture, since the editions are still given to changes and improvements and any composite venture will necessarily re- flect the subjective view of its editor. We therefore have opted for a straightfor- ward presentation, keeping the texts separate and arranged in their numerical order. We hope they will provide an efficient tool for controlling various com- binations suggested today and thus help to record the development and direc- tions the research has recently taken. Description of the edition: A. The Handbook gives prominence to transcriptions of the Hebrew and Aramaic texts and thus offers an accessible updated format of the written data culled from the . Therefore it does not have translations, notes on the readings commentaries, or a dating analysis of the scrolls, nor does it pro- duce discussions of sense-divisions, scribal marks, orthography, paleography, a physical description of the scrolls, or the character of the texts. Giving promi- nence to the transcriptions creates accessibility and easy handling of all the texts in a single volume. B. The texts are arranged according to the sequential number of the com- position and the Qumran Cave as published in ’s “List of Texts from the Judaean Desert” (DJD XXXIX, pages 27–114; see the inventory item number in column 1 of the list). Thus, the texts are arranged as follows: 1Q14, 1QpHab, 1Q15, 1Q16, 1Q17, and so forth. This arrangement provides straight- forward access to the texts and facilitates usage of the Handbook. C. The Handbook’s texts are derived from a variety of sour es. The great majority of them is drawn from the DJD series. The DJD texts, which consti- tute a long list, are recorded in the Table of Contents.

———————————————————————-—————— 1 “Annotated List of the Texts from the Judaean Desert Classified by Content and Genre,” in The Texts from the Judaean Desert—Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series (ed. E. Tov; DJD XXXIX; Oxford: Clarendon, 2002), 115–64. xix

Several texts are derived from the Princeton volumes:2 1Q14 (1QpMic) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 1QpHab, ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 1Q15 (1QpZeph) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 1Q16 (1QpPs) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 1Q28a (1QSa) ed. J. H. Charlesworth and L. T. Stuckenbruck, DSS–Princeton 1; 1Q28b (1QSb) ed. J. H. Charlesworth and L. T. Stuckenbruck, DSS–Princeton 1; 1Q33 (1QM[ilúamah] = 1QWar Scroll [Rule]) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 3Q4 (3QpIsa) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS –Princeton 6B; 4Q161 (4QpIsaa) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q162 (4QpIsab) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q163 (4Qpap pIsac) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q164 (4QpIsad) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS– Princeton 6B; 4Q165 (4QpIsae) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q166 (4QpHosa) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q167 (4QpHosb) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q168 (4QpMic) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS– Princeton 6B; 4Q169 (4QpNah) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q170 (4QpZeph) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q171 (4QpPsa) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS–Princeton 6B; frgs. 1-2 (part) = 4Q183 3; 4Q172 (4QpUnidentified Pesharim Frgs.) ed. J. H. Charlesworth and C. D. Elledge, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q173 (4QpPsb) ed. M. P. Horgan, DSS –Princeton 6B; 4Q173a (4QHouse of Stumbling Fragment) (formerly 5) ed. M. P. Hor- gan, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q174 (4QFlorilegium: A Midrash on 2 Samuel and Psalms 1–2) ed. J. Milgrom, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q175 (4QTestimonia) ed. F. M. Cross, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q176 (4QConsolations [4QTanú]) ed. H. Lichtenberger, DSS–Princeton 6B; 4Q177 (4QCatena A) ed. J. Milgrom, DSS– Princeton 6B; 4Q182 (4QCatena B) ed. J. Milgrom with L. Novakovic, DSS– Princeton 6B; 4Q183 (4QPesher-Like Frg.) ed. J. H. Charlesworth and C. D. Elledge, DSS–Princeton 6B; frg. 3 = 4Q171 1-2 (part); 4Q491 (4QM[ilúamah]a) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 4Q492 (4QM[ilúamah]b) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 4Q493 (4QM[ilúamah]c) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 4Q494 (4QM[ilúamah]d) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 4Q495 (4QM[ilúamah]e) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 4Q496 (4QpapM]f) ed. J. Duhaime, DSS–Princeton 2; 11Q19 (11QTemplea) ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman with James H. Charlesworth and Andrew D. Gross, DSS–Princeton 7. Devorah Dimant prepared the following editions: 1QS (1Q28), 4QPesher on the Periods (4Q180), 4QOn Righteous and Sinners (4Q181), 4QDiscourse on the Exodus/Conquest Tradition (4Q374), 4QapocrJosha frg. 3 (4Q378), frg. 3, 4QapocrJoshb frgs. 12 & 22 (4Q379), 4QNarrative C (4Q462), 4QProphecy

———————————————————————–—————— 2 The texts are derived from the following three volumes: The Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations. Rule of the Community and Related Documents. Vol- ume 1 (J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck] Tübingen; Westminster John Knox Press [Louisville], 1994); The Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations. , War Scroll, and Related Documents. Volume 2 (J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck] Tübin- gen; Westminster John Knox Press [Louisville], 1995); and The Dead Sea Scrolls Hebrew, Ara- maic, and Greek Texts with English Translations: Pesharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents. Volume 6B (J. C. B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck] Tübingen; Westminster John Knox Press [Louisville], 2002). xx