Exodus in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Sidnie White Crawford

The book of Exodus is a very important text among the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially in the collection found in the eleven caves in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumran (“the Qumran collection”). Because of the variety of texts and the fragmentary nature of the manuscripts, each text (or group of texts) will be treated individually. At the end of this essay, I will draw some conclusions concerning the status and use of Exodus in the Qumran collection.

1 Exodus Manuscripts

Eighteen fragmentary manuscripts of the book of Exodus itself were found in caves 1, 2, and 4 at Qumran.1 The oldest, 4QExod-Levf, dates paleographically to c. 250bce, while the latest, 4QExodk, dates between 30–135ce.2 The eighteen manuscripts between them cover parts of all the chapters of Exodus, beginning with 1:1–6 (4QExodb, 4QpaleoGen-Exodl) and ending with 40:8–27

1 D. Barthélemy, “Exode,” in Qumran Cave i (ed. D. Barthélemy and J.T. Milik; djd 1; Oxford: Clarendon, 1955), 50–51; M. Baillet, “Exode (i),” in Les ‘Petites Grottes’ de Qumran (ed. M. Bail- let, J.T. Milik, R. de Vaux; djd 3; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), 49–52; M. Baillet, “Exode (ii),” in Les ‘Petites Grottes’ de Qumran (ed. M. Baillet, J.T. Milik, and R. de Vaux; djd 3; Oxford: Claren- don, 1962), 52–55; M. Baillet, “Exode (iii),” in Les ‘Petites Grottes’ de Qumran (ed. M. Baillet, J.T. Milik, and R. de Vaux; djd 3; Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), 56; James R. Davila, “4QGen–Exoda,” in Qumran Cave 4, vii, Genesis to Numbers (ed. Eugene Ulrich et al.; djd 12; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 7–30; Patrick W. Skehan, Eugene Ulrich, and Judith E. Sanderson, “4QpaleoGenesis– Exodusl,” in Qumran Cave 4, iv, Palaeo-Hebrew and Greek Biblical Manuscripts (djd 9; Oxford: Clarendon, 1992), 17–50; Patrick W. Skehan, Eugene Ulrich, and Judith E. Sanderson, “4Qpa- leoExodusm,” in Qumran Cave 4, iv, Palaeo-Hebrew and Greek Biblical Manuscripts (djd 9; Oxford: Clarendon, 1992), 53–132; Frank Moore Cross, “4QExodb,” “4QExod–Levf,” in Qumran Cave 4, vii, Genesis to Numbers (ed. Eugene Ulrich et al.; djd 12; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 79– 96, 133–144; and Judith E. Sanderson, “4QExodc–e,” “4QExodg–k,” in Qumran Cave 4, vii, Genesis to Numbers (ed. Eugene Ulrich et al.; djd 12; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 97–132, 145–152. Also, a small fragment of Exodus, frgDSS 161 (Exod 23:8–10), has recently been acquired by South- western Baptist Theological Seminary; it is not yet published. 2 Brian Webster, “Chronological Index of the Texts from the Judaean Desert,” in The Texts from the Judaean Desert: Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series (djd 39; ed. Emanuel Tov; Oxford: Clarendon, 2002), 351–446 (378, 434).

(4QExod-Levf). In addition, one other fragmentary manuscript of Exodus was found in Wadi Murabbaʾat (MurExod), which dates paleographically to the late first–early second century ce.3 Two of these manuscripts, 4QExod-Levf and 4QpaleoExodm, are especially important because they contain a text of Exodus that was the Vorlage of Exodus as found in the Samaritan Pentateuch. In par- ticular, 4QpaleoExodm, an extensive manuscript that contains portions of Exod 6:25–37:16 in forty-three fragmentary columns, shares all the major expansions of the Samaritan Exodus, with one exception. That exception is the distinctively Samaritan expansion, the new tenth commandment instructing the Israelites to build an altar on Mt. Gerizim.4 The presence of these manuscripts in Qumran Cave 4 indicates that this textual tradition was shared by Jews and Samaritans, and is older than the definitive rupture between the Jews and the Samaritans in the late second century bce.5

2 Rewritten Scriptures

2.1 Reworked Pentateuch The first group of texts reworking the book of Exodus for exegetical purposes is the group known as Reworked Pentateuch. The five manuscripts in this group, 4q1586 and 4q364–367,7 are not copies of one another, but differ in extent and purpose.8 4q364 and 4q365 self-present as complete manuscripts of the

3 J.T. Milik, “Genèse, Exode, Nombres,” in Les Grottes de Murabbaʾat (ed. P. Benoit, J.T. Milik, R. de Vaux; djd 2; Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), 77–78. 4 See Judith E. Sanderson, An Exodus Scroll from Qumran: 4QpaleoExodm and the Samaritan Tradition (hss 30; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986). For the importance of 4QpaleoExodm in revealing the history of the text of Exodus, see Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (sdssrl; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999). 5 Magnar Kartveit, The Origin of the Samaritans (VTSup 128; Leiden: Brill, 2009), 259–312. 6 John M. Allegro, “Biblical Paraphrase: Genesis, Exodus,” in Qumrân Cave 4, i (4q158–4q186) (djd 5; Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), 1–6; see also John Strugnell, “Notes en marge du volume v des ‘Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan’,”RevQ 7 (1970): 163–276. 7 Emanuel Tov and Sidnie White, “Reworked Pentateuch,” in Qumran Cave 4, viii, Parabiblical Texts, Part i (ed. Harold Attridge et al.; djd 13; Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), 187–352. 8 For more in-depth discussions, see George J. Brooke, “4q158: Reworked Pentateucha or Re- worked Pentateuch a?” dsd 8 (2001): 219–241; Sidnie White Crawford, Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times (sdssrl; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008); Michael H. Segal, “4QReworked Pentateuch or 4QPentateuch?” in The Dead Sea Scrolls Fifty Years After Their Discovery (ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Emanuel Tov, and James C. VanderKam; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2000), 391–399; and Molly M. Zahn, Rethinking Rewritten Scripture: