Qumran Isaiah Scrolls and Ketib-Qere Readings of Masoretic-Type Texts

Appendix 2 Qumran Isaiah Scrolls and Ketib-Qere Readings of Masoretic-Type Texts

This appendix of ketib-qere (KQ) readings1 records fifty-eight KQ2 cases from Masoretic-type texts of Isaiah, which are compared to 1QIsaa and other Qumran witnesses of Isaiah. In all instances, I compare only the consonantal text of the various Hebrew texts and not the vocalization that is attached to the ketib of Masoretic-type texts. Each of the readings may be placed into one of four groups:

Group 1. 1QIsaa equals the ketib of Masoretic-type texts. This alignment of 1QIsaa with the ketib occurs in a total of twenty-five out of the fifty-eight KQ readings that are part of the book of Isaiah (see 3:16; 9:2; 10:33; 13:16; 15:3; 18:4; 23:12; 25:10; 26:20 [2×]; 29:11; 30:6; 30:32; 32:15; 36:12; 42:20; 42:24; 44:17; 44:24; 46:11; 49:6; 52:2, 5; 58:14; and 63:9). Group 2. 1QIsaa equals the qere of Masoretic-type texts. There are seventeen readings where 1QIsaa has the same consonantal text as the qere of either the Aleppo or Leningrad codices or other Masoretic manuscripts (see 3:8; 5:29; 9:6; 10:32; 12:5; 13:16; 28:15; 32:7; 41:23; 49:5; 52:5; 54:16; 55:13; 57:19; 60:21; 65:4; and 66:17). The significance of this statistic relates to the point that a number of qere readings that are located in the margins of Masoretic-type texts actually exist within columns (not the margins) of Isaiah scrolls that date to an earlier period. Stated differently, there are seventeen readings from the text of 1QIsaa that agree with marginal readings of Masoretic-type texts. This does not imply, of course, that the manuscript labeled “1QIsaa” was actually employed by Masoretes who created the KQ system. It does indicate, however, that one or more proto-Masoretic-type texts have readings that agree with qere readings of the Masoretic period.

1 For a study of ketib-qere readings in the Isaiah texts, see Parry, “1QIsaa and Ketib-Qere Readings of the Masoretic Type Texts,” 17–32; Rubinstein, “Kethib-Qere Problem in the Light of the Isaiah Scroll,” 127–33. 2 My list of fifty-eight KQ readings in the book of Isaiah are compiled from a variety of sources: Goshen-Gottstein’s HUB–Isaiah, the apparatuses of BHS and BHK, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library, with its marked KQ readings, as organized by Westminster’s Bible. For Palestinian Biblical Manuscripts that include KQ notations, as compared with BHK, I also consulted Revell, Biblical Texts with Palestinian Pointing and Their Accents, 238–39, 241. Jacob Ben Chajim Ibn Adonijah’s Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible, 47n20, holds that there are fifty- five examples of KQ in the Rabbinic Bible of Jacob ben Chajim. My own count yields fifty- eight examples.

Group 3. 1QIsaa does not equal either the ketib or the qere of Masoretic-type texts; there are fifteen readings where 1QIsaa has a different consonantal text than either the qere or the ketib (see 3:15; 10:6; 10:13; 16:3; 23:13; 28:15; 30:33; 36:12; 37:30; 39:2; 45:2; 47:13; 49:13; 56:10). Group 4. One Qumran Isaiah witness agrees with the ketib, and another Qumran Isaiah witness agrees with the qere. In seven passages, the Qumran scrolls give two different readings at the point of the KQ that belong to Masoretic-type manuscripts (see 12:5; 13:16; 37:30; 49:5; 57:19; 58:14; 60:21). It is my position that the majority of KQ variants of the book of Isaiah are not material variants that reflect a different Vorlage or textual tradition, such as we see with the manifold and diverse material variants that exist between Masoretic-type texts and those Qumran witnesses that we label as nonaligned texts, such as 4QDeutj,n, 4QJosha, 4QJudga, and 4QSama.3 Rather, they are analogical readings, variants that reveal different orthographic systems, or examples of archaic, dialectical, or phonological textual updating or clerical errors. In fact, beyond the qere perpetuum readings and three examples of euphemisms (13:16; 36:12 bis), the majority of variants between ketib and qere in the book of Isaiah differ from one another in one or two Hebrew letters, from the grouping ʾālep, hê, wāw, and yôd. The catalog presents abbreviations and symbols4 that serve the reader in interpret- ing the catalog’s data. The abbreviations are followed by a comprehensive register that includes scriptural references, the ketib, the qere, and a presentation of various Hebrew Bible manuscripts—Masoretic-type, Geniza, and Qumran Isaiah scrolls. The Masoretic-type and Geniza manuscripts (and fragments) all belong to the “‘masoretic period’ and date from not earlier than ca. 800 CE.”5

Abbreviations

Aleppo Codex, beginning of tenth century א Ms New York, ENA 346 = JTS 232, Later Prophets, tenth century נ Codex Karlsruhe 3 (Reuchlinianus’), Prophets, written in 1105 ר Codex Petersburg Heb B 3, Latter Prophets, written in 916 פ Second (completed) Rabbinic Bible, Venice 1524–5 מ

3 For particulars regarding these nonaligned texts, see Tov, TCHB3, 116. 4 I am indebted to Goshen-Gottstein, HUB–Isaiah, xliv, xlvii–xlviii, for the use of abbreviations and symbols pertaining to Masoretic-type texts. 5 Goshen-Gottstein, Text and Language in Bible and Qumran, xli.