Biblical Views: Insertions in the Great Isaiah Scroll

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The Dead Sea Scrolls have revolutionized our understanding of various aspects of the Bible, ancient Judaism, and the ancient Jewish religious milieu from which Christianity was born. BAR editor Hershel Shanks, when preparing his review of the new publication of the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa^a),¹ noticed that one of the Biblical advances highlighted by that scroll was “isolated interpretive insertions.” Hershel asked me if I would describe for BAR readers what these “isolated interpretive insertions” were.

One of the major ways the scrolls have transformed our understanding of the Bible is by documenting an earlier period of Biblical tradition that we had not seen clearly before. Prior to the scrolls’ discovery, we had only a single form of the Hebrew text, the medieval Masoretic Text (MT), and we thought that was, in purified form, as close as we could get to the “original text.”

But the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are a thousand years older than MT, illuminate an earlier period—prior to the First and Second Jewish Revolts in 66 and 132 C.E.—characterized by rich pluriformity and ongoing development in the Biblical text, and indeed by “new and expanded editions” of certain Biblical books. For example, there is documentary evidence of a series of at least four editions of the Book of Exodus, each repeatedly expanded and developed according to discernible principles. The developmental composition of the Biblical books had been hypothesized since the Enlightenment, but there were only literary clues to substantiate this, no proof. The scrolls now provide that documentary proof.

1QIsa^a is our oldest witness (125–100 B.C.E.) to the text of Isaiah, and it teaches us a great deal. It is generally similar to our other manuscripts, but there is manifold variation at almost every level. The critical edition in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) Volume XXXII includes 75 pages of textual variants, with about 35 variants per page (more than 2,600 variants)!

Many of those variants are minor, but seven examples highlight what we call isolated interpretive insertions by later scribes in the MT; they are not contained in the original 1QIsa^a text from Qumran. Unlike scribal corrections to reinsert text that was accidentally missed during the copying process, these insertions are complete thoughts that learned scribes occasionally added into texts they were copying. Such passages range from a single sentence or clause to full paragraphs, from part of a verse to seven or eight new verses. They may have been created in various ways: as scribal notes, through oral commentary that had become customary in a certain community, from passages with similar or contrasting ideas, or as expressions of a liturgical, pious or apocalyptic nature.

The astute reader sometimes recognizes these. A clear example is “There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord,” which was tacked onto the end of Isaiah 48. It has no relation to what precedes or follows, but some scribe penned it early enough to be included in all our manuscripts, including the Great Isaiah Scroll.

Similarly, some scribe has inserted verses 9b and 10 of chapter 2 into the MT tradition. 1QIsa^a contains the first part of 2:9 and 2:11 but does not have 2:9b and 10 (in italics):²

⁹ So humankind is humbled,

and everyone brought low.

Do not forgive them!

¹⁰ Enter into the rock and hide in the dust

from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty.

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¹¹ The proud eyes of mortals will be brought low

and human pride will be humbled;

the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.

(Isaiah 2:9–11, NRSV adapted)

Note that 2:9a and 2:11 are both concerned with the humbling of human pride and use similar diction, expressed in the third person. In contrast, verses 9b and 10 are second-person negative (addressed to God) and positive (addressed to humans) commands that sit uneasily in the context. A scribe has inserted comments into the MT tradition here.

Another insertion in this same chapter is revealed by the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, c. 200 B.C.E.). It lacks the insertion noted by Hershel in his article: “Oh, cease to glorify man, who has only a breath in his nostrils. For by what does he merit esteem?” (Isaiah 2:22, JPS).

In the Greek, chapter 2 concludes with “On that day people will … enter the caverns of the rocks … from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth” (Isaiah 2:20–21), but the MT and 1QIsa^a continue with the command of verse 22. The change of topic and the grammatical change to a second-person command contrast with the previous verses and suggest that verse 22 is also a later expansion.

Yet another example is doubly attested by the scribe of 1QIsa^a and by the Septuagint translator, neither of whom had the italicized words found in chapter 40 of the expanded MT tradition:

⁶ A voice says, “Proclaim!” And I said, “What shall I proclaim?” All humans are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field.

⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.

⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

(Isaiah 40:6–8)

The short original text, which was copied correctly by the 1QIsa^a scribe and witnessed also by the Septuagint translator, is a perfectly formulated, positive prophetic oracle of salvation. A later, sloppy scribe, however, has inserted a distracting lament into the Isaiah manuscript. It was eventually incorporated into the tradition that became the MT. Most Bibles now include that insertion. There are numerous examples of similar insertions in many books of the Bible.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have revolutionized our understanding of various aspects of the Bible, ancient Judaism, and the ancient Jewish religious milieu from which Christianity was born. BAR editor Hershel Shanks, when preparing his review of the new publication of the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa),1 noticed that one of the Biblical advances highlighted by that scroll was “isolated interpretive insertions.” Hershel asked me if I would describe for BAR readers what these “isolated interpretive insertions” were. One of the major ways the scrolls have transformed our understanding of the Bible is by documenting an earlier period of Biblical tradition […]