Chadwick, Christopher R.

English

Andrews University

371Book Reviewsother textual witnesses. Here the reader can find references to manuscripts not found in critical editions like BHS. The volumes basically consist of  these two elements, the transcribed manuscripts and textual variants. This is both the strength and weakness of  these volumes. The strength is that it has allowed a low-cost publication of  the complete biblical Qumran scrolls. It also enhances comparison between the various manuscripts, as there is minimal information around the text of  the primary sources that can cause distraction. No longer is there a need to consult multiple volumes in DJD in order to find the various manuscripts containing a given biblical passage.The weakness is that the reader is often left with a desire for more information about each manuscript and the reconstructions. As Ulrich explains, the reader then needs to consult DJD for more detailed introductions to each manuscript, explanatory notes, and analysis of  variants or reconstructions. A question is whether some of  the information in DJD could have been published in these volumes in an abbreviated form. Or, given the costs of  the volumes in DJD, it is a question whether it would have been possible to publish DJD in a cheaper format, including the additional information and explanations. Taking BQS as a low-cost and reader-friendly edition of  the biblical Qumran scrolls, allowing easy comparison of  the various manuscripts, and DJD as a resource for more in-depth studies of  the individual manuscripts, BQS and DJD will clearly function as complementary publications. For some years, the biblical Qumran scrolls have been available through software programs like Accordance and Logos. Recently high-quality photographs of  many of  the Qumran scrolls have been made available online (see http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/ and http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/). With Ulrich’s three-volume set as assistance, it is now possible to do original research on the Qumran scrolls by a broader scholarship. Even if  one might soon find oneself  desiring more of  the information in the DJD series, Ulrich’s publication of  all the biblical Qumran scrolls in this handy compendium is no doubt a significant contribution to biblical scholarship.Berrien Springs, Michigan      kEnnEth bErGlandUlrich, Eugene and Peter W. Flint, with a contribution by Martin G. Abegg Jr., Qumran Cave 1, II: The Isaiah Scrolls. Part 1: Plates and Transcriptions; Part 2: Introductions, Commentary, and Textual Variants (DJD, XXXII; Oxford: Clarendon, 2010). The Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) series is now complete, due to the publication of  volume thirty-two in 2010, which is one of  the more anticipated volumes in this series. This two-volume publication is a study analysis of  the two Isaiah scrolls from Qumran cave 1: 1QIsaa and 1QIsab coauthored by Eugene Ulrich and Peter W Flint with a contribution by Martin Abegg. The first volume is titled Part 1: Plates and Transcriptions, and the second is Part 2: Introductions, Commentary, and Textual Variants.  While there are twenty-one 372 Seminary StudieS 52 (autumn 2014)manuscripts (mss) among the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) that contain fragments of  the text of  Isaiah, these two have attracted the most attention since their discovery in 1947, especially 1QIsaa. Scholars from a variety of  fields have published works focusing on different aspects of  these scrolls, such as their date, textual variations, and linguistic nature.  The first volume is divided into three sections. Its 151 pages consist of  a table of  contents, table of  plates, preface, plates A-J, plates and transcription of  1QIsaa, and plates and transcription of  1QIsab. In the preface, the editors describe the importance of  the images for plate A-J. The images come from the photography of  John Trever, James E. Trever, Ardon Bar Hama, Martin Shoyen, and David Harris. The images by John Trever are wide shots of  1QIsaa columns I-IV (Plate A), column XLIX by James Trever (Plate B), John Trever, himself, photographing the Community Rule (Plate C), and columns XI-XIII (Plate D). Shoyen’s images consist of  images of  vellum and repair materials (Plate E) and a black-and-white image of  1QIsaa before the scroll was open (Plate F). Bar Hama’s photography are color images of  column XXI from scroll fragment 1QIsab (Plate G) and a black-and-white image of  columns XXIII-XXVI from a fragment of  1QIsab (Plate J). There is one color image from Harris of  columns XIX-XXII from scroll 1QIsab (Plate H). The next sections comprise the bulk of  this volume: the plates and transcriptions of  1QIsaa and 1QIsab. This section contains impressive images of  the plates and transcription of  1QIsaa. The images are digitally remastered and provide a highly useful tool for scholars interested in reading the manuscript in this format. Where there is an image that contains letters, words, or phrases difficult to read, the transcriptions provide the most likely reading as well as the correction by the original scribe and possible reconstructions by the editors. An example can be found in column LIV of  1QIsaa on page 108. At the end of  line ten in the manuscript there is what appears to be a correction by the original scribe with a heavier hand. Close up the letters are barely legible, as the script is thicker. The transcription clarifies this line, while in volume two the editors state their explanation for the thicker writing (p. 118). The editors provide the explanation for these reconstructions in the second volume. The plates and transcription of  1QIsab contain black-and-white images with transcriptions of  the remaining texts along with reconstructions. The black-and-white images are readable, and the reader can follow the Hebrew texts easily. The second volume, Part Two: Introduction, Commentary, and Textual Variants, consists of  260 pages and provides an introduction and a linguistic profile of  both scrolls. The introduction is a narrative from discovery of  the scrolls to their present state for publication. The next section is a linguistic profile of  the scrolls authored by Martin Abegg. After his initial physical description of  the scroll and its relationship to the other Isaiah fragments, Abegg describes a variety of  orthographic, phonological, and lexical features. His research is thorough, technical without being verbose. The editors provide a more specific introduction to each of  the scrolls. One of  the main issues within biblical scholarship that 1QIsaa, speaks to is the issue of  the authorship. Regarding 373Book Reviews1QIsaa the editors conclude that one scribe copied a parent text, while other scribes made corrections and expansions (p. 63). There is a division of  this manuscript at chapter thirty-three in column XXVII; the scribe completes chapter thirty-three with at least three lines to spare at the bottom. Column XXVIII begins with the chapter thirty-four, but no sense of  division between thirty-nine and forty-column XXXII. The editors maintain that there are orthographic and morphological features that occur in the second half  of  the text such as the more frequent use of  mater lectionis. They attribute this feature to the possibility that this portion was originally a separate work.The next section describes 1QIsab. Orthographic, morphological, and paleographic analyses are described as well. The editors date this manuscript to the third quarter of  the first century b.c. One of  the features of  this manuscript is that it dates earlier than 1QIsaa, yet has more agreement with other Masoretic versions. The editors also conclude that though there are different versions of  Isaiah, they all represent the final version of  the book of  Isaiah; however, based on the textual variants on the Greek translations, there are different families of  texts. This source will prove to be extremely useful for scholars in various fields. The editors have done a wonderful job of  organizing these volumes into a useable resource. Scholars from both ends of  the theological spectrum will find this source valuable for textual criticism, exegesis, and philological study. The editors maintain, as most scholars do, the possibility of  a second Isaiah. They are fair with the evidence represented in these two manuscripts and will be the standard for those interested in this book.Andrews University             christophEr r. chadwickvan der Steen, Eveline, Jeannette Boertien, and Noor Mulder-Hymans, eds. Exploring the Narrative: Jerusalem and Jordan in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Library of  Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 583. London: Bloomsbury 2014. xxiv + 440 pp. Hardcover, $146.00; PDF e-book, $131.99.This volume is a collection of  essays that serves as a Festschrift honoring the scholarship of  archaeologist and historian Margreet L. Steiner and contains twenty-one chapters written by twenty-seven of  Steiner’s European, North American, Israeli, and Jordanian colleagues. The title of  the volume fittingly reflects Steiner’s own focus of  historical and archaeological research in Jordan (notably at Tell Deir ‘Alla) and in Jerusalem, where she and her mentor, the late H. J. Franken, were given the responsibility of  publishing part of  Kathleen Kenyon’s excavations on the southeast hill (the City of  David). Consequently, the book is divided into two roughly equal parts, with contributors writing on topics relating to these two subjects.Papers relating to Jordan include an essay on pottery production at Tall Hisban and Tall al ‘Umayri by Gloria London and Robert Shuster, which both summarizes and expands upon their landmark study published two years earlier (Ceramic Technology at Hisban, (597-763) in Ceramic Finds: 

Qumran Cave 1, II: The Isaiah Scrolls. Part 1: Plates and Transcriptions; Part 2: Introductions, Commentary, and Textual Variants [review] / Ulrich, Eugene and Peter W. Flint, with a contribution by Martin G. Abegg Jr.

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3342&amp;context=auss

Qumran Cave 1, II: The Isaiah Scrolls. Part 1: Plates and Transcriptions; Part 2: Introductions, Commentary, and Textual Variants [review] / Ulrich, Eugene and Peter W. Flint, with a contribution by Martin G. Abegg Jr.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Andrews University