The Sources
In total there are 95 Torah texts represented in the evidence that has been recovered from
sites along the western shore of the Dead Sea. A small number of these texts occupy the
same scroll but are treated in the analysis as separate texts.^760 Regarding the provenience
of the individual scrolls, it is a matter of no small concern that certain of the scrolls alleg-
edly found in Qumran Cave 4 in uncontrolled excavations may in fact not have been un-
covered in those caves.^761 Nevertheless, it will be a working hypothesis in this study that
scrolls with the designation 4Q were in fact found in Cave 4, unless there is good evi-
dence to the contrary.
760
761 The scrolls are 4QGen-Exoda, 4QpaleoGen-Exodl, 4QExod-Levf, 4QLev-Numa.
A ready example is 4QGenb, which is assumed to be from a location other than Qumran Cave 4, possi-
bly Wadi Murabba‘at, as noted in E. Ulrich and F.M. Cross, Qumran Cave 4. VII: Genesis to Numbers
(DJD 12; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994) 31. See also the discussion in S.A. Reed, "Find-Sites," 211. Reed
notes that as many as 80% of the biblical scrolls from Cave 4 may be of unascertainable provenience due to
their being excavated in uncontrolled circumstances.