List of Variants From the MT Torah Scrolls From Qumran and Masada The Sources 3 13
No. Scrolls Variant Text Categorisation
Q1 MT Gen 1:20 wcr#y OV(l) – Possible difference in
1QGen 1 2 wcwr[#y] pronunciation.^763
Q2 MT Gen 22:14 omits SV(1) – The MT lacks the object
1QGen 3 2 t) marker.
Q3 MT Exod 16:14 spsxk SV(1) – Interchange of preposi-
1QExod 1 3 spsxm tions.
Q4 MT Exod 20:25 hllxtw SV(1) – Difference in gender.^764
1QExod 5-6 2 whllxt[
Q5 MT Lev 20:21 )wh SV(1) – Difference in gender.^765
1QpaleoLev 3-4 2 )yh
Q6 MT Lev 22:6 #pn SV(1) – MT lacks the conjunc-
1QpaleoLev 6 10 #]pnw tion.
763
E. Qimron, The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986) 50-53, has shown that
the most common form of the ‘o’ themed imperfect verb with afformative in Qumran Hebrew maintains the
root vowel, represented in the orthography as waw, where the Massoretic tradition has shewa. This may be
an indicaton of penultimate stress in Qumran Hebrew, or related to dual forms of the indicative imperfect
verb that existed in parallel in that dialect, on analogy with the dual forms of the infinitive and the impera-
tive. See also S. Morag, "Qumran Hebrew: Some Typological Observations," 764 VT 38, 2 (1988) 155-56.
The feminine singular pronominal object suffix in MT refers to the adjective tyzg. The form of the pro-
nominal object suffix in 1QExod appears to treat the adjective, which is not preserved, as masculine, per-
haps due to a misunderstanding of the gender of the irregular feminine noun to which the adjective refers,
namely 765 Nb).
1QpaleoLev has the grammatically correct form of the masculine singular independent pronoun, also
corrected in the qere of MT. This phenomenon is common in the MT and the correct grammatical form of
the third person singular independent pronoun is found regularly in the Qumran biblical scrolls. The dis-
tinction between waw and yod in this script is clear, though this is not the case in many of the scrolls writ-
ten in ‘Assyrian’ script.