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texts.^1322 Recalculating the types and frequency of variation without taking these texts
into account would certainly result in a decrease in the number of major stylistic varia-
tions overall. However, all scrolls designated as ‘biblical’ scrolls by their sigla are in-
cluded to represent as broad a picture as possible of the shape of the Torah at Qumran.


A small number of Torah scrolls from Qumran reflects a text that is identical or ex-
tremely close to the MT. 4QDeutg has a total of 156 SU preserved in exact agreement
with the MT, while 4QGenb disagrees with the MT in the writing of a single vowel letter
by employing mater lectionis in a total of 447 SU.^1323 4QLevc has 127 SU preserved in
which only two variations occur relative to the MT – one read as a difference in mor-
phology and the other in agreement with the MT qere perpetuum )yh (for ketib )wh). Of
these three scrolls 4QGenb stands alone in being of slightly doubtful provenience, and
may in fact have originally been discovered in clandestine excavations in one of the sec-
ond century C.E. caves further towards the southern end of the Dead Sea, and later mixed
with the Qumran fragments.


The scrolls from sites other than Qumran tell a significantly different story. As has been
outlined in chapter nine, I. Young has shown convincingly that the scrolls from Masada,
Murabba‘at, Naḥal Ḥever and Wadi Sdeir all have a much closer textual affiliation with


(^1322) Examples are 4QGend, 4QExod (^) d, 4QDeutk1, j, n, q, and possibly 2QExodb. See E. Tov "A Categorized
List of All the 'Biblical Texts' Found in the Judaean Desert," DSD 8, 1 (2001) 69, and also "Excerpted and
Abbreviated Biblical Texts From Qumran," Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible, and Qumran (Texts and Studies in
Ancient Judaism 121; Tübingen: Morh Siebeck, 2008) 32-40, first appearing in 1323 RevQ 16, 4 (1995) 581-600.
The variation is orthographic and so not presented in the list of variants. See 4QGenb 1 i 17 trw)ml
versus MT Gen 1:15 tr)ml.

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