the MT than do the vast majority of scrolls from Qumran.^1324 Though Young’s arguments
extend to the entire corpus of biblical scrolls, this is especially true of the scrolls of the
Torah uncovered at these sites. As can be easily seen in the list of variants, the number of
variations relative to the MT in the Qumran Torah scrolls is overwhelmingly superior to
the number of variations relative to the MT in those from Masada, Murabba‘at, Naḥal
Ḥever and Wadi Sdeir. Only three out of the total of 1,985 variants from the MT are
found in scrolls that are not assumed to have come from Qumran.^1325
Moreover, the type and frequency of variation relative to the MT in the scrolls from
Qumran is significantly lower if we limit our analysis to those scrolls designated by Tov
as ‘de luxe,’ or ήκριβωμένα in the language of Lieberman. The following bar graphs
show the level of variation in all texts including those scrolls termed ‘de luxe’ by Tov.
(^1324) See above, page 288-90.
(^1325) See Q895, Q896 and Q897, all occurring in scrolls from Masada. This number may be extended to four
if 4QGenb is presumed to have been originally discovered at a site other than Qumran. On the other hand,
this figure can be reduced to one if we consider 4QGenb to be a legitimate Qumran scroll, and also consider
MurGen to in fact be a copy of Jubilees, or some other retelling of Genesis (see I. Young "The Stabilization
of the Biblical Text," 371, and cf. I. Young "The Biblical Scrolls from Qumran," 121-22).