II: Original Biblical Text Reconstructed from Newly Found Fragments

026027

In the last issue of Bible Review, Professor Cross presented a description, based on his study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, of how the text of the Hebrew Bible developed (“The Text Behind the Text of the Hebrew Bible,” BR 01:02). In this issue, Cross concludes his account of the kinds of changes in scholarly thinking that have been produced by recent Dead Sea Scroll research.—Ed.

The manuscripts from Qumran that differ from the received texts not only provide data for the history of the biblical text, as I described in the last issue of Bible Review, on occasion we find in these manuscripts readings of exceptional interest for the reconstruction of the original text of the Bible. Let me give a single example of such a reading. In the received text of Samuel, we read about a critical confrontation between Saul and Nahash, king of the Ammonites. Saul is victorious and as a result he is confirmed as Israel’s first king.