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Isaiah Scroll
The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1947 from Qumran Cave 1. The scroll is written in Hebrew and contains the entire Book of Isaiah from beginning to end, apart from a few small damaged portions. It is the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, being approximately 1000 years older than the previous oldest Hebrew manuscripts known before the scrolls' discovery. 1QIsaa is also notable in being the only scroll from the Qumran Caves to be preserved almost in its entirety.
The scroll is written on 17 sheets of parchment. It is particularly large, being about 734 cm (24 feet) long and ranges from 25.3 to 27 cm high (10 to 10.6 inches) with 54 columns of text.
The exact authors of 1QIsaa are unknown, as is the exact date of writing. Pieces of the scroll have been dated using both radiocarbon dating and palaeographic/scribal dating. These methods resulted in calibrated date ranges between 356 and 103 BC and 150–100 BC respectively. This seemingly fits with the theory that the scroll(s) was a product of the Essenes, a mystic Jewish sect, first mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, and later by Josephus and Philo Judaeus. Further supporting this theory are the number of Essene sectarian texts found in the surrounding Qumran Caves, and the lining up of recorded beliefs to artifacts or structures at the Qumran site (like communal meals and the obsession with ritual purity lining up with rooms with hundreds of plates and many ritual baths found at the site). This theory is the most accepted in scholarly discourse. Further evidence that 1QIsaa was used by the sectarian community at Qumran is that scholars Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich argue that the same scribe who copied the sectarian scroll Rule of the Community (1QS) also made a correction to 1QIsaa. The reason for the placement of 1QIsaa in Qumran Cave 1 is still unknown, though it has been speculated that it was placed, along with the other scrolls, by Jews (Essene or not) fleeing the Roman forces during the First Jewish–Roman War (c. 66–73 AD).
The scroll was discovered in Qumran Cave 1, by a group of three Ta'amireh shepherds, near the Ein Feshkha spring off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between late 1946 and early 1947; initially discovered when one of the shepherds heard the sound of shattering pottery after throwing a rock while searching for a lost member of his flock. Once the shepherds agreed to return in a few days, the youngest one, Muhammed edh-Dhib returned alone before them, finding a cave filled with broken and whole jars and fragments of scrolls. Of the intact jars, edh-Dhib found all but two empty; one was filled with reddish earth, and the other with a parchment scroll (later found to be the Great Isaiah Scroll) and two oblong items covered in a black wax or pitch (later found to be the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) and the Community Rule (1QS)). Edh-Dhib returned with the three scrolls to the displeasure of the other shepherds for his solo journey, and the scrolls were transferred to a Ta'amireh site southeast of Bethlehem where they were kept in a bag suspended on a tent pole for several weeks. During this time, the front cover of 1QIsaa broke off. The three scrolls were brought to an antiques dealer in Bethlehem for appraisal.
The scroll first came into the possession of Khalil Iskander Shahin, better known as Kando, an antiques dealer who was a member of the Syrian Church. Kando was unable to make anything of the writing on the scroll, and sold it to Athanasius Yeshue Samuel (better known as Mar Samuel), the Syrian Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in East Jerusalem, who was anxious to have it authenticated. The Archbishop consulted many scholars in Jerusalem to determine the nature and significance of the documents, and in July 1947, he finally consulted the École Biblique and came in contact with the visiting Dutch scholar Professor J. van der Ploeg of Nijmegen University. Van der Ploeg identified one of the manuscripts at the monastery as a copy of the Book of Isaiah in Hebrew, but was met with skepticism, as a fellow scholar at the École Biblique believed that the scrolls must be fakes due to their antiquity.
In January 1948, Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Chair of Palestinian Archaeology in the Hebrew University arranged to meet with a member of the Syrian community in the Y.M.C.A building of Jerusalem to see the scrolls and borrow them for a few days, after hearing of their existence at the monastery. Upon realizing their authenticity, Sukenik copied several chapters of the Book of Isaiah from the manuscript and distributed copies to the Constituent Assembly of the State of Israel.
On 18 February 1948, Father Butrus Sowmy of St. Mark's Monastery called the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) to contact William Brownlee, a Fellow at the ASOR, about publishing the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Habakkuk Commentary, and the Community Rule. Brownlee was away from the school temporarily, so Sowmy was put in contact with Dr. John Trever, photographer and temporary director of the school. Trever photographed the scrolls and sent the photographs to palaeographer and dean of American archaeologists, Professor William Albright of Johns Hopkins University, who dated the manuscript of Isaiah at around 100 BCE.
Early in 1949, Mar Samuel, Syrian Archbishop–Metropolitan of Jerusalem, brought the scroll to the United States, hoping to sell it and the three others he had in his possession. Samuel permitted ASOR to publish them within a limit of three years, and so Dr. Millar Burrows, director of ASOR, along with Dr. John Trever and Dr. William Brownlee prepared the scrolls for publication. The scrolls initially purchased by Samuel were published by the American Schools of Oriental Research in 1950, and included 1QIsaa, 1QpHab, and 1QS. The scrolls were advertised for sale in the Wall Street Journal in June, 1954 under the "miscellaneous" columns, but were eventually bought by Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin for $250,000 in 1954 and brought back to Israel, although the purchase was not announced until February 1955. The scroll, along with over 200 fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, is now housed in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum. Recently, the Israel Museum, in a partnership with Google, created the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, and has digitized 1QIsaa, the Great Isaiah Scroll, providing a high-quality image of the entire scroll. The digitized scroll provides an English translation alongside the original text, and can be viewed on the museum's website or at the Google Art Project.
Isaiah Scroll
The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1947 from Qumran Cave 1. The scroll is written in Hebrew and contains the entire Book of Isaiah from beginning to end, apart from a few small damaged portions. It is the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, being approximately 1000 years older than the previous oldest Hebrew manuscripts known before the scrolls' discovery. 1QIsaa is also notable in being the only scroll from the Qumran Caves to be preserved almost in its entirety.
The scroll is written on 17 sheets of parchment. It is particularly large, being about 734 cm (24 feet) long and ranges from 25.3 to 27 cm high (10 to 10.6 inches) with 54 columns of text.
The exact authors of 1QIsaa are unknown, as is the exact date of writing. Pieces of the scroll have been dated using both radiocarbon dating and palaeographic/scribal dating. These methods resulted in calibrated date ranges between 356 and 103 BC and 150–100 BC respectively. This seemingly fits with the theory that the scroll(s) was a product of the Essenes, a mystic Jewish sect, first mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, and later by Josephus and Philo Judaeus. Further supporting this theory are the number of Essene sectarian texts found in the surrounding Qumran Caves, and the lining up of recorded beliefs to artifacts or structures at the Qumran site (like communal meals and the obsession with ritual purity lining up with rooms with hundreds of plates and many ritual baths found at the site). This theory is the most accepted in scholarly discourse. Further evidence that 1QIsaa was used by the sectarian community at Qumran is that scholars Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich argue that the same scribe who copied the sectarian scroll Rule of the Community (1QS) also made a correction to 1QIsaa. The reason for the placement of 1QIsaa in Qumran Cave 1 is still unknown, though it has been speculated that it was placed, along with the other scrolls, by Jews (Essene or not) fleeing the Roman forces during the First Jewish–Roman War (c. 66–73 AD).
The scroll was discovered in Qumran Cave 1, by a group of three Ta'amireh shepherds, near the Ein Feshkha spring off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between late 1946 and early 1947; initially discovered when one of the shepherds heard the sound of shattering pottery after throwing a rock while searching for a lost member of his flock. Once the shepherds agreed to return in a few days, the youngest one, Muhammed edh-Dhib returned alone before them, finding a cave filled with broken and whole jars and fragments of scrolls. Of the intact jars, edh-Dhib found all but two empty; one was filled with reddish earth, and the other with a parchment scroll (later found to be the Great Isaiah Scroll) and two oblong items covered in a black wax or pitch (later found to be the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) and the Community Rule (1QS)). Edh-Dhib returned with the three scrolls to the displeasure of the other shepherds for his solo journey, and the scrolls were transferred to a Ta'amireh site southeast of Bethlehem where they were kept in a bag suspended on a tent pole for several weeks. During this time, the front cover of 1QIsaa broke off. The three scrolls were brought to an antiques dealer in Bethlehem for appraisal.
The scroll first came into the possession of Khalil Iskander Shahin, better known as Kando, an antiques dealer who was a member of the Syrian Church. Kando was unable to make anything of the writing on the scroll, and sold it to Athanasius Yeshue Samuel (better known as Mar Samuel), the Syrian Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in East Jerusalem, who was anxious to have it authenticated. The Archbishop consulted many scholars in Jerusalem to determine the nature and significance of the documents, and in July 1947, he finally consulted the École Biblique and came in contact with the visiting Dutch scholar Professor J. van der Ploeg of Nijmegen University. Van der Ploeg identified one of the manuscripts at the monastery as a copy of the Book of Isaiah in Hebrew, but was met with skepticism, as a fellow scholar at the École Biblique believed that the scrolls must be fakes due to their antiquity.
In January 1948, Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Chair of Palestinian Archaeology in the Hebrew University arranged to meet with a member of the Syrian community in the Y.M.C.A building of Jerusalem to see the scrolls and borrow them for a few days, after hearing of their existence at the monastery. Upon realizing their authenticity, Sukenik copied several chapters of the Book of Isaiah from the manuscript and distributed copies to the Constituent Assembly of the State of Israel.
On 18 February 1948, Father Butrus Sowmy of St. Mark's Monastery called the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) to contact William Brownlee, a Fellow at the ASOR, about publishing the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Habakkuk Commentary, and the Community Rule. Brownlee was away from the school temporarily, so Sowmy was put in contact with Dr. John Trever, photographer and temporary director of the school. Trever photographed the scrolls and sent the photographs to palaeographer and dean of American archaeologists, Professor William Albright of Johns Hopkins University, who dated the manuscript of Isaiah at around 100 BCE.
Early in 1949, Mar Samuel, Syrian Archbishop–Metropolitan of Jerusalem, brought the scroll to the United States, hoping to sell it and the three others he had in his possession. Samuel permitted ASOR to publish them within a limit of three years, and so Dr. Millar Burrows, director of ASOR, along with Dr. John Trever and Dr. William Brownlee prepared the scrolls for publication. The scrolls initially purchased by Samuel were published by the American Schools of Oriental Research in 1950, and included 1QIsaa, 1QpHab, and 1QS. The scrolls were advertised for sale in the Wall Street Journal in June, 1954 under the "miscellaneous" columns, but were eventually bought by Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin for $250,000 in 1954 and brought back to Israel, although the purchase was not announced until February 1955. The scroll, along with over 200 fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, is now housed in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum. Recently, the Israel Museum, in a partnership with Google, created the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project, and has digitized 1QIsaa, the Great Isaiah Scroll, providing a high-quality image of the entire scroll. The digitized scroll provides an English translation alongside the original text, and can be viewed on the museum's website or at the Google Art Project.