Subject:  GIF: Psalm Scroll (R43 Color)
Author:  .
Uploaded By:  PC MikeW
Date:  5/27/1993

File:  REL_43.GIF (275625 bytes) 
Estimated Download Time (61366 baud):  < 1 minute
Download Count:  5028

Equipment:  1012 X 337, 256 Colors
Needs:  A GIF Viewer





REL_43.GIF Psalm Scroll (1012 X 337, 256 Colors)

Psalms
   Tehillim   

Copied between 30 and 50 C.E.
18.5 x 86 centimeters

	This impressive scroll was found in 1956 in Cave 11, but was first unrolled only in 1961. One of the longer texts to be found at Qumran, it measures a total of 86 m and is the thickest of any of the scrolls - possibly of calfskin rather than sheepskin, which was the common writing material at Qumran. The writing is on the grain side of the skin. The scroll contains 28 incomplete columns of text, six of which are here displayed (Cols. XIV-XIX). Each of the preserved columns contains 14 to 17 lines; it is clear that six to seven lines are lacking at the bottom of each column.

	The scroll's script is of fine quality, with the letters carefully drawn in the Jewish book-hand style of the Herodian period. The divine name YHWH, the tetragrammaton, is inscribed in the paleo-Hebrew script (ancient Hebrew characters). On paleographic grounds the manuscript is dated between 30 and 50 CE (DJD: IV:6-9).

         The scroll is a liturgical collection of psalms and hymns, comprising parts of 41 biblical Psalms (chiefly  from Chapters 101-150), in non-canonical sequence and with variations in detail; but it also presents `apocryphal' psalms - previously unknown hymns - as well as a prose passage about the psalms composed by King David: "...And the total was 4,050. All these he composed through prophecy, which was given him from before the Most High."  (11QPs   a    27:10-11)


	References: J.A. Sanders.    The Psalms Scroll of Qumran Cave   . Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan, IV. Oxford, 1965.