Matthew Monger

4QAngryBirds
#4Q12
www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-...

Coming April 15, 2025, but now available for pre-order!

www.mqup.ca/authentic-pa...

@mcgillqueensup.bsky.social

That's a crazy good deal, thanks!

I’m so sorry I missed you. Are you around for long?

This week I’m learning so much at the NoChange training school on spectral imaging and advanced digitization of cultural heritage objects at #NTNU in Gjøvik, Norway. #manuscripts #imaging

4QSheepStandingOnDonkey

This database collects information about the fragments that appeared on the antiquities market starting in 2002 that are similar to—and were marketed as—Dead Sea Scrolls

Another important database has been developed by my colleagues @arsteinjustnes.bsky.social, Ludvik A. Kjeldsberg, and Hilda Deborah. The Post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like fragments database: lyingpendatabases.streamlit.app/Post2002

The data is from primary editions, mainly DJD and Tov's Scribal Practices. Over the next months and years, more data about the other manuscripts will be added and more of the data will be checked against more recent publications.

This is a work beta-version and a work in progress. Most of the scrolls with text from the Hebrew Bible are there, as well as Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical works that we know from other manuscript traditions. Also, a few major texts known only from Qumran.

Here is the list of the Dead Sea Scrolls dated to the Early Hellenistic by the editors. You can make customizable lists like this, compare scribal and material features of the scrolls, and get information about individual scrolls through our new database: lyingpendatabases.streamlit.app/DSSscribal

Does he have a name? Does it begin with a T?

The last ms dated to the Early Hellenistic Period in DJD is 6Q2 (6QPaleoLeviticus), a single fragment with text from Lv. 8:12–13. It is also written in the paleo-Hebrew script. There is a nice big lower margin visible, but other than that we know very little about this mansucript.

If you want to hear about all the ways the names of wives of the patriarchs (nameless in Genesis, named in Jubilees) get received in new contexts, join us in the Pseudepigrapha section this afternoon from 4-6:30 in CC33B

Wondering where I get the data for my posts on the Dead Sea Scrolls? Come to the #Qumran session this morning (9-11:30 CC2) at #AARSBL24 and hear about my work on a Dead Sea Scrolls Physical and Scribal Features Database

The 8th ms from Qumran dated to the Early Hellenistic Period is 6Q1 (6QPaleoGenesis). Also written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, the remains of this scroll are a single composite fragment with text from Gen. 6, making it the oldest ms with text from the Hebrew flood story (as far as I know anyway)

The 7th ms from Qumran dated to the Early Hellenistic Period is 5Q1 (5QDeuteronomy a). It contains text from Dt. 7–9 and Milik in DJD 3 says the text is "closer to the Samaritan Pent." He dates the scroll to the early 2nd century BCE, but pre-Hasomean, later than 4Q52 but earlier than 4Q70.

Overheard at #aarsbl24 “You OWN a couple of megillot!? Of course you do…”

The 6th ms from Qumran dated to the Early Hellenistic Period is 4Q208 (Enoch, Astronomical Book a). Aramaic text, exclusively from the synchronistic calendar that is related to 1 En. 72-75. It is the only MS on my list of early scrolls that is in Aramaic and the only one not in the Hebrew Bible.

The fifth ms from Qumran dated to the Early Hellenistic Period in DJD is 4Q101 (4QPaleoJob c). It is written in the paleo-Hebrew script, DJD 9 dates it to 225-150 BCE. The paleo-Hebrew script was only used for mss from the Torah and Job (because Moses?). 3 fragments remain with text from Job 13-14

The dates should be taken with about as much salt as there is in the Dead Sea…

Basically, it's all palaeography. There are a few dated mss and inscriptions but mostly they were dated on the basis of a proposed chronology of scripts and features. Very few have been carbon-dated. A project at Groningen has been testing and developing new methods. Results will be published soon.

The fourth scroll dated to the Early Hellenistic period in DJD is 4Q70 (4QJeremiah a). Dated variously to the late 3rd or early 2nd century BCE, this ms contains text from the first half of Jeremiah and good evidence of scribal corrections

The third manuscript dated to the Early Hellenistic Period in DJD is 4Q52 (4QSamuel b), which is also dated to c. 250 BCE or possibly slightly later in DJD 17. 23 fragments remain of this scroll, containing text from 1 Samuel 12–23.

Ideally, I would have told the moderator beforehand that I prefer to sit in the audience so I can look straight forward at the other panellists, then D.

Thanks for putting this together! I would love to be added 🙏

Sorry - mid-third Century BCE!

The second Early Hellenistic manuscript in my list is 4Q46 (4QPaleoDeuteronomy S). Also dated to the mid-second century BCE, only a single fragment remains of this ms. It is written in the paleo-Hebrew script and has some words from Dt. 26:14-15.

The dysfunctional copy: “Mali Magic,” loss and the digital remake of the Timbuktu archive In 2012, the manuscript collections of Timbuktu were feared to be at risk of destruction after rebel groups overtook the city. Rumours of the burning of the library and the destruction of thousands...

Apropos your project, have you seen this article by Susana Molins Lliteras? doi.org/10.1080/0253...