Reconstructing Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Method Applied to the Reconstruction of 4QSam

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Reconstructing Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Method Applied to the Reconstruction of 4QSam^sup a^. By Edward D. Herbert. Leiden: Brill, 1997, xv + 293 pp., $191.50.

This is a revised version of Herbert's Cambridge doctoral thesis written under the supervision of Graham Davies. Herbert examined thoroughly the fragments of 4QSam^sup a^, one of the most significant Biblical scrolls. According to Herbert, "a twelfth of Samuel is now extant and identified, spanning just over a third of the verses and 45 of the 54 chapters" (p. 1).

After a short introduction, the book deals with "A New Method for Reconstructing the Text of Biblical Scrolls," "Establishing Elements of the Method," "Laying the Foundations for the Reconstruction of 4QSam^sup a^," and the "Reconstruction and Analysis of 2 Samuel." After the conclusion, useful appendixes follow: "New Fragment Identifications," "4QSam^sup a^ Fragment Index," "Orthography," "Deviations," and "Fragment Juxtapositions." The book ends with a select bibliography and indexes of authors, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Scripture passages. It uses the official photographs on pp. 249-274. This makes it very useful, though expensive.

Since no clear method had been developed for reconstructing the text of scrolls, "scholars had rather depended largely upon common sense and general scholarly judgment" (p. 2). Herbert proposes measuring the average column width and then average letter widths for 4QSam^sup a^ (Table 40). An interesting result emerges from this analysis: sin is on average the widest letter at 3.47 mm, followed by qop, tet, and samek, while the final nun is the narrowest at 0.99 mm, followed by zayin, waw and nun. It is noteworthy that waw is not the narrowest and yod is only the fifth narrowest. Herbert measured every letter in the scroll to come to his conclusions.

The usefulness of this study is clear when one examines the most recent article, by F. M. Cross and D. W. Parry, "A Preliminary Edition of a Fragment of 4QSam^sup b^ (4Q52)," BASOR 306 (1997) 63-74, which still follows the old method, though it refers to Herbert's dissertation (1995) as one of the "alternate modes of calculating line and lacunas lengths."

For example, Cross and Parry posit a "graphic similarity" (p. 67) between 7it`11vl (4QSam^sup b^) and ... "the meal" in 1 Sam 20:27 since they think that "mem and nun are easily confused" in the old Hebrew script. While these two scripts are similar in the older linear alphabet, the letter ..., which is the widest letter in the Qumran scrolls, hardly would be missed by the eyes of scribes.

Herbert's method is more objective than Cross and Parry's. While there is no way for a reader to check the latter's ad hoc remarks such as "spacing requires," "the reconstruction required by the limited space," "there is no room," and "this line is long," Herbert's method is empirical and open to the reader's scrutiny.

This is a highly technical work with painstaking research behind it; it is sometimes not easy to understand, and not very reader-friendly. For example, on p. 11, the last paragraph, such references as "section e" and "lines (4-7) of Fig. 1" suddenly appear, though fig. 1 on p. 12 has line numbers only from 21 to 37. Also, some technical statistical terms used are not familiar to Biblical scholars.

However, the purpose of this book is clear enough: to establish a scientific method to reconstruct the Biblical text of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now that scholars have easier access to the scrolls through the microfiche edition, every serious student of the Hebrew text of Samuel will reap great benefit from Herbert's original contributions. His work surely sets a standard for a scientific and objective study and reconstruction of the Samuel and other scrolls.

David Tsumura Japan Bible Seminary, Tokyo, Japan

Copyright Evangelical Theological Society Jun 2000
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