The Dead Sea Scrolls: Isaiah and Phylacteries

The final rotation of Dead Sea Scrolls is on exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in DC. This blog post will cover the biblical material that is here this time: a copy of Isaiah, and a phylactery. For an introduction to the topic, see my first post here.

The Isaiah scroll on exhibit has a good example of the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for establishing the text of the Old Testament. The verse I want to explore is Isaiah 53:11. Let’s start by comparing the Masoretic Text with the Old Greek:

After the toil of his soul he will see, he will be satisfied. By his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will justify many, and their iniquities he will bear.

(The Lord wills to take away) from the pain of his soul, to show him light, and to mold his understanding, to justify a righteous one who served well for many, and he himself will bear their sins.

The Old Greek translation has a number of differences, though most can be explained merely by a different interpretation of the same Hebrew text. For example, it takes the first clause with the previous verse – I have put these words from verse 10 in parentheses. The difference I want to focus on is the inclusion of the word “light,” which is missing in the Hebrew of the Masoretic Text. This term is also missing from the Syriac Peshitta, the Vulgate, and Targum Jonathan. At this point, one might reason that the Old Greek is the odd one out, with all the later translations supporting the Masoretic Text. One might also note the other problems in the Old Greek version of this verse (where did they get “to mold” from?). For these reasons, one might be tempted to go with the Masoretic Text and dismiss the Old Greek.

However, when we get a look at the three versions of this text in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we get a different picture. I've included translations of these below, with missing portions in brackets and italics:

After the toil of his soul he will see li[ght] and be satisfied. By his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will justify m[any, and their iniquities] he will bear.

After the toil of his soul he will see light, and will be satisfied, and by his knowledge the righteous one, my servant will justify many, and their iniquities he will bear.

After the toil of his soul he will see light, he will be sat[isfied. By his knowledge the righteous one,] my servant, [will justify] ma[n]y, and their iniquities he will bear.

All three versions have the word “light,” backing up the Old Greek. This is very strong support for the reading. It tends to reinforce a principle text critics of the Old Testament try to keep in mind: the later translations (the Vulgate, Peshitta, and Targums) are based on an original text already conformed to the proto-Masoretic Text. So even when they all agree with the Masoretic Text against the Old Greek, they probably all trace back to only one proto-Masoretic manuscript anyway.

This is what has happened in this instance. The term “light” is original to the text, as witnessed by the Old Greek and all the three Dead Sea Scrolls witnesses. But it must have dropped out of the proto-Masoretic Text tradition. Thus it was also missing in all the manuscripts copied later in this tradition, including all those used for the translations.

This example illustrates why we need to give the Old Greek due weight, even when all the later versions agree with the Masoretic Text. But before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, this would often have resulted in a tie. If the Masoretic Text and the Old Greek disagree, it can be difficult to decide which is the better reading. When we have evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls, it can help us decide between them.

In this case, the difference is also significant to interpretation. What would “he will see” mean on its own? We would have to infer it from context. We might be tempted to follow Targum Jonathan’s solution, which reads it as an idiom for “to see victory over enemies,” taking us off in a different direction. But to “see light” ties in to a rich theme in the rest of the book, where darkness-turned-to-light is a frequent picture of God’s redemption (42:16; 51:4; 58:8, 10; 59:9; 60:1-3, 20). The precise idiom of “seeing light” occurs in Isaiah 9:1, where it is associated with the royal child who will establish David’s dynasty permanently (9:5-6). The Servant himself will be a “light to the nations” (42:6; 49:6). In this context, Isaiah 53:11 seems to be saying that the Servant will experience redemption from darkness to light himself, before he brings God’s light to others.

Phylacteries, or tefillin, are small leather containers containing a selection from Scripture and worn on the body. This practice within Judaism is inspired by the references in Exodus 13:16, Deuteronomy 6:8, and 11:18 to binding the commandments of God on one’s arms and between one’s eyes. The evidence of this practice from the Dead Sea Scrolls helps us understand what it looked like at the time. Note that in Matthew 23:5, Jesus criticizes those who wear over-large phylacteries so that their piety is more visible to others. In defense of the Qumran community, the forehead phylacteries discovered there were squares of about one inch on each side – making them so small was quite a technical feat. They required remarkably thin parchment and demanded very small writing from the scribe.

The particular phylactery now at the Museum of the Bible was designed to be worn on the arm. It contains the selections of commandments which include the commands to inspire the practice: Exodus 13:1-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; and 11:13-21. There are some minor divergences from the Masoretic Text that align with other versions, but they are too minor to make a significant difference of meaning. Nevertheless, the diversity of readings, some of which resemble the Samaritan or Old Greek texts rather than the Masoretic Text, witness to the fact that a diversity of biblical manuscripts was popularly in use at the time. However, according to J.T. Milik, the editor who first published these texts,Milik, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, vol. 6, p.47 around the time of the 1st century BC a style of text begins to appear which conforms much more closely to the proto-Masoretic Text, a conclusion which fits with other evidence that Judaism at the time was developing a consensus in favor of this particular text type.