Saturday, December 26, 2020

Our earliest Psalms fragment is a sloppy school exercise?

THE ETC BLOG: 4QPsx: A Poorly Copied Manuscript (Anthony Ferguson).
4QPsx is one manuscript, among many, that was copied poorly. Interestingly, some scholars date this manuscript, which preserves portions of Psalm 89, to 175-125 BC. If this is right, this manuscript is our earliest manuscript available that preserves a psalm; yet, it is an unreliable guide to the Psalter's state, and Psalm 89 in particular, during the second century BC. Several details about this manuscript suggest that this scribe was either an unskilled or a beginner scribe. ...

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