Testimonia of Qumran
Testimonia (4Q175 or 4QTest) is the name for a short leather manuscript probably from the 1st century BC. It consists of only 30 lines and contains four texts from the 4th and 5th book of Moses , one after the other, as well as a quote from the apocryphal Joshua apocryphon with an interpretation. All texts are about a messianic person at the end of time and the blessing of God that rests on him.
The text is divided into four sections, new paragraphs are also marked by a scribe mark at the beginning of the line:
- Dtn 5,28-29 L , Dtn 18,18-19 L : announcement of a prophet like Moses
- Num 24,15-17 L : Fourth Balaam prophecy: announcement of a Messiah like David ("star out of Jacob")
- Dtn 33,8-11 L : Moses blessing on the tribe of Levi
- Jos 6,26 L and part of the Joshua apocryphon 4Q379 f. 22ii, 7-15: Curse on the rebuilder of Jerichos and announcement of a "man of Belial" and two successors, "tools of iniquity"
Only the (later) Hebrew Masoretic text mentions Jericho in Jos 6:16 ; the name is not mentioned in the Greek Septuagint version.
In the New Testament Dtn 18,18-19 L in Acts 22,16 L and Num 24,15-17 L at the beginning of the Gospel according to Luke and in the Revelation of John are quoted, the Messiah expectation was interpreted here in each case to Jesus Christ .
The writer of the manuscript probably also wrote the church rule (1QS), a Samuel fragment (4Q53), and the scroll of blessings (1QSb). The manuscript was found in 1952 in Cave 4 in Qumran and is now in the Jordan Museum in Amman .
literature
- Géza G. Xeravits, Peter Porzig: Introduction to the Qumran literature. de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2015, pp. 129–130.
Web links
- 4Q175 on Doctrines of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- 4QTestimonia on West Semitic Research Project
- 4QTest - Testimonia (German) short
- The name 'Jesus' found in 4Q175?