Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll

Journey of a Passage

• Isaiah 1:18–20: "Come now, and let us reason together" →God's invitation to settle the case: "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." The Hebrew legal verb (nivvakhechah, "let us argue it out") becomes "come and accuse me" in the library's Greek. The Great Isaiah Scroll has the same words as the Masoretic Text with fuller spellings. Whether the lines are a promise or an ironic question is debated.
• Isaiah 4:2: "The branch of the LORD" →"In that day shall the branch (tsemach) of the LORD be beautiful and glorious." The Hebrew is about growth; the Targum reads "the messiah of the LORD"; the library's Greek has a completely different sentence ("God will shine in counsel with glory"); the Vulgate has germen Domini. The Great Isaiah Scroll adds "and Judah" at the end.
• Isaiah 6:1–8: The throne vision: seraphim, "Holy, holy, holy," and the coal →Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned and seraphim calling "Holy, holy, holy." The Great Isaiah Scroll differs in v. 3: "and they call (plural) to one another: Holy, holy, YHWH of hosts," with "holy" only twice and without "and said." Most scholars treat the shorter form as a scribal slip (haplography) or variant; the threefold form is in the Masoretic Text, the Greek and the Vulgate.
• Isaiah 6:9–10: "Hear ye indeed, but understand not": the hardening text →Isaiah's commission: "Make the heart of this people fat… lest they… convert, and be healed." The Hebrew is a command; the library's Greek makes it a description ("the heart of this people has grown fat"), and Matthew 13:15 (Jesus' words in Matthew's report) and Acts 28:27 (Paul's words in Acts) quote that Greek form. Mark 4:12 adapts it briefly; John 12:40 has its own form. The Great Isaiah Scroll reads hashem ("make desolate") for hashmen ("make fat").
• Isaiah 7:14–16: Almah, parthenos and Immanuel →"Behold, a virgin (ha-almah, 'the young woman') shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Hebrew almah, Greek parthenos, Latin virgo; the Masoretic Text "she (or you) will call," the Great Isaiah Scroll "he (or one) will call," the Greek "you will call," Matthew 1:23 "they will call." The sign's time frame (vv. 15–16) is the reign of Ahaz. Matthew reads it of Jesus' birth.
• Isaiah 11:6–10: The wolf and the lamb; the root of Jesse for the nations →"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb." In v. 6 the Masoretic Text lists "the calf and the young lion and the fatling (meri)"; the Great Isaiah Scroll reads "the calf and the young lion will graze (yimru)," agreeing with the library's Greek ("brouteront ensemble"). In v. 10 the Greek reads "the one who rises to rule the nations; in him the nations will hope," the form Paul quotes in Romans 15:12.
• Isaiah 14:4–6: "The golden city" or "the oppression"? →"How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!" (KJV). The Masoretic Text's madhebah is an unknown word; the KJV guessed "golden city." The Great Isaiah Scroll reads marhebah, "raging, oppression," differing by one similar-looking letter (ד/ר), and the library's Greek ("cet exacteur… ce maître impitoyable") and the Vulgate ("tributum") also point away from "gold." Most modern translations follow the scroll.
• Isaiah 15:9: Dimon or Dibon: "waters full of blood" →"For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood." The Masoretic Text and 1QIsa-b read Dimon; the Great Isaiah Scroll and the Vulgate read Dibon, Moab's known capital (15:2). Dimon may be a wordplay on dam, "blood," or a scribal change. The library's Greek keeps Dimon but turns "lion" into "Ariel" and adds "the Arabs."
• Isaiah 19:18: City of destruction, city of the sun, or city of righteousness? →"Five cities in the land of Egypt [shall] speak the language of Canaan… one shall be called, The city of destruction." The Masoretic Text reads ir ha-heres ("destruction"); the Great Isaiah Scroll and 4QIsa-b read ir ha-cheres ("the sun," one letter different), as do the Vulgate (Civitas solis) and Symmachus; the library's Greek reads "Asedek," (city of) righteousness. The City of the Sun is Heliopolis; a Jewish temple was later built in its district (Leontopolis).
• Isaiah 21:8–9: A lion or the seer? "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" →"And he cried, A lion" (KJV, Masoretic aryeh). The Great Isaiah Scroll reads "and the seer (ha-ro'eh) cried," which most modern translations follow; the library's Greek reads "call Uriah," apparently another reading of the same letters. Then the watchman's report: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," taken up in Revelation 14:8 and 18:2.
• Isaiah 23:15–18: Tyre forgotten seventy years: a sentence missing in the Great Isaiah Scroll →"Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot." The Great Isaiah Scroll lacks the middle of v. 15 ("Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years… after the end of seventy years"), reading only "in that day it shall be to Tyre like the song of the harlot"; 4QIsa-c has the full text. It may be a copying slip (the scribe's eye skipping between similar words); that is not confirmed until the manuscripts are checked. The seventy years appear again in v. 17.
• Isaiah 28:9–13: "Precept upon precept" or mocking babble? Tsav la-tsav →"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line… here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people." The Hebrew tsav la-tsav, qav la-qav may be nonsense syllables (or alphabet drill: tsade and qof are neighbors) with which drunken leaders mock Isaiah. The KJV and the Vulgate (manda, remanda) translate them as words; the library's Greek reads "affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope." Paul quotes vv. 11–12 in 1 Corinthians 14:21.
• Isaiah 34:14–15: Lilit: screech owl, lamia, onocentaur, Lilith →"The satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there." The Hebrew lilit, a night creature related to the Akkadian demon lilitu, became the KJV's "screech owl," the Vulgate's lamia, the library's Greek "onocentaurs," and in modern translations "night creature" or "Lilith." The Great Isaiah Scroll has the plural, liliyyot. Medieval Jewish folklore later made Lilith Adam's first wife, a legend the text does not know.
• Isaiah 38:7–8 and 2 Kings 20:9–11: The shadow on the steps of Ahaz →"Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward." The Hebrew says "steps" (ma'alot), not "sun dial"; the Great Isaiah Scroll reads "the steps of the upper chamber of Ahaz," the library's Greek "the steps of your father's house," and the Vulgate "the clock (horologium) of Ahaz." In 2 Kings 20:9–11 Hezekiah chooses whether the shadow goes forward or back.
• Isaiah 38:21–22 and 2 Kings 20:7–8: The fig poultice: two verses out of place →"For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover. Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?" In Isaiah these verses follow Hezekiah's psalm; in 2 Kings 20:7–8 they come before the sign. In the Great Isaiah Scroll they were added by a second hand after the first scribe had finished the chapter at v. 20; 1QIsa-b has them in the Masoretic position.
• Isaiah 39:1–2: Merodach-baladan's envoys: "recovered" or "lived" →"At that time Merodach-baladan… king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered." The Masoretic Text and 1QIsa-b say "and had become strong"; the Great Isaiah Scroll says "and had lived" (compare 38:21 "and he will live"). 2 Kings 20:12 has the name as Berodach-baladan; Isaiah has the correct Merodach (Marduk-apla-iddina).
• Isaiah 40:6–8: "All flesh is grass": "and he said" or "and I said," and a scribe's repair →"The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass… but the word of our God shall stand for ever." The Masoretic Text has "and he said"; the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Greek and the Vulgate read "and I said," making the prophet the speaker. In the scroll, words skipped by the first scribe in vv. 7–8 were added later between the lines and in the margin. 1 Peter 1:24–25 quotes the passage in a shorter Greek form.
• Isaiah 45:7: "I make peace, and create evil" →"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Ra here is the opposite of shalom: calamity, woe. The Great Isaiah Scroll pairs "good" (tov) with evil instead of "peace"; the Cave 1 and Cave 4 copies are restored at that word. Jewish morning prayer quotes the verse but ends "…and creates all things" (b. Berakhot 11b). The Vulgate's "creans malum" and the KJV's "create evil" fueled long debates about God and evil.
• Isaiah 61:1–3: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me": the scroll Jesus read at Nazareth (Luke 4:16–21) →"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek… to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." Luke 4:18–19 reports the words Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth. They follow the Greek, not the Hebrew, in "recovering of sight to the blind"; they add a line from 58:6; and they stop before "the day of vengeance." The oldest manuscripts of Luke also lack "to heal the brokenhearted," which the KJV has.