1 Samuel 10:27–11:1
Nahash: the paragraph found only at Qumran
4QSam-a has a paragraph between 10:27 and 11:1 not found in any other biblical manuscript: Nahash king of Ammon had been gouging out the right eyes of the Gadites and Reubenites, and seven thousand had escaped to Jabesh. Josephus tells the same story. The Hebrew "he held his peace" and the Greek "about a month later" differ by one letter.
Disputed addition: some witnesses include it, some do not
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ includes the disputed words · ✕ does not include them · ❝ quotes part of them · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Related (shared ancestry)
Original or addition?
- Original, lost in other texts
- A scribe's eye skipped from one mention of Nahash to the next; the paragraph explains why Jabesh feared Nahash (Cross; NRSV includes it).
- Later addition
- An expansion explaining the story, like other pluses in 4QSam-a (Rofé and others).
- Josephus
- His knowledge of the story shows it circulated in the 1st century AD.
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated)
Original Samuel
No original survives.
Translated c. 2nd century BC
Septuagint, 1 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)
How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.
Environ un mois plus tard, Naas l'Ammonite, s'étant mis en marche… (11:1)
About a month later, Nahash the Ammonite went up…
No Nahash paragraph, but "about a month later." One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.
Mid-1st century BC
4QSam-a (4Q51)
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Paragraph about Nahash's oppression of Gad and Reuben … about a month later
As published in DJD XVII and discussed by NET and Polak, the paragraph is preserved in part, with gaps restored by the editors; the site gives its content, not its letters. It ends with "about a month later," leading into 11:1.
Source: F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005); NET Bible, note on the 4QSam-a Nahash paragraph (1 Samuel 11:1) ↗; F. H. Polak, "A Note on Nahash" ↗
c. AD 93
Josephus, Antiquities 6.68–71
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Tells of Nahash putting out the right eyes of Israelites beyond the Jordan before besieging Jabesh, and dates the siege "a month later."
Source: Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, books 5–6
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Et factum est quasi post mensem, ascendit Naas Ammonites (11:1)
And it happened about a month later, Nahash the Ammonite went up
Jerome also has "about a month later" (and, at the end of 10:27, "he pretended not to hear").
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
וַיְהִי כְּמַחֲרִישׁ׃ וַיַּעַל נָחָשׁ הָעַמּוֹנִי
and he was as one keeping silent. And Nahash the Ammonite went up
כמחריש (as one silent) vs כמחדש (about a month): ר and ד look alike.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
But he held his peace. Then Nahash the Ammonite came up
Follows the Hebrew.
What changed, and why
The NRSV (1989) was the first major English Bible to include the paragraph. The site presents it as a real ancient Hebrew reading whose originality is disputed.
What the evidence shows
- 4QSam-a contains a Nahash paragraph absent from other biblical manuscripts.
Source: F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005); NET Bible, note on the 4QSam-a Nahash paragraph (1 Samuel 11:1) ↗
- The library's Greek and the Vulgate read "about a month later."
- The paragraph is original.
Source: F. H. Polak, "A Note on Nahash" ↗; NET Bible, note on the 4QSam-a Nahash paragraph (1 Samuel 11:1) ↗
Sources
- NET Bible, note on the 4QSam-a Nahash paragraph (1 Samuel 11:1) ↗
- F. H. Polak, "A Note on Nahash" ↗
- F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005)
- Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, books 5–6
Related lessons
- Saul Anointed and Chosen →Samuel privately anoints Saul with oil and gives him three signs, the last a band of prophets at Gibeah; Saul prophesies with them. Then at Mizpah the tribes are chosen by lot: Benjamin, the clan of Matri, Saul, who is found hiding among the baggage. "God save the king." Some worthless men despise him.
- Jabesh-gilead Rescued →Nahash the Ammonite besieges Jabesh-gilead and offers terms: he will gouge out every right eye. The town asks for seven days. When Saul hears, coming in from the field behind his oxen, the Spirit comes upon him; he cuts up his oxen and summons Israel. He relieves the town at dawn, refuses to punish his critics, and the kingdom is renewed at Gilgal.
- How 1 Samuel Came to Us →Samuel was one book in the Hebrew Bible, divided in two by the Greek translators. Its Hebrew text is unusually difficult, and the Greek often reflects a different Hebrew. A Dead Sea Scroll, 4QSam-a, agrees with the Greek in many places, preserves a paragraph found nowhere else in the Bible, and changed how scholars study the text of the Old Testament.