4Q120

4Q120, fragment 20, 1st-century BCE, showing portions of verses 26 through 28 of Leviticus 4

4Q120 (also pap4QLXXLev^b; VH 46; Rahlfs 802; LDAB 3452) is a Septuagint manuscript (LXX) of the biblical Book of Leviticus, which was found at Qumran. The Rahlfs-No. is 802. Palaoegraphycally it dates from the first century BCE. The manuscript is now kept at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

History

The manuscript was written during the Hasmonean period. Patrick W. Skehan dated 4Q120 to the late 100 BCE or the early 100 CE. The manuscript was found at Qumran, in Cave 4b. Cave 4 was found in August 1952. It was dug up from September 22 to 29, 1952, by Gerald Lankester Harding, Roland de Vaux, and Józef Milik.

Description

This scroll is very broken into pieces. Today, it has 97 fragments. Only 31 of the fragments can be clearly put back together and understood. These let us read Leviticus 1:11 to 5:25. The rest of the fragments are too small to figure out. Sometimes, spaces are used to separate ideas or sections of the text. In fragment 27, a special symbol (⌐) is used between lines 6 and 7 to mark the start of a new paragraph. Although later versions call these verses 5:20–26, it seems to show the original shift from chapter 5 to chapter 6. The writing has no spaces between words (scriptio continua).

Version

Emanuel Tov and Eugene Ulrich agree that 4QLXXNum is a better example of the original Greek version of the Bible than LXX^Gö. Albert Pietersma says that 4QLXXLevb is almost a perfect example of the true Septuagint. Patrick W. Skehan, based on limited evidence, says it has been heavily edited to match a Hebrew text that is almost the same as the Masoretic Text (MT). Robert J. Wilkinson says 4Q120 is a pure Septuagint text from the 1st century B.C., with no signs of being changed to match the Hebrew version.

ΙΑΩ

Detail: the Divine Name in verse 27

In the manuscript it is attested use of Ιαω to translate the tetragrammaton in Leviticus 3:12 (frg. 6) and 4:27 (frg. 20)

Greek text according to A. R. Meyer:

Lev 4:27

[αφεθησεται ]αυτωι εαν[ δε ψυχη μια]
[αμαρτ]η[ι α]κουσιως εκ[ του λαου της]
[γης ]εν τωι ποιησαι μιαν απ[ο πασων]
των εντολων ιαω ου πο[ιηθησε]

Lev 3:12–13

[τωι ιαω] ¹² εαν δ[ε απο των αιγων]
[το δωρ]ον αυτο[υ και προσαξει εν]
[αντι ι]αω ¹³ και ε[πιθησει τας χει]

Actual location

Currently the manuscript is housed in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

Sources

• Meyer, Anthony R. (2017). The Divine Name in Early Judaism: Use and Non-Use in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. PhD diss. McMaster University (McMaster University, 2017). 
• Milik (1957). "Dix ans de découverte dans le désert de Juda". Discoveries in the Judaean Desert.
• Pietersma, Albert; Cox, Claude E.; Wevers, John William (1984). "Kyrios or Tetragram: A Renewed Quest for the Original LXX". In Albert Pietersma; John William Wevers (eds.). De Septuaginta: Studies in Honour of John William Wevers on His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (PDF). Mississauga, Ont., Canada: Benben Publications. ISBN 0920808107. OCLC 11446028.
• Ross, William A.; Glenny, W. Edward (2021-01-14). T&T Clark Handbook of Septuagint Research. T&T Clark Handbooks. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9780567680266.
• Skehan, Patrick W. (1957-06-02). "The Qumran Manuscripts and Textual Criticism". In Anderson, G. W.; Cazzelles, Henri; De Boer, P. A. H.; E. Hammershaimb, E.; Burrows, Millar; Noth, Martin (eds.). Volume du Congrès International pour l'étude de l'Ancien Testament, Strasbourg 1956. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum. Vol. 4. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 148–160. doi:10.1163/9789004275270_012.
• Skehan, Patrick W. (1980). "The Divine Name at Qumran in the Masada Scroll and in the Septuagint" (PDF). Bulletin of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. The Catholic University of America. 13: 14–44. ISSN 0145-3890.
• VanderKam, James C. (1994). The Dead Sea Scrolls Today. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
• Wilkinson, Robert J. (2015-02-05). Tetragrammaton: Western Christians and the Hebrew Name of God: From the Beginnings to the Seventeenth Century. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-28817-1.