COLUMN 1 — THE GREAT ISAIAH SCROLL FROM QUMRAN (1QISAA): ORTHOGRAPHIC AND SCRIBAL FEATURES, ANALYSIS, AND TRANSLATION

COLUMN 1 — THE GREAT ISAIAH SCROLL FROM QUMRAN (1QISAA): ORTHOGRAPHIC AND SCRIBAL FEATURES, ANALYSIS, AND TRANSLATION

Željko Stanojević
Independent Researcher in Hebrew Linguistics and Biblical Philology
ORCID: 0009-0009-0717-6184

This article is based on and further develops research previously presented in the author’s earlier work on the Isaiah Scroll (Stanojević 2012), here revised, expanded, and translated into English for an international academic audience.

Abstract
This paper presents fundamental data on the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaa), the largest and most prominent manuscript among the Dead Sea Scrolls, together with a detailed philological analysis and English translation of its first column. The study examines orthographic, scribal, and editorial features of the Qumran text (K.) in comparison with the Masoretic Text (M.), with particular attention to scribal practices such as the use of matres lectionis, interlinear corrections, spacing (spatia), lacunae, omissions, and repetitions, as well as to the possible influence of Aramaic orthography.

The analysis demonstrates that the differences between the two textual traditions are predominantly orthographic and scribal in nature and do not reflect a substantially different textual base. On the contrary, they confirm a high degree of textual stability in the transmission of the Book of Isaiah.

This article constitutes the first part of a broader series devoted to the systematic philological analysis and translation of all columns of the Great Isaiah Scroll.

Keywords

Great Isaiah Scroll; 1QIsaa; Dead Sea Scrolls; Qumran; Biblical Hebrew; Hebrew linguistics; textual criticism; Masoretic Text; Qumran Hebrew; scribal practices; orthography; matres lectionis; Second Temple Hebrew; Isaiah Scroll; Isaiah 1; philology; manuscript studies; textual transmission; Hebrew manuscript tradition; Bible translation