4Q121 (according to the old system as: 4QLXXNum^b gr, Rahlfs 803) is a

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

manuscript written on parchment (made of animal skin), dated to the 1st century BCE or CE. The scroll contains fragments of the biblical Book of Numbers 3:40-43; 4:5-16. It was found in Qumran in Cave 4. This fragment is also numbered 803 in the list of manuscripts of the Septuagint by

Alfred Rahlfs Alfred Rahlfs (; ; 29 May 1865 – 8 April 1935) was a German Biblical scholar. He was a member of the history of religions school. He is known for his edition of the Septuagint published in 1935. Biography He was born in Linden near Hanover, an ...

. The manuscript has been assigned palaeographically between 30 BCE and 68 CE.

Description

This manuscript comprises 23 fragments and three columns.

Version

The text has affinity toward Hebrew Pentateuch, which, according to Robert J. Wilkinson, may be considered a

kaige The ''kaige'' revision, or simply ''kaige'', is the group of revisions to the Septuagint made in order to more closely align its translation with the proto-Masoretic Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiati ...

rescension of the Greek Scriptures.

Treatment to the God's name

P. W. Skehan claims that the "reconstruction, spacing would seem to allow either κυριος 'Kyrios''">Kyrios.html" ;"title="'Kyrios">'Kyrios''or יהוה [''YHWH">Kyrios">'Kyrios<_a>''.html" ;"title="Kyrios.html" ;"title="'Kyrios">'Kyrios''">Kyrios.html" ;"title="'Kyrios">'Kyrios''or יהוה [''YHWH''], whereas ιαω as in 4Q120, pap4QLXXLevb and the (Christian) abbreviation ΚϹ [''kappa-sigma''] would be too short.”

History

The manuscript was published and described in 1992 by Patrick Skehan in ''Qumran cave 4.4 (Discoveries in the Judaean desert 9)''. The old sign of the scroll indicates that it was found in the cave 4, which is the manuscript of the LXX or Septuagint, containing the contents of the Book of Numbers.

Actual location

This manuscript is kept at the

Rockefeller Museum The Rockefeller Archeological Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967), and which before then housed The Imperial Museum of Antiquities (''Müze-i Hümayun''; 1901–1917), is an archaeology museum A museum ...

in Jerusalem (Gr. 265 Q121.

References

Bibliography

External links

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Photos of fragment 4Q121 high resolution
1st-century BC biblical manuscripts Dead Sea Scrolls Old Testament {{Israel-archaeology-stub