Impact on the Translations of Isaiah Today

With these ancient witnesses to Isaiah, Bible scholars have uncovered new readings to the text that were lost for over 2,000 years. In some cases, these textual variants are significant enough to have been incorporated into some modern English Bible translations, such as the New Revised Standard Version, the New English Bible, and those produced by the Jewish Publication Society. For example, in Isa 33:8, the MT reads that “a covenant renounced, cities rejected.” However, 1QIsaa preserves the reading: Instead of “cities” (‘rym) it reads “pact or obligation” (‘dym), which makes much better sense of the context and the parallelism with “covenant.”

The Isaiah scrolls also illuminate other larger and likely intentional insertions into Isaiah. Based on the MT and the LXX evidence as well, most Bibles today include Isaiah 2:9b–10, a passage that is only somewhat loosely related to its surrounding context: “Do not forgive them! Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty” (Isa 2:9–10 NRSV). However, this entire passage is missing from the early copy, 1QIsaa, indicating that this passage was likely included at a later date. On the other hand, later in 1QIsaa, the text, like the LXX, originally lacked a verse found in the MT (Isa 2:22), but this line was later added by a scribe above the line in 1QIsaa. This sort of text comparison offers a glimpse into the development of Isaiah and how it became the version widely read today. While some of these alternate readings illuminate the early history of the book of Isaiah, it is significant that these large variants are comparatively quite rare. Most of Isaiah as it is known today is surprisingly consistent with the evidence that came to light from Qumran, highlighting how carefully scribes copied Isaiah over different times and places in the intervening 2,000 years (see also Tov, “Text of Isaiah”).