COLUMN 12 — THE GREAT ISAIAH SCROLL FROM QUMRAN (1QISAA): ORTHOGRAPHIC AND SCRIBAL FEATURES, ANALYSIS, AND TRANSLATION
Željko Stanojević
Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade
Independent Researcher in Hebrew Linguistics and Biblical Philology
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0717-6184
Published: 2026
ABSTRACT
This study presents a comprehensive philological, orthographic, paleographic, codicological, and textual-critical analysis of Column 12 of the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaa), corresponding primarily to Isaiah 14:1–29. The research investigates both the textual and material dimensions of the manuscript, including large-scale parchment damage, repair activity, secondary editorial interventions, supralinear insertions, retraced letters, lacunae, spacing phenomena, and orthographic variation.
Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between physical deterioration and textual transmission. The study proposes a stratified reconstruction of the manuscript’s physical and editorial history, demonstrating that the scroll underwent multiple chronological phases of damage, repair, continued use, fragment loss, and secondary restoration. This reconstruction provides important insight into the long-term functional life of the Great Isaiah Scroll within the scribal culture of the Second Temple period.
A systematic comparison with the Masoretic Text reveals numerous orthographic, lexical, morphological, and semantic divergences, including expanded suffixes, fuller spellings, omission of consonants, secondary additions, and variants affecting textual interpretation itself. Several readings preserved in the Qumran manuscript reflect an independent textual tradition characterized by flexible orthographic conventions and active editorial transmission.
The study additionally examines scribal cognition, anticipatory writing phenomena, paleographic ambiguity, and deliberate attempts to preserve textual legibility through retracing and darkening faded letters. The evidence preserved in Column 12 strongly confirms that the Great Isaiah Scroll functioned not merely as a static textual witness, but as a living manuscript continuously used, repaired, interpreted, and preserved over an extended historical period.
KEYWORDS
Great Isaiah Scroll; 1QIsaa; Dead Sea Scrolls; Qumran; Isaiah 14; Biblical Hebrew; Qumran Hebrew; Hebrew philology; textual criticism; orthography; paleography; codicology; manuscript studies; scribal practices; scribal corrections; lacunae; manuscript repair; material philology; Masoretic Text; textual plurality; Second Temple Judaism; Hebrew manuscripts; textual transmission; matres lectionis; editorial intervention; paleographic analysis; scribal culture; biblical linguistics; manuscript restoration
DOI (Permanent Scholarly Version)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20089883
FULL TEXT AND ACCESS
Direct PDF (institutional version): DOWNLOAD PDF
HCommons (open access version):
https://works.hcommons.org/records/46n3w-6fc33
Academia.edu version:
https://www.academia.edu/166879347/COLUMN_12_THE_GREAT_ISAIAH_SCROLL_FROM_QUMRAN_1QISAA_ORTHOGRAPHIC_AND_SCRIBAL_FEATURES_ANALYSIS_AND_TRANSLATION
RECOMMENDED CITATION
Stanojević, Željko. 2026.
Column 12 — The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaa): Orthographic and Scribal Features, Analysis, and Translation.
Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20089883
RESEARCH PROJECT
The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaa): Orthographic and Scribal Features, Analysis, and Translation (Columns 1–54)
This study forms part of a comprehensive research project dedicated to the systematic philological, linguistic, paleographic, codicological, and text-critical analysis of all fifty-four columns of the Great Isaiah Scroll. The project integrates orthographic data, scribal phenomena, editorial interventions, material manuscript analysis, and comparative textual evidence throughout the entire manuscript tradition of 1QIsaa.
DESCRIPTION
Column 12 is examined through an integrated philological, codicological, and text-critical framework, with particular emphasis on the interaction between physical manuscript deterioration and textual transmission. The study includes detailed analysis of parchment damage, repaired tears, stitched reinforcement sections, lacunae, retraced letters, secondary insertions, spacing phenomena (spatia), paragraph divisions, and evidence of multiple editorial interventions.
Special attention is devoted to the reconstruction of the manuscript’s chronological layers of use and restoration. The evidence preserved within the column suggests a sequence involving original inscription, later physical damage, repair activity, continued manuscript use, secondary fragment loss, and subsequent editorial rewriting. This layered reconstruction represents an important contribution to contemporary material-philological approaches within Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship.
The analysis further investigates orthographic expansion, omission of consonants, fuller spellings, suffixal variation, lexical divergence, and semantic variation in comparison with the Masoretic Text. Particular focus is placed upon the relationship between Qumran orthographic conventions and the broader linguistic profile of Qumran Hebrew.
In addition to the analytical component, the work provides a structured English translation of the column while preserving significant orthographic, paleographic, and textual features of the original manuscript.
NAVIGATION
Next Column 13:
AUTHOR
Željko Stanojević is a Serbian Hebrew linguist and independent researcher specializing in Biblical Hebrew, Qumran studies, Hebrew philology, paleography, codicology, and textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. His research focuses particularly on orthographic systems, scribal practices, editorial intervention, and the transmission history of ancient biblical manuscripts, with special emphasis on the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa).