Old Testament · book 19
Psalms
What tradition claims
David (and others)
1000 BC – 400 BC
Critical scholarship
1000 BC – 200 BC
The gap
Claimed start: 1000 BCGap: 750 yearsEarliest MS: AD 50today
Earliest manuscript: Great Psalms Scroll
Earliest complete copy
Claimed start: 1000 BCGap: 1,708 yearsEarliest MS: 1008today
Earliest manuscript: Leningrad Codex
Notes
A multi-author collection compiled over centuries. Qumran preserves dozens of Psalms scrolls; 11QPs-a contains extra psalms not in the Masoretic collection (including Psalm 151, present in the LXX), showing the Psalter was still fluid in the late Second Temple period.
All witnesses on file (1)
- Great Psalms Scroll · AD 1 – AD 68 (~AD 50)