scroll · Hebrew · OT

4QSamuel-a

Also known as: 4Q51

50 BC – 25 BC (~50 BC) · dated by paleography

Evidence card

A quick read on the physical object before the interpretive summary.

2 sources

Artifact

scroll · Hebrew

Date basis

50 BC – 25 BC (~50 BC) · paleography

Survival

~25% physically present

Contents

1-samuel Substantial portions; 2-samuel Substantial portions

Artifact/map cue

Held at Israel Antiquities Authority · Discovery: 1952, Qumran Cave 4

Date

50 BC – 25 BC (~50 BC)

Passage represented

1-samuel Substantial portions; 2-samuel Substantial portions

Fragmentary or partial witness

How much survives

~25% of the claimed text is physically present

Why it matters

Critical because it often agrees with the Septuagint against the Masoretic text — sometimes preserving longer, more original-looking readings (e.g. the Nahash the Ammonite passage at 1 Sam 10/11, missing entirely from the Masoretic but present in this scroll and reflected in Josephus). Shows the Hebrew text of Samuel was unstable in the Second Temple period.

What it contains

1-samuel — Substantial portions (partial)
2-samuel — Substantial portions (partial)

~25% of the claimed text is physically present.

Notable readings

1 Samuel 10:27 / 11:1

Includes a paragraph about Nahash gouging out right eyes — absent from Masoretic, present in 4QSam-a, summarised by Josephus

Modern translations like the NRSV restore this paragraph from the scroll.

Where & when

Held at: Israel Antiquities Authority
Discovery: 1952, Qumran Cave 4

Source trail

Named catalogues, editions, libraries, or scholarship used for this manuscript page.