| The Case of the Divine Name in the One can see certain tendencies in sections of the Hebrew Bible that favor the sacred epithet God (Hebrew, Elohim) over the divine name LORD (Hebrew, Jehovah or YHWH, called the Tetragrammaton), 38 presumably for theological reasons. An examination of the book of Chronicles reveals that the chronicler preferred the term Elohim "even where his sources (e.g., Samuel and Kings) had employed the divine name YHWH."39 One large section of the Psalms (chapters 42–83), shows a marked preference for the divine name Elohim rather than Jehovah, whereas the remaining Psalms frequently use the Tetragrammaton throughout. It has been suggested on more than one occasion that a scribe who was perhaps connected with the Jerusalem Temple reworked Psalms 42–83, and for pious reasons frequently substituted Elohim for Jehovah.40The poetic sections of Job lack the Tetragrammaton in favor of other divine names, with two notable exceptions (12:9; 28:28). 41 Jehovah is not attested in the book of Daniel (with the exception of the prayer of Daniel in chapter 9); both the books of Daniel and Ecclesiastes prefer the epithet Elohim.42 The preference for the name Elohim is also found in the memoirs of both Ezra (Ezra 7:27–10:17) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1–6; 12:27–13:31); and here it is appropriate to mention that neither of the divine names Jehovah or Elohim is used in the Song of Songs43 or the book of Esther.44The extent to which scribes contributed to the preference of the epithet Elohim over the name Jehovah in certain Hebrew texts is unclear; neither is it clear why the divine names Jehovah and Elohim are not found in the Song of Songs or Esther. Choices in favor of the name Elohim may have been made by the chronicler as well as by the redactor of the Psalms. M. H. Segal summarizes the prevailing view of scholars concerning the avoidance of the Tetragrammaton and the preference of Elohim when he argues that during the postexilic period, "a heightened sense of the sanctity of Deity and of the sacredness of its own proper name led to the avoidance of a too frequent employment of the name Yhwh (Jehovah) which gradually became ineffable, and to its replacement by a synonymous substitute. The first stage in this tendency was the revival of the use of Elohim which appears clearly in the book of Chronicles." 45In a previously published paper, I examined the seventeen occasions when one or more of the divine names Jehovah and Elohim appear as a variant reading in the Qumran text of Samuel (4QSam a)46 when compared with the Hebrew Bible and the Old Greek Bible.47 I concluded in that paper that the DSS texts of Samuel prefer the name Jehovah in places where the Hebrew Bible prefers the name Elohim.48 Of the seventeen variant readings, the Hebrew Bible avoids or lacks the Tetragrammaton on twelve occasions. If one discounts the three secondary pluses belonging to 4QSama (1 Samuel 1:22; 5:11; 11:9) when the name Jehovah appears to have been added, we are still left with nine occasions when the Hebrew Bible lacks the Tetragrammaton. There is one occasion when the Hebrew Bible reads Jehovah against 4QSama, which reads Elohim (2 Samuel 12:15).
Using the DSS Biblical Texts in Contemporary translation committees of the Bible hold the DSS in high regard. On a number of occasions the committees have departed from traditional readings of 1 Samuel in favor of new readings. The New International Version has preferred the readings of the DSS texts of 1 Samuel on fifteen occasions over the readings of the traditional Hebrew text; the New American Bible has shown even more loyalty to the DSS by choosing 230 readings from the DSS (and LXX) over the traditional text. The other versions, as shown on the list below, have used variant readings from the DSS to varying degrees. The following list features six prominent English translations: 49
The New King James Version (NKJV) (1982), which is not listed above, does not share the same devotion to the DSS texts. Only on one occasion does it prefer a variant reading from the DSS book of 1 Samuel; in fact, it relies on the DSS on only six occasions in the entire Old Testament (Deuteronomy 32:43; 1 Samuel 1:24; Isaiah 10:16, 22:8, 38:14, 49:5). 50According to Harold Scanlin, a translation adviser for the United Bible Societies, "every major Bible translation published since 1950 has claimed to have taken into account the textual evidence of the DSS." 51 Many of these recent English translations have gone through subsequent revisions to incorporate the variant readings from the DSS. For instance, the Revised Standard Version (1952) is now the New Revised Standard Version (1990), the New English Bible (1970) was revised to the Revised English Bible (1989), the Jerusalem Bible (1966) is now the New Jerusalem Bible (1985), and the New American Bible (1970) is going through a major revision at the present time.I do not want to give the impression that a great number of theological or historical variant readings of the DSS have great significance for the student of the Bible. The Bible went through a remarkable history to make it into this century, especially in view of the ancient methods of transmitting texts by hand, sometimes in primitive conditions, and considering that the scribes lacked photocopy machines, computers, printing presses, and similar modern inventions. Individuals should not lose faith in this wonderful wealth of prophetic material called the Old Testament, which contains baskets of precious jewels and barrels of pearls. A single page of the Old Testament (with the exception of the Song of Songs) is worth more than all of the gold and silver in the entire world. I personally treasure the writings of all of the prophets in the scriptures, and now have the added benefit of examining the new readings provided by the DSS.
Introduction | Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 | Chapter Notes |