Evidence · Case 03 · Reliability of Scripture
Habakkuk
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Habakkuk is preserved within the scrolls of the Book of the Twelve, and it also appears separately in the Habakkuk Commentary, 1QpHabakkuk, which quotes the book line by line.
Sources
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- Peter W. Flint, “The Significance of the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls,” Southwestern Journal of Theology 53.1 (2010), manuscript table (opens in a new tab)
Southwestern Journal of Theology 53, no. 1 (2010): 15-25
Objections & responses
- The Habakkuk Commentary quotes only chapters 1 and 2, and its lemmas sometimes differ from the Masoretic Text. Was chapter 3 even part of the book at Qumran?
The pesher covers only chapters 1 and 2, and scholars debate whether that reflects the commentator’s interest or the state of the book. Chapter 3 is present in the Murabba’at scroll of the Twelve and in the Greek Nahal Hever scroll, so the fuller book was known in the period. The pesher’s variants in its quoted text are minor and are used in critical editions, which is what one expects from a real early witness.