Objection · Case 03 · Reliability of Scripture

One Exodus scroll, 4QpaleoExod-m, follows the expanded Samaritan-type text, not the Masoretic. Isn’t that a different Exodus at Qumran?

One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.

Suggest a correction

Response

Correct, and it is a good example of the textual plurality the Scrolls reveal: in the last centuries BC several text forms circulated side by side. The expansions in the Samaritan-type Exodus are mostly harmonizing additions that repeat material from elsewhere in the Pentateuch; they do not introduce new content or change the narrative. Seeing that form beside the proto-Masoretic one is exactly how scholars learned which readings are older. The claim is not that only one Exodus existed but that the one that became standard was faithfully preserved.

About this exhibit

This objection is to Exodus.

About 18 to 23 copies of Exodus were found, including one in the paleo-Hebrew script.

Under Claim 02: The Dead Sea Scrolls show the Old Testament text was copied with remarkable stability across about a thousand years, alongside a documented plurality of text forms.