Deuteronomy 27 — Dead Sea Scrolls
1 attestation entry • 0 variants • 4QDeut family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
Deuteronomy 27 commands writing the Torah on stones at Mount Ebal and reciting twelve curses on Mount Ebal (with Gerizim for the blessings). The Samaritan Pentateuch reads 'Mount Gerizim' for the altar (v. 4) — the central textual basis of the Samaritan-Jewish split. 4QDeut fragments do not directly resolve this question.
Notable Variants
QUESTION: which mountain receives the altar in v. 4? MT reads בהר עיבל ('on Mount Ebal'); Samaritan Pentateuch and the Old Latin tradition read בהר גרזים ('on Mount Gerizim'). The question of whether any DSS witness preserves the Samaritan-favored reading remains debated; 4QpapDeut fragments are too small to settle the case definitively. The DSS attest the chapter only fragmentarily.
Manuscripts
Fragmentary 4QDeut witnesses; the Samaritan Pentateuch is the principal alternative tradition.
Scroll Condition
Fragmentary; the v. 4 question is unresolved by surviving Qumran data.
When you have crossed the Jordan, you must erect these stones that I am commanding you about today on Mount Ebal, and coat them with plaster.
The MT reads 'Mount Ebal'; the Samaritan Pentateuch and Old Latin tradition read 'Mount Gerizim.' Surviving DSS fragments do not preserve a clear reading of this verse. The Mount-Gerizim reading is increasingly accepted by some scholars as original (since Ebal becomes the site of the curses, not the altar).
fragmentary