Deuteronomy 8 — Dead Sea Scrolls
2 attestation entries • 0 variants • 4QDeut family
Manuscript Overview
Summary
Deuteronomy 8 contains the manna-and-test theology (v. 3, 'man shall not live by bread alone') famously cited by Jesus (Matt 4:4 / Luke 4:4). 4QDeutⁿ harmonizes vv. 5–10 with Decalogue/Shema material in its anthology. 5QDeut and 4QDeutᵉ provide continuous textual witness; 1QDeutᵇ preserves vv. 8–9.
Notable Variants
No significant content variants. The 'man shall not live by bread alone' formulation is preserved exactly as in MT — confirming the Hebrew text behind Jesus' citation predates the New Testament era by at least two centuries.
Manuscripts
4QDeutᵉ (4Q32), 4QDeutⁿ (4Q41), 5QDeut (5Q1), 1QDeutᵇ (1Q5)
Scroll Condition
4QDeutᵉ and 5QDeut together provide good coverage of vv. 1–10.
He humbled you and let you go hungry, then fed you with manna — something neither you nor your ancestors had ever encountered — to teach you that a human being does not survive on food alone but on everything that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD' tracks MT. Cited verbatim at Matt 4:4 / Luke 4:4 in Jesus' wilderness temptation. The DSS confirm the Hebrew Vorlage of the Synoptic citation.
4QDeutᵉ frag.; 4QDeutⁿ frag. 2
A land of wheat and barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates — a land of olive oil and date honey,
The seven-fold catalog of the land's produce ('wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, honey') tracks MT.
1QDeutᵇ frag. 1; 5QDeut