A Dead Sea Scroll Solves a New Testament Mystery: Deuteronomy 32:43 and Hebrews 1:6
Channel: Galen Currah
Date: 2020-05-18

A Dead Sea Scroll Solves a New Testament Mystery
The case of Deuteronomy 32:43 and Hebrews 1:6
An opinion of Dr. Galen Currah, May 2020
Music by Natrix
wordwatchers.currah.us

Cave 4 at Wadi Qumran was discovered in August 1952, and was excavated from 22–29 September 1952 by Roland de Vaux, Józef Milik and Gerald Lankester Harding.

Amongst the scores of manuscripts and fragments found in Cave 4 were these texts from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, copied sometime before the common era.

Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 43 was found intact, consisting of six cola or lines written in ancient square Hebrew. Translated, it reads in English:

[Photographer: Najib Anton Albina. Taken in January 1956. Published by Ulrich Skehan in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 1995, volume 14, pages 137-142. Downloaded from www.deadseascrolls.org.il]

Rejoice, you heavens, with him,
And bow down to him all gods;
For he will avenge the blood of his sons,
And he will render vengeance to his adversaries,
And those who hate him he will requite,
And he will cleanse the land of his people.

The Hebrew Bible, or the Torah, which contains the Book of Deuteronomy, was standardized by scribes called Massorites by the close of the tenth century CE.

[The Aleppo Codex. Its consonants were copied by the scribe Shlomo ben Buya'a in Palestine circa 920 CE. Its vosels and notes were provided by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher or in his scriptorium. archive.org/details/Aleppo_Codex]

Most English versions of the Book of Deuteronomy were translated from 
the standard Massoretic Hebrew text, in which 32:43 consists of four lines that read as follows:

Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people,
The blood of his servants will he avenge,
And he will render vengeance to his adversaries,
And he will cleanse his land and his people.

The Hebrew Torah was translated into Greek after 200 BCE, probably by the Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt.

[Codex Vaticanus The oldest extant copy of the whole Greek Bible, copied in uncial letters on vellum in the early fourth century CE.]

In Greek, Deuteronomy 32:43 consists of eight cola, which read as follows.

Rejoice, you heavens, with him, 
and let all the sons of God worship him; 
rejoice you Gentiles, with his people, 
and let all the angels of God strengthen themselves in him; 
for he will avenge the blood of his sons, 
and he will render justice to his enemies, 
and will reward them that hate him; 
and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.

For centuries, Bible readers have wondered about the New Testament verse in Hebrews 1:6 that seems to misquote Deuteronomy 32:43. It reads:

“Let all God's angels worship him” (Hebrews 1:6 ESV16)

Comparing Dead Sea Scroll Q4Deutq with the Greek version of Deuteronomy 32:43, we now understand that Hebrew 1:6 quotes from that Greek version, which had translated the Hebrew phrase “sons of God” by “angels of God.”

The Greek translators must have understood the phrase “all gods,” which occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible, to mean “spirit beings,” so they rendered it “angels.”

Thus, the thee existant versions of Deuteronomy 32:43 include, in order of their age, the Septuagint Greek having eight cola, the Qumran Hebrew having six cola, and the Massoretic Hebrew having four cola.

Scholars have restored two cola for the conjectured Hebrew text from which the Septuagint would have been translated, and which probably lay behind the quotation in Hebrews 1:6.

[Emmanuel Tov (Emmanuel Tov. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 3rd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Lviii + 481 pp. ISBN 2012 978-0-8006-9664-1) 249, Table 8.]

These same scholars comment that some Bible copyists sought to reword certain texts to avoid mention of false gods, or wanted to make Deutronomy chapter 32 consiste of exactly 70 cola.
 
[“Commentary on the Critical Appartus” in Biblia Hebraica Quinta. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2007. Prepared by Carmel McCarthy. 152-4*]