What Is Reworked Pentateuch?

The name “Reworked Pentateuch” (4QRP) refers to a set of five manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in cave 4 at Qumran, which were given the designation 4QRP^a–e (with each of the letters a through e designating one manuscript). Because the scrolls are fragmentary, scholars differ over whether they come from different copies of a single work or from multiple works. Most of the text of Reworked Pentateuch is identical to the Torah, or Pentateuch, as it currently exists (and is known from other manuscripts found at Qumran), but there are also significant additions, including a blessing from the divine being who wrestles with Jacob in Genesis 32:30, an expanded version of Miriam’s song in Exodus 15:20, and the addition of a wood offering and festival of new oil (known from the Temple Scroll) to the calendar of holy days in Leviticus 23. In some places, the biblical text is also rearranged, sometimes to bring together material on the same topic, such as the two rulings about daughters and inheritance in Numbers 27 and 36. Because of these differences, scholars debate whether to regard Reworked Pentateuch as a variant text (or texts) of the Torah or as an example of rewritten Bible akin to Jubilees and the Genesis Apocryphon.