Psalms Scroll from Qumran [antikvár]

The Psalms Scroll from Qumran cave 11* is one of the best preserved and most interesting of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some 200 of the scrolls from Qumran, about a third of the total, are of biblical books. Only one biblical scroll (Isaiah), however, has survived in its entirety, and only a few others are as well preserved as the Psalms Scroll. This scroll contains 41 canonical psalms (mostly complete, but some fragmentary), as well as seven non-canonical psalms (that is, psalms not included in the Bible). Among the seven non-canonical psalms, four are known from early translations (in Greek or Syriac), and their significance in this Hebrew scroll lies in the fact that this is the original text. The three other psalms are otherwise unknown. The linguistic characteristics of these non-canonical psalms point to a date of composition later than that of the canonical psalter. The four previously known non-canonical psalms are Ps. 151, 154, 155 and a part of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 51.** The three new psalms have been denoted by their editor, J. A. Sanders, as the "Plea for Deliverance," "Apostrophe to Zion" and "Hymn to the Creator". The "Apostrophe to Zion," the Hebrew text of which contains an acrostic, begins with the words: