Comparison and Study of the Text of the Additional Psalms in the Manuscripts of the Book of Centuries and the Qumran Manuscript 11QPsa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.30.3.11Keywords:
Psalms, Elia al-Anbari, Syriac, Hebrew, QumranAbstract
The Book of Centenaries by Elia al-Anbari has attracted the attention of some scholars since the last century, following the discovery of the Qumran manuscripts near the Dead Sea. One of the Qumran Hebrew manuscripts, numbered 11QPsa, contains some psalms previously known only from Syriac manuscripts, such as the Syriac Liturgical Codex 12t4 and the Book of Centenaries by Elia al-Anbari, which includes these additional psalms. The additional psalms were compared with several Syriac manuscripts containing the additional psalms, located in various libraries and museums, to reveal the differences between the texts. However, the Syriac manuscripts in Iraq were not available to scholars. This study is a continuation of the work of previous researchers. Its results show that the texts of the Psalms in the Syriac manuscripts of Elijah al-Anbari found in Iraq are consistent with the texts previously studied by researcher W. Baar in 1972. However, some of the manuscripts of Elijah al-Anbari's Centenaries found in Iraq do not contain the texts of the five additional psalms. When comparing Manuscript 12t4 with the Anbari manuscripts, there are clear differences between them in terms of the order of the psalms, their introductions, and some of the vocabulary used. Furthermore, when comparing the Syriac manuscripts together with the Qumran Hebrew manuscript 11QPsa, it becomes clear that there is a convergence, but there are some important differences between them, most notably the Qumran manuscript in Psalm 151 and Psalms 154-155. This suggests the possibility of different sources for both 11QPsa and the Syriac manuscripts, which each relied on to write the Psalms.
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