Getting a Handle on 1QIsaiahb

What is it about?

This article examines Hartmut Stegemann’s proposal that the remains of the beginning handle sheet of 1QHodayota (a scroll containing previously unknown psalms of thanksgiving) has survived and provides useful data for reconstructing the scroll. Handle sheets are the blank sheets that are sometimes stitched at the beginnings and ends of scrolls as protective covers. They act as layers that shield the exterior and interior parts of the scroll and provide a way for readers to handle the first and final columns without wearing down the ink of the inscribed areas with their hands. According to Stegemann, this handle sheet helps us calculate that there are four columns in the first sheet of 1QHa even though very little of this sheet has survived. The handle sheet was recovered from one of three scrolls, 1QMilhamah (the War Scroll from Cave 1), 1QIsaiahb (the second copy of Isaiah from Cave 1), and 1QHodayota. Each of these possibilities is considered in the article, and a new proposal that the handle sheet belongs to the end of 1QIsab instead of the beginning of 1QHa is advanced.

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