Is the Testament of Qahat Part of the Visions of Amram? Material and Literary Considerations of 4Q542 and 4Q547

What is it about?

In this article, I argue that two of the Dead Sea Scrolls that had hitherto been treated separately are, in fact, part of one and the same manuscript. The two scrolls are 4Q542 and 4Q547. The first has been thought to contain an independent literary composition usually called the Testament of Qahat by scholars, providing the teaching of a character named only in genealogies in the Bible, as in Num 3:17. The second is one of five to seven manuscripts of a work called the Visions of Amram, again telling a greatly expanded story of an individual about whom we know very little from the Bible. Qahat (or Kohath) was the son of Levi, and the father of Amram. The article shows that the contents of 4Q542 and 4Q547 are parts of the same manuscript, not two separate ones, based on paleographic, scribal, and other manuscript features. The implication of this discovery is that either two independent compositions (the Testament of Qahat and the Visions of Amram) were written on the same manuscript, or that the Testament of Qahat is actually a part of the Visions of Amram. While a firm decision between these options is not possible at present, I argue that the latter option is more plausible than the former.

Featured Image