Rescuing Psalm 151A from Oblivion

One of the great unheralded contributions of evangelical scholarship to the discipline of the study of the Hebrew Bible relates to the delineation of the history of variation in arrangement and content of the biblical Psalter. Gerald H. Wilson (1945-2005) and Peter W. Flint, both evangelicals, have been among the foremost contributors to advances in understanding on this topic.

Minimalists and people like N. T. Wrong like to point out that the Hebrew Bible as we have it is a product of the Hellenistic period. In fact, that statement is too conservative. The Hebrew Bible as we have it, that is, down to the last traditional detail, is the product of the Roman period. This is something text critics are generally aware of - for a first introduction, see the article by Dominique Barthélemy referred to below.

The biblical Psalter as we have it, in terms of arrangement and definitive content, is also in all probability a product of the Roman period. As Peter Flint observes, none of the Psalms scrolls from Qumran support the MT 150 arrangement or its content in all details (The Dead Scrolls Bible, [San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1999] 582).

A Psalter concluding with Ps 150 is first attested in a Roman era manuscript from Masada (MasPs^b). In the great 11QPs^a Psalter, though it too dates from the Roman period, Psalm 150 is followed by seven more compositions. The last two in the series of seven are referred to by scholars as Psalm 151A and 151B, respectively. As James VanderKam notes, in the 1^st cent bce – 68 ce, it is a “fact that the last two books of Psalms took different shapes in different copies” (The Dead Seas Scrolls Today [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994, 138).

An abbreviation and conflation of Psalms 151A and 151B concludes the Psalter in the Septuagint, and is also preserved in the Psalters of other Christian traditions (e.g., in Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic). To put it baldly: Psalm 150 does not conclude the Psalter in many Christian traditions.

It is difficult to date the “Septuagint” of the Psalter with precision, and thus the Hebrew parent text on which it was based, but a date at the end of the Hellenistic or the beginning of the Roman period seems likely (2^nd – 1^st cent bce). It could not be clearer: Psalm 151 concluded the Psalter in a significant part of early Jewish tradition.

In sum, many Jews used a Psalter in Hebrew or Greek in an edition that included Psalm 151A in full or abbreviated form during the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods. Since the Roman period, Christians in the East or affiliated with Churches whose origin is in the East also know Psalm 151 from their Psalter.

That being so, it’s about time someone rescued Hebrew Psalm 151A, on which Greek Psalm 151 is based, from oblivion. This has not yet been done.

True, one can piece together Hebrew Psalm 151A from James Sanders’ footnotes to the translation of Greek Psalm 151 found in The HarperCollins Study Bible. But that is a bit of a nuisance, and furthermore, Sanders’ translation seems in need of improvement here and there. True, 151A in translation is available in The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible – a volume every serious student of the Hebrew Bible ought to have on their shelves. Both the Hebrew and a translation are available in The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. Part 5: Poetic and Liturgical Texts. But one longs for more: a convenient diglot presentation, a verse-by-verse discussion, a discussion of the Hebrew in terms of content, diction, and prosody.

I will provide all of this and more in subsequent posts. For the moment, I wish to point out an unpleasant irony.

Two evangelical Study Bibles have just appeared, ESVSB and NLTSB, each magnificent in their own way. Yet neither sees fit to alert readers to the fact that the Psalter as we have it, in details of content and arrangement, inclusive of its conclusion with Psalm 150, cannot be dated before the Roman period.

NLTSB includes the misstatement, that “Both the Hebrew and Greek editions of the Psalter contain 150 psalms” (902). As already pointed out, the Greek edition of the Psalter contains 151 Psalms.

ESVSB notes that “at every stage of the editorial process, the Psalter served as the songbook of the worshipping people of God” (937). Indeed! It would have been nice, then, to say more about the stages of the editorial process to which allusion is made.

For that it is necessary to reach for another study Bible, The Jewish Study Bible, which notes:

[The Psalter] crystallized in several different forms in different communities. The LXX contains an additional psalm at the end of the book, and the Syriac Peshitta Bible translation contains five additional psalms. Several of these, as well as some previously unknown compositions, have been found in the Qumran Psalms scroll (11QPs^a), suggesting that the collection and arrangement of psalms in the early Psalter was fluid, within certain parameters, with no fixed order nor even a set list of compositions to be included. (1280, in “[Introduction to the Book of] Psalms,” by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler)

Thanks to the discoveries in the Judean Desert and the research of Wilson and Flint, the history of variation in arrangement and content of the biblical Psalter is now clear to a degree previous generations would have longed to have understood. But the editors of NLTSB and ESVSB apparently did not think it worth their readers’ while to know about that history.

It is as if these Study Bibles wanted to shield their readers from delving into treasure troves of information and topics of research that occupy biblical scholars around the world on a daily basis. I have no other explanation for the fact that an essay like that found in The Jewish Study Bible, “The Bible in the Dead Sea Scrolls” (1920-1928) by Esther Eshel, is absent from both. It’s a crying shame.

A further note to readers of NLTSB and ESVSB: Be not afraid. So long as the doctrine of the reliability of Scripture is appropriately qualified, it is possible to affirm, as Christians have done through the ages, that the Bible we have in our hands, in translation or in the original languages, in this form or that form and regardless of differences in detail from other Bibles such as those to which the great pandects of antiquity are witnesses (for an overview, go here), is the inerrant Word of God. In the words of Zwingli (go here for discussion and the German original):

The Word of God is to be held by us in the highest honor . . . and no word should be accorded the same faith as this one. For it is certain, it cannot err, it is clear, it does not let us go errant in the darkness, it is its own interpreter and enlightens the human soul with all salvation and all grace. It makes the soul confident in God and humbles it, so that it abandons and throws away its pretensions, and places itself in God's hands. In it, it lives. Toward it, it turns. It doubts all creatures, and God alone is its trust and security. Without it, it has no rest, and in it alone it finds rest.

Zwingli’s words hold, I submit, for the famous Zürcher Bibel which he promoted and the manuscripts on which it was based, then (1531) and now (2007), but also, and no less, for the Septuagint + New Testament in the various forms in which Greek-reading Christianity preserved it; for the Vulgate; for the King James Version; and so on.¹

The core affirmations of the doctrine of the reliability of Scripture apply to Bibles in general, not only to the autographs to which, in any case, we have no reliable access in all details. If it were not so, the doctrine of the reliability of Scripture would have few practical effects.

¹A determination of the precise collection of books which make up the Word, their internal arrangement and definitive content, is not a matter of indifference. Nevertheless, the exact contents of a rule of faith and practice cannot be determined by historical investigation or some other neutral, objective procedure. It is confessionally determined, that is, it relates to the self-understanding of a particular religious tradition. The differences among Christians with respect to the outer limits of the canon are not as important as they have been made out to be. An evangelical Protestant whose canon consists of a bare 66 books and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian whose canon includes 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and much else have more in common than do an evangelical Protestant and a secularized Protestant for whom the Bible is simply a witness to the faith of an age very different from our own. The Evangelical, the Catholic, and the Orthodox believer all confess that the Bible is the Word of God in the sense that God continues to speak through its words. It is likewise regarded by all true believers as an album of family history, a mirror in which to see a reflection of our true selves, a map that shows us from whence we came and where we shall go, a toolbox from which to draw hammers and saws for the purposes of faith and practice, a theological and moral compass, and a lifeline to hang on to in good times and bad.

Gerald H. Wilson Select Bibliography

Gerald H. Wilson, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (SBLDS 76; Chico: Scholars Press, 1985; “The Qumran Psalms Scroll (11QPsa) and the Canonical Psalter: Comparison of Editorial Shaping,” CBQ 59 (1997): 448-64; “A First Century C.E. Date for the Closing of the Hebrew Psalter?” JQR 28 (2000) 102-10; “King, Messiah, and the Reign of God: Revisiting the Royal Psalms and the Shape of the Psalter,” in The Book of Psalms: Composition and Reception (ed. Peter W. Flint and Patrick D. Miller; Leiden: Brill, 2005) 391-406

Peter W. Flint Select Bibliography

“Of Psalms and Psalters: James Sanders’s Investigation of the Psalms Scrolls,” in A Gift of God in Due Season: Essays on Scripture and Community in Honor of James A. Sanders (ed. Richard D. Weis and David H. Carr; JSOTSup 225; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996) 65-83; The Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls and the Book of Psalms (STDJ 17; Leiden: Brill, 1997); “A Pioneer Vindicated: James Sanders and the ‘11QPs^a-Psalter,’” The Folio 15 (1998) 4-7; “The ‘11QPsa-Psalter’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Including the Preliminary Edition of 4QPse,” in The Quest for Context and Meaning: Studies in Biblical Intertextuality in Honor of James A. Sanders (ed. Craig A. Evans and Shemaryahu Talmon; Biblical Interpretation Series 28; Leiden: Brill, 1997) 173-196; “Appendix: Psalms Scrolls from the Judaean Desert,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations. Vol. 4A, Pseudepigraphic and Non-Masoretic Psalms and Prayers, (ed. James H. Charlesworth and Henry W. L. Rietz, Tübingen: Mohr and Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997) 287-290; “A Form of Psalm 89 (4Q2336=4QPs89)." In in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations. Vol. 4A, Pseudepigraphic and Non-Masoretic Psalms and Prayers, (ed. James H. Charlesworth and Henry W. L. Rietz, Tübingen: Mohr and Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997) 40-45; “The Book of Psalms in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” VT 48 (1998) 453-472; “The Contribution of the Cave 4 Psalms Scrolls to the Psalms Debate," Dead Sea Discoveries 5 (1998) 320-333; “The Contribution of the Dead Sea Biblical Scrolls to Biblical Studies, with the Preliminary Editions of 4QPs^p and 4QPs^r-u,” JSOT 83 (1999) 3-17; “A Preliminary Edition of 4QPs^d (4Q86),” in The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts, and Reformulated Issues (ed. Donald W. Parry and Eugene C. Ulrich; STDJ 30; Leiden: Brill, 1999) 93-105; “Psalms, Book of: Biblical Texts,” “Psalms, Book of: Apocryphal Psalms,” in Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam; 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) 2:702-707, 708-710; “The Preliminary Edition of 5/6 Hev Psalms," JJS 51 (2000) 19-41; “Psalms and Psalters in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in The Hebrew Bible and Qumran, (ed. James H. Charlesworth;. The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls 1; Richland Hills: BIBAL Press, 2000) 307-359; “Variant Readings of the Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls against the Massoretic Text and the Septuagint Psalter,” in Der Septuaginta-Psalter und seine Tochterübersetzungen: Symposium in Göttingen 1997 (ed. Anneli Aejmelaeus and Udo Quast; Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Ph.-Hist. Klasse III:230; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000) 337-365; The Bible At Qumran: Text, Shape and Interpretation. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001; “The Shape of the 'Bible' at Qumran,” in Judaism in Late Antiquity, Part 5: The Judaism of Qumran: A Systemic Reading of the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. Alan J. Avery-Peck, Jacob Neusner, and Bruce D. Chilton, 2 vols. Handbook of Oriental Studies: Abt. 1, The Near and Middle East 57. Leiden: Brill, 2001) 2:45-103; “Scriptures in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Evidence from Qumran,” in Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov (ed. Shalom M. Paul, Robert A. Kraft, Lawrence H. Schiffman, and Weston W. Fields, with the assistance of Eva Ben-David; VTSupp 94. Leiden: Brill, 2003) 269-304; “Five Surprises in the Qumran Psalms Scrolls,” in Flores Florentino: Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour of Florentino García Martínez (ed. Anthony Hilhorst, Émile Puech, and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar; SuppJSJ 122. Leiden: Brill, 2007) 183-195

The Stabilization of MT according to Dominique Barthélemy

“Text, Hebrew, History of,” IDBSup (Nashville: Abingdon, 1976) 878-884

Study Bibles

DSSB: Martin Abegg, Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible (New York: HarperCollins, 1999)

HcSB: Harold W. Attridge, general editor, revised edition; Wayne A. Meeks, general editor, original edition; Jouette M. Bassler, Werner E. Lemke, Susan Niditch, and Eileen Schuller, associate editors. James Luther Mays, consulting editor, The Harpercollins Study Bible. Fully Revised and Updated (New Revised Standard Version with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books; New York: HarperCollins, 2006)

JSB: Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors; Michael Fishbane, consulting editor, The Jewish Study Bible (Jewish Publication Society tanakh translation; New York: Oxford University Press) 2004

ESVSB: Lane T. Dennis, executive editor; Wayne Grudem, general editor; J. I. Packer, theological editor; C. John Collins, Old Testament editor; Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament editor; Justin Taylor, managing editor; ESV Study Bible (English Standard Version [a revision of the Revised Standard Version]; Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2008)

NLTSB: Sean A. Harrison, general editor; Mark D. Taylor, executive editor; Keith Williams, project coordinator; NLT Study Bible (New Living Translation Second Edition; Carol Stream: Tyndale, 2008)

Comments

[Kevin P. Edgecomb]

The second edition of the New Oxford Annotated Bible (the first edition with the NRSV) included both Psalm 151A and 151B in the presentation of Psalm 151 in the Apocrypha section, pages 283-284 AP. I was disappointed that they dropped them in the third edition, although they still refer to them in the blurbish introduction in that edition. As you say, John, how is anyone supposed to find them? Several of the other "improvements" between the second and third editions were of the same order, rejecting the excellent in favor of the mediocre.

In any case, here are the translations of Psalms 151A and 151B from that edition:
Psalm 151A
A Hallelujah of David the Son of Jesse
1. Smaller was I than my brothers
and the youngest of the sonst of my father,
Yet he made me shepherd of his flock,
and ruler over his kids.

2. My hands have made an instrument
and my fingers a lyre;
And [so] have I rendered glory to the Lord,
thought I, within my soul.

3. The mountains do not witness to him,
nor do the hills proclaim;
The trees have cherished my words
and the flock my works.

4. For who can proclaim and who can bespeak
and who can recount the deeds of the Lord?
Everything has God seen,
everything has he heard and he has heeded.

5. He sent his prophet to anoint me,
Samuel to make me great;
My brothers went out to meet him,
handsome of figure and appearance.

6. Though they were tall of stature
and handsome by their hair
The Lord chose them not.

7. But he sent and took me from behind the flock
and anointed me with holy oil,
And he made me leader of his people
and ruler over the people of his covenant.

Psalm 151B
At the beginning of David's power after the prophet of God had anointed him

1. Then I [saw] a Philistine
uttering defiances from the r[anks of the Philistines]....

[JohnFH]

Kevin,

Thanks for supplying that. I have three NRSV Study Bibles on my shelves which contain Ps 151: NOAB 1991; NISB 2003; and HcSB 2006.

All three bury the Psalm after the Prayer of Manasseh. The Prayer of Manasseh, of course, is also ripped by these Bibles from its canonical context: the series of Odes anyone who reads the Bible in Greek is familiar with.

But I had forgotten to check NOAB 1991 and didn't realize that the Hebrew psalm is presented as such, rather than piecemeal in footnotes as in later NRSV Study Bibles.

The only study Bible I have on my shelf which puts Psalm 151 where it belongs - after Psalm 150 - is TOB 1980 (in French). Once again, however, the Qumran is supplied piecemeal in footnotes, not as a running text.

The bigger issue is that all six translations of the Qumran psalm on my shelves misconstrue the Hebrew in at least two crucial instances.

That is my thesis anyway. More anon.

[David E. S. Stein]

John, let me add a datum that relates to the larger issue of "the history of variation in arrangement and content of the biblical Psalter."

The Leningrad Codex, which is only ~1000 years old, counts 149 entries in its book of Psalms. What we now think of as 2 separate psalms are joined together as 1 long psalm.)

So the idea of 150 as a "magic number" was still not settled even many centuries after the Roman period.

[JohnFH]

David,

Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten that detail.

To be sure, the Codex Vaticanus LXX Psalter - only 1500 years old, counts 150 psalms (the subscript to our Psalm 150 in B reads "The book of 150 psalms." This subscript is not in Sinaiticus or Alexandrinus.

Psalm "151" in the Greek tradition was left unnumbered, per the superscript to it: "This psalm is an autograph attributed to David and outside the number."