FAQ

Sigla

[א]restored text
[--]gap in the text of an indeterminate length
{א}accidental addition
⟨א⟩accidental omission
⟦ה⟧original text before scribal correction
«א»corrected in the manuscript by a scribe to א
+«א»+secondarily inserted in the manuscript by a scribe
○unreadable remains of character
א֯remains of character that cannot be clearly interpreted
אtext erased from the manuscript
⊢אב⊣marginal note in the manuscript
א/בvariant inserted by a scribe above a character
!אconjecture
___vacat, material without writing
א/חmodern alternative reading of a letter
(אם)modern alternative reading of a word
/ /phonemic representation of a base form
[a]phonetic representation
›becomes
‹comes from
=equal to
≠not equal
↓reference to an Aramaic lemma
→reference to a Hebrew lemma
*marks a lemma in the lemma list as a reference to another lemma. Clicking on such a lemma will load the article of the referenced lemma. Lemmas with an '*' may either be a different spelling of the main lemma, part of a compound name, or indicate a lemma that has no article of its own due to lack of evidence, but is a subject of discussion in the lemma to which it is linked.

  1. About the project

    1. What are the goals of the Qumran Digital: Text and Lexicon project?

      The goal of the project is to produce an open-access, online version of a philological lexicon of the Hebrew and Aramaic Dead Sea texts and related evidence from the Cairo Geniza, such as the Damascus Document, the Aramaic Levi Document, and the medieval manuscripts of Ben Sira. Furthermore, documentary texts, inscriptions, and legends on coins from the Hellenistic-Roman period from Palestine are also considered. In addition to the lexicon, the data on which it is based will also be made successively accessible. In addition to the texts of the underlying corpus and their linguistic analysisit will also provide modern variant readings, the author's own paleographic observations, and the linking of parallel text versions.

    2. How do the lexicon articles of the Qumran-Digital: Text und Lexikon project relate to the lexicon articles of the predecessor project HAWTTM?

      Some of the lexicon articles published here for the first time in open access (Hebrew א-ז) have already been published in print with the same or similar form in two volumes in 2017 and 2018 (HAWTTM, ed. by R.G. Kratz, A. Steudel, I. Kottsieper); some articles from this section of the alphabet have been supplemented, primarily through the additional inclusion of contemporary coin finds and ossuaries. All other articles are published here for the first time.

    3. How long has work on the lexicon and database been underway and when is it expected to be completed?

      The work began with the project's predecessor Qumran-Wörterbuch in 2002 in Göttingen and will be continued and completed there by the Qumran-Digital project from 2021 until probably 2033. As soon as the Hebrew lexicon is completed, work will begin on the Aramaic lexicon, the Aramaic concordance, and the Aramaic manuscript transcriptions. Preliminary work has already been done, but consolidation of the data and writing of the lexicon articles is still pending.

    4. What are the special features of the online lexicon compared to a conventional lexicon?

      Articles of the Qumran Digital Lexicon may be altered as needed in response to the current state of the field. All differing, time-stamped versions may thus be viewed and cited (see 9.3 and 2.7). Newly edited lexicon articles are added at irregular intervals. Alphabetical order will roughly, but not necessarily, dictate the prioritization of future work, so that articles from the end of the alphabet may be edited and published here directly when completed, if this is appropriate.

    5. How is the Qumran-Digital project financed and where is it located?

      The Qumran-Digital project is funded by the DFG until its completion in 2033 and is carried out within the framework of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences in Lower Saxony.

    6. Who is responsible for the database and website of the Qumran-Digital project and how do the two relate to each other?

      The comprehensive database of the project was specifically created by Ingo Kottsieper in the preceding project Qumran-Wörterbuch. More details can be found on the general website of the project. The database is kept technically up to date by Ingo Kottsieper and continuously adapted to the needs of the project. Bronson Brown-deVost and Ingo Kottsieper are responsible for the development and maintenance of the website, which is still under construction. The database originally served only the internal work of the project. However, as part of Qumran-Digital the data collected there will now be consolidated for publication in addition to the lexicon articles and made available to the general public on this website.

    7. Who is part of the Qumran-Digital project team?

      The current team consists of Annette Steudel, Ingo Kottsieper, and Bronson Brown-deVost, with Eva Schellenberg, Astrid Stacklies, Merlind Börner, and Luisa Döpking; the project is led by Reinhard Kratz. For staff members of the previous project Qumran-Wörterbuch, whose work is also reflected in the Qumran-Digital data, see the preface to HAWTTM 2 (PDF).

    8. Beyond the lexicon, concordance, and manuscript transcriptions, what other data and applications will be published on the website in the future?

      A publication of all modern variant readings, textual parallels among the manuscripts (especially biblical), and morphological and syntactic analyses are planned. Basic meanings will be added to the lemmas.

    9. Where can I find answers to further questions about the project?

      For lexicographic questions, including those about the text corpus of the lexicon, please refer to the prefaces of the first two dictionary volumes (HAWTTM 1 and HAWTTM 2 [PDFs]), and for questions about the history of the lexicon, please refer to the website of the Qumran-Digital project.

  2. About the lexicon articles

    1. Is all evidence for a lemma mentioned in the lexicon article?

      In the area of semantics, the lexicon strives to include as much evidence for a lemma as possible in an article. Those articles with a high number of attestations are an exception (see 2.2). In such cases we present only a few attestations for each semantic category from each class of manuscripts, i.e., non-biblical Qumran manuscripts, CD, Ben Sira, and the Aramaic Levi Document, documentary texts and biblical manuscripts from Qumran and the surrounding area. In the Formen (forms) sections, one attestation from each class of manuscripts is given for each unique word form, as far as it has been preserved. In principle, only those attestations are used which, due to their state of preservation, allow for a sufficiently reliable interpretation. The distinction between so-called non-biblical and biblical evidence in the lexicon is made for purely pragmatic reasons. Evidence from biblical manuscripts is mentioned in the forms only if it deviates from the Masoretic Text and in the Semantik section only if it deviates semantically from the Masoretic Text.

    2. Which attestations are considered in a lexicon article?

      All words that are completely preserved or readable with sufficient certainty are considered in the lexicon articles unless the number of attestations is so high that a representative selection has to be made for each category of meaning. Completely reconstructed entities (gray font in the concordance) are not considered. Evidence in which at least one letter belonging to the lemma can not be read with certainty is marked in the article with L.u. (Lesung unsicher: reading uncertain).

    3. Why are uncertain readings of a letter marked by a circellus in the concordance and manuscript transcription but not in the lexicon?

      Words with uncertain readings are marked in the lexicon with the entry L.u. (Lesung unsicher: reading uncertain). The placement of the circelli in the manuscript text corresponds to the placement in the concordance, it is provisional. Modern variant readings, which have been considered in the lexicon articles, sometimes show a different placement of the circelli.

    4. Why can a reference appear under several lemmas?

      Some evidence, because it is unvocalized in the manuscripts and the context is often fragmentary, cannot be clearly assigned to a single lemma. The different possibilities of interpretation are reflected in the assignment to multiple lemmas.

    5. Why are lexicon articles not yet available for all of the lemmas listed in the concordance?

      The output of the project is a work in progress. Regarding lemmas for which no lexicon article can be found on the website, no article has yet been written, or it is currently in the process of being written. Groups of new articles are added to the website at irregular intervals.

    6. What do the version numbers mean?

      Each version of an article is clearly marked with a three-part version number: 1.2.3. The last number (1.2.3) is incremented if only minor spelling mistakes have been corrected in the new version.

      The second number (1.2.3) is incremented if improvements have been made or additions have been made in the new version that do not represent an innovation in the sense of a new meaning or change in meaning. These can be alignments of translations with other (later) articles or a new manuscript.

      An increase in the first number (1.2.3) signals that something significant to the lemma has been changed in the article. In particular, this may be a correction of a category of meaning or the addition of a new meaning.

    7. How do I cite a digitally published article?

      Articles should always be cited with the appropriate version number, date, and URL. In doing so, each version of each article has a fixed URL that can be used to access that version of the article in the future, so that the dictionary is and remains citable in academic contexts. A suggested citation form can be accessed for each article via the Cite link found on the right side of the article header. The Bibtex file provided there can be used to import the article's bibliographic information into bibliographic applications such as Zotero or similar.

    8. Where can I find the resolution of abbreviations?

      When you hover the cursor over an abbreviation in a lexicon article, its resolution appears on the screen.

    9. Where can I find detailed bibliographic information?

      If you hover the cursor over a bibliographic abbreviation in a lexicon article, the complete bibliographic information appears.

    10. How do I get to the text of a manuscript?

      To see the further context of a Hebrew or Aramaic quotation, click in the lexicon article on its text or its reference. Then the complete text of the manuscript appears in the lower window.

    11. While reading a lexicon article, can I access another article that is referenced there?

      Clicking on the referenced article (e.g. → אב I) opens it in the lower window of the screen.

    12. How can I tell in which lexicon articles a word of a manuscript has already been treated?

      By clicking on a word of a manuscript, a window opens at the bottom (left), in which, among other things, the already published articles in which the word occurs are listed together with the corresponding article excerpts. Clicking on these excerpts opens the corresponding article in a new window/tab.

  3. About the text of the manuscripts

    1. Where does the transcription of the manuscripts come from?

      The starting point is a set of transcriptions, which Martin Abegg kindly made available, that has been revised over many years by the Qumran-Digital project and especially by its predecessor project Qumran-Wörterbuch. Changes compared to Abegg's base transcription result from specially examined readings of other editions and independent paleographic observations of images and the original manuscripts.

    2. Textual parallels

      Textual parallels are displayed beneath each line and are set off by double vertical lines on the right margin. When parallels from multiple manuscripts are available, each individual manuscript is marked by a mid-line point.

      Textual parallels are derived from various sources:

      • other manuscripts containing the same literary work
      • biblical texts (Masoretic, Samaritan, or Qumran as the case may be) as citations or other types of textual re-use
      • in select cases from other texts (1QS 1,25 || CD 20,28–29)
      • in select cases from the same manuscript (1QM 12,8 || 1QM 19,1)

      The parallels may be displayed or hidden by clicking on Parallelen einblenden in the upper, right side of the header.

      Non-parallel sections of more than several words are indicated by three dots. Additions to and corrections of the parallels can be submitted as an error report by right-clicking on each word in the transcription (see 10.4).

    3. Where do signs in the text that are not enumerated in the sigla list above come from?

      Such signs come from the manuscript itself, e.g., four dots that the scribe entered into the manuscript as a substitute for the Tetragrammaton.The signs enumerated in the sign list above are those that serve only the modern edition of the text.

    4. Why are uncertain readings of a letter marked by a circellus in the concordance and manuscript text and not in the lexicon?

      The information in 2.3 applies here.

    5. What do the gray words in the text of a manuscript mean?

      The words in gray print are not yet conclusively determined from a paleographic and linguistic perspective (for more details see 5.2). All words in black print have been morphologically analyzed and are ready for publication.

    6. What do words in round brackets mean in the text of a manuscript?

      Words in round brackets and slightly smaller font represent select reading variants to the preceding word, for more details see 7.6.

    7. How is the manuscript list composed?

      First, the so-called non-biblical Dead Sea manuscripts are listed, followed by the medieval manuscripts of the Damascus Document (CD) and Ben Sira. These are followed by the contemporary documentary texts such as contracts, inscriptions, or coinage. They are followed by the so-called biblical manuscripts from the Dead Sea, whose names are indicated by italics. The list ends with the Masoretic Text and the Samaritan Pentateuch. The distinction between so-called non-biblical and biblical manuscripts in the lexicon is made for purely pragmatic reasons.

    8. How can I tell in which lexicon articles a word of a manuscript has already been treated?

      The information in 2.12 applies here.

    9. Versioning

      The current text version is displayed by default. Earlier versions of the transcription can be selected in left-hand side of the header.

    10. What are the alternative textual references?

      In specific cases an alternative textual reference is provided within parentheses. These references are derived from:

      • older reference systems, e.g., 1QHa 2,12 (Suk. frg. 23,1)
      • a reference based on the manuscript, e.g., SirB 10,19 (Ms.B 1r,1)
      • a reference according to a composite text, e.g., 4Q394 frg. 1-2 i,1 (MMT A i,2) and also in reverse MMT A i,2 (4Q394 frg. 1-2 i,1)
      • the reassignment of a fragment to another manuscript, e.g., 4Q173 frg. 5, which was later renamed 4Q173a-frg. 1 (Add 4Q173a-frg.1)

  4. Concordance

    1. In which order are the entries of a lemma listed in the concordance?

      The order of the entries corresponds to the order of the manuscripts, see 3.7.

    2. Why do some entries appear in italic?

      The entries in italic are from biblical scrolls, those in bold face are not (for more details see 3.7).

    3. What do the entries in gray print in the concordance mean?

      These entries are fully reconstructed, they are not preserved in the manuscript and are not considered as attestations in a lexicon article.

    4. Why can a citation appear under several lemmas?

      The information in 2.4 applies here.

    5. Why are uncertain readings of a letter marked by a circellus in the concordance and manuscript transcription but not in the lexicon?

      The information in 2.3 applies here.

  5. Morphology

    1. Where can I find the morphological analysis of the words in a manuscript?

      The analysis of a word in a manuscript is displayed in the Texte area as a tooltip in short form next to the word as soon as the cursor hovers over the word. By clicking on the word, the detailed analysis becomes visible in the lower (left) window.

    2. Why are the basic meanings and the morphological analyses not yet visible for all words in a manuscript?

      The linguistic analysis of the individual words is a work in progress. It was started in the preceding project Qumran-Wörterbuch and has since been continued. The morphological analyses for all words in black print have already been approved for publication, all words in gray print still await such approval.

  6. Syntax

    1. Where do I find the syntactic details for a word in a manuscript?

      The syntactic details are displayed following the morphological information, they can be accessed by klicking on the desired word in the transcription (see 5.1)

    2. Why are the syntactic details not yet visible or fully completed for all words of a manuscript?

      The syntactic analysis of individual words is a work in progress. They were initiated in the preceding project Qumran-Wörterbuch with a particular focus on semantically significant phrases and have since been continued in this fashion and made more complete. In principle, words from biblical manuscripts are not syntactically analyzed.

  7. Variants

    1. What are variants?

      Variants or variant readings refer to differing modern readings of a word in a manuscript that have been published within the research literature (editions or other publications). They are listed on the website along with an indication of their origin and sometimes with comments. The collection of variants is primarily an internal working tool for the lexicon project (see 7.2).

    2. Where can I find the variants for the individual words and can I cite them?

      The reading variants appear in the lower (left) window when a word in a manuscript is clicked on. In exceptional cases they appear additionally in round brackets within the text of the manuscript (for more details see 7.6).

      The previous project Qumran-Wörterbuch started to collect the different readings of the words proposed in the literature about twenty years ago. This work has continued ever since. From the beginning, this collection was designed as a working tool for writing the dictionary articles. On the website, for the first time, we share this working data with all interested parties. We would like to point out that the given reading variants have not yet been checked to a large extent and may therefore contain errors. The reading variants and associated comments provided on the website may therefore not be quoted without checking them for yourself! The formulations in the commentary to the variant readings do not always conform to the usual conventions of a publication, since they are also intended for internal project use.

    3. How comprehensively are the variant readings recorded?

      So far, the focus of the recording of variant readings is on the non-biblical Hebrew manuscripts from Qumran; there are also rudimentary entries for the non-biblical Aramaic portions. Suggested readings from editions, re-editions, and partial editions are included as comprehensively as possible. In addition, the variants are also taken from other published scholarly works (e.g., dissertations, articles in journals, contributions to Festschriften and monographs). Not included are those reading variants that can only be inferred from translations.

    4. Where can I find the bibliographic information on the origin of the individual reading variants?

      Clicking on a bibliographical abbreviation makes the complete bibliographical information appear.

    5. Where can I find information about specifics of an edition?

      By clicking on a bibliographical citation, in addition to the complete bibliographical citation, some information recorded by the project may appear, e.g., on the special use of circelli or on the handling of individual fragments.

    6. Why are select reading variants listed directly in the text of the manuscript?

      In exceptional cases, variants are found in round brackets and in slightly smaller type directly in the manuscript transcription after the associated word. These are primarily variants that are either very common in the literature, are perfectly acceptable alternative readings, or are readings to be cited in the articles and should therefore be findable in a text search (which will be made available in a later version).

    7. Exceptions that are not yet technically taken into account

      In a few cases, the representation of the variant does not correspond to the system described above. This is the case when a word was only deciphered later and by specific technical means included in the text of a manuscript. In these cases, the editions listed in the variant may erroneously refer to the preceding or the following word(s).

  8. Commentary

    1. What is a comment?

      Palaeographic or linguistic observations regarding individual words in a manuscript are provided under the heading Kommentar. These comments are an internal working tool for the project. They are also used to establish the decisions presented by the lexicon with respect to the reading or understanding of disputed words. We are gradually sharing this working information with all interested parties for the first time through this website. The wording in these comments does not always meet the customary standards of a publication, since they were intended for internal project usage.

    2. Where do I find the comments?

      If a comment is available and has been released for publication, it will appear in the lower (left) pane when a word in a manuscript is clicked.

  9. Versioning

    1. The types of versioning

      The versioning is differentiated between that of the website itself and the data that is offered within it.

    2. Versioning of the website

      The versioning of the website deals only with the manner in which the information is displayed and the technical features the website offers. The current version of the website is displayed at the top left in a small orange-colored badge. A changelog for the website can be displayed by clicking on this badge. The changelog enumerates the features introduced with each new version.

    3. Versioning/dating of the data

      All data, including the lexicon articles, are provided along with a date of publication, which is found in the left-hand side of the heading. Articles are additionally versioned via a numbering system (see 2.6). Throughout the website, the most recent version of data is always provided by default. Earlier versions of data can be accessed by choosing the desired date of publication in the dropdown list. Thus the information remains suitable for citation in the long-term by means of its corresponding publication date (see 2.7).

    4. How do I cite the versioned data?

      In principle, all data that is displayed in the website is versioned, e.g., even the morphological and syntactic entries (s. Morphology und Syntax). The version number or date is vital for proper citation, it is located at the top left of the area currently being accessed.

  10. Further

    1. Opening content in new tab

      Website content can optionally be opened in a new tab via the context menu.

    2. Can I print dictionary articles?

      The possibility to print articles is planned for a later version.

    3. What can I do when I encounter problems with the display or functionality of the website?

      Please restart the browser when such problems are encountered. If the problem remains, see 10.4. Please be aware that we have only tested the website on Chrome 124.0.6367.79, Edge 124.0.2478.80, Safari 17.4.1, and Firefox 125.0.3.

    4. How can I give feedback on errors in data or regarding the usage of the website?

      Feedback on the website, which is still under construction, is very welcome. Reports of functional errors can be sent to the project via email (qumran[at]theologie.uni-goettingen.de). Data errors can be reported directly via the context menu (right mouse-click) for the respective word, position, etc. (see also 3.2). It is only necessary to register as a user on the website to report data errors. Depending on the workload of the team, incoming reports will be processed as quickly as possible.

    5. Is a user account necessary?

      A user account is only necessary in order to report data errors on the website (see 10.4). All other website functionality can be accessed without a registered user account.