Where Septuagint and Qumran Meet: The Septuagint and Qumran Texts of Isa 40:7–8

In this article, a significant textual variant in Isa 40:7–8 is studied by examining the evidence from MT, the Old Greek, and 1QIsaa in conjunction with the text-critical data of the early Jewish revisers of the Septuagint. It is argued that the variant text is not a minus of the Old Greek, but a plus in MT. Since this plus can be found in 1QIsaa by way of a later correction that can be dated paleographically to the time period in which the scribe of 1QS and (Kaige-)Theodotion were active, the plus can be dated to approximately 100–75 BCE. Moreover, it will be made clear that the information gleaned from 1QIsaa and the early Jewish revisers not only matches, but also that the evidence of 1QIsaa for this passage significantly bolsters the value of the Septuagint and Hexaplaric evidence for understanding the development of the Hebrew text.