Introduction

ALMOST a quarter of a century has passed since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Wilderness of Judah. Meanwhile, with the discovery of ten additional caves in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumrân, as well as the discovery of other manuscripts or papyri in the caves of the Wâdī Murabbaʿât, the Naḥal Ṣeʾēlīm (Wâdī Seiyâl), and Naḥal Ḥever (Wâdī Khabrâ), in the excavations of the ancient fortress of Masada, and in the cave of the Wâdī Dâliyeh, the “Dead Sea Scrolls” have become the Scrolls from Qumrân, Cave I.
The first manuscripts to be given full publication were the great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsᵃ), the Pesher to Habakkuk (1QpHab), and the Rule of the Community (1QS).¹ They were edited for the Trustees of the American Schools of Oriental Research by Millar Burrows, John C. Trever, and William H. Brownlee under the title The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery. I. The Isaiah Scroll and the Habakkuk Commentary (New Haven, 1950), and II: 2. Plates and Transcription of the Manual of Discipline (New Haven, 1951). The first fascicle of Volume II never appeared. The portion of the scrolls of Cave I which came into the hands of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were published by the late E. L. Sukenik and N. Avigad, ʾÔṣar ham-mēgillôt hag-gĕnûzôt (Jerusalem, 1954); in English The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew University (Jerusalem, 1955). Two additional volumes of Cave I materials were to appear: Discoveries in the Judaean Desert I. Qumrân Cave I by D. Barthélemy and J. T. Milik (Oxford, 1955), and A Genesis Apocryphon edited by N. Avigad and Y. Yadin (Jerusalem, 1956).²

1. We follow here the standard sigla established in the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955–).
2. The full publication of the Genesis Apocryphon is still awaited; substantial parts were in a very poor state of preservation owing in part to traces of metal in the ink which in time destroyed parts of the leather. A number of manuscripts from other caves exhibited similar features. Photographs of 1QDanᵃ, 1QDanᵇ, 1QNoah Fragment 2 [1Q19ᵇⁱˢ], 1QPrayers Fragments 2–3 [1Q34ᵇⁱˢ], published by John C. Trever, “Completion of the Publication of Some Fragments from Qumrân Cave I,” Revue de Qumrân, 19 (1965), pp. 323–336; Pls. I–VII, supplied missing photographs in the Barthélemy-Milik volume.