Figure 24

Dead Sea Scroll Messianic Testimony

Dead Sea Scroll Messianic Testimony (4Q175) located in the Amman Museum, Jordan. God’s Name, Yahweh is represented by four dots.

Because Jews would not say God’s special name–Yahweh (YHWH tetragrammaton)–scribes would insert a substitute series of letters or symbols into the text of the manuscript.

Examples of this practice can be found in the DSS Messianic Testimonia (4Q175) quoting from Deut 5:28–9, 18:18–19, 33:8–11, and Numbers 24:15–17  where the Messiah is described as prophet, priest, and king and Yahweh is described using four dots, each representing the consonants YHWH (tetragrammaton). Another DSS fragment of the Psalms (11Q5Psa [Pss 124:8–127:1]) replaced the four consonant name of God (YHWH) with the ancient Paleo-Hebrew letters in order to preserve the ancient name while the rest of the text was written in the square Aramaic script. Original is housed in the Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman Jordan.