4QEzekielᵃ (4Q73): Ezekiel in Hebrew at Qumran
Late Hasmonean fragments preserve Hebrew from Ezekiel's departing-glory, Jerusalem-judgment, Oholah and Oholibah, and temple-vision passages, offering a close but not identical antecedent to the medieval Hebrew text.
- Artifact date
- Late Hasmonean period, about mid-first century BC
- Findspot
- Qumran Cave 4
- Current location
- Israel Antiquities Authority collections
What archaeologists can actually examine
4QEzekielᵃ is a fragmentary Hebrew parchment copy containing portions of Ezekiel 10:5-22; 11:1-11; 23:14-15, 17-18, 44-47; and 41:3-6. The surviving passages move from the vision of divine glory departing Jerusalem, through an allegory of unfaithful cities, to measurements in the final temple vision. Editors describe its wording as generally close to the later Masoretic tradition while noting variants and scribal correction. Its importance is cumulative rather than sensational: it provides physical Hebrew evidence that substantial parts of Ezekiel circulated in recognizable form before the first century AD.
Four distinct sections survive
Fragments represent Ezekiel 10-11, 23, and 41 rather than one continuous passage.
A corrected Hebrew copy
Scribal correction accompanies a text broadly close to later Masoretic wording but not mechanically identical.
Biblical Ezekiel, not Pseudo-Ezekiel
4Q73 transmits the canonical book and must be distinguished from separate Qumran works that reuse its imagery.
Limited evidence for edition history
The fragments inform local readings but cannot map the full relationship between Hebrew and Greek Ezekiel.
Follow the evidence from discovery to debate
Move through the find in a deliberate order: establish its provenance, examine the surviving object, place it in time, and then weigh the scholarly interpretation.
How the find came to light
The pieces were identified among Cave 4 material after the cave's 1952 discovery. Fragmentary words, handwriting, parchment, column format, and sequence allowed editors to separate 4Q73 from two other Cave 4 Ezekiel manuscripts, 4Q74 and 4Q75. Preliminary study by Johan Lust preceded the official Discoveries in the Judaean Desert edition. The Israel Antiquities Authority preserves the pieces and publishes exact-object digital images. Because the manuscript survives as detached fragments, its modern identity is an editorial reconstruction supported by multiple material and textual criteria, not a title found on the ancient scroll.
What you are looking at
4Q73 consists of irregular parchment scraps with Hebrew square-script lines and extensive loss at every edge. The text retains vocabulary of cherubim, wheels, coals, gates, princes, judgment, foreign images, and architectural measurements. A correction shows that the scribe or a reader monitored the copying process, an ordinary but valuable glimpse of manuscript production. No complete roll, opening title, closing subscription, or binding survives. The fragment groups represent widely separated chapters, so a modern transcription that prints them consecutively is a dossier of remains, not the visual order of one surviving sheet.
Where it belongs in history
Palaeography normally places the hand in the late Hasmonean period, often around the middle of the first century BC. Ezekiel is represented by several Qumran biblical manuscripts as well as works that reuse Ezekielian visions. 4Q73 must be kept distinct from those Pseudo-Ezekiel compositions: it is a copy of the biblical book. The manuscript predates the complete medieval Hebrew tradition by many centuries and is also relevant to comparison with the shorter Greek form of Ezekiel. Its extant passages, however, are too limited to map the long and short editions across the entire book.
Consensus, questions, and debate
Scholars broadly accept the manuscript's identification, Hasmonean hand, and generally Masoretic alignment. The larger textual debate asks how the Hebrew tradition relates to the significantly shorter Old Greek Ezekiel and whether variant editions existed. Because 4Q73 preserves only selected passages, it offers individual readings rather than a complete verdict. A reading shared with the Masoretic text may attest antiquity without proving originality; a difference may be a scribal variant rather than a separate edition. Manuscript inventories also record associated PAM photographs and early publications, enabling scholars to audit older joins and readings against modern imaging.
The biblical record beside the artifact
Ezekiel 10:5-22 and 11:1-11 are directly represented, including the movement of cherubim and wheels, the glory at the temple threshold, Jerusalem's leaders, and the oracle against the city's false security. Fragments from Ezekiel 23 preserve part of the severe Oholah-Oholibah allegory, while Ezekiel 41:3-6 belongs to the visionary temple measurements. These are not later paraphrases but Hebrew words of Ezekiel on ancient parchment. The manuscript documents transmission and scribal reading; it does not establish that Ezekiel's visionary experiences were photographically observable events or locate the visionary temple archaeologically.
Ezekiel 11:1–11
1Moreover the spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD’s house, which looketh eastward: and behold at the door of the gate five and twenty men; among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
2Then said he unto me, Son of man, these [are] the men that devise mischief, and give wicked counsel in this city:
3Which say, [It is] not near; let us build houses: this [city is] the caldron, and we [be] the flesh.
4¶ Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, O son of man.
5And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, [every one of] them.
6Ye have multiplied your slain in this city, and ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain.
7Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Your slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it, they [are] the flesh, and this [city is] the caldron: but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.
8Ye have feared the sword; and I will bring a sword upon you, saith the Lord GOD.
9And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.
10Ye shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
11This [city] shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; [but] I will judge you in the border of Israel:
A responsible historical conclusion
4Q73 gives material depth to a book often approached only through its extraordinary imagery. A real Second Temple scribe copied the departing glory, Jerusalem judgment, sexual-political allegory, and temple plan into one Hebrew scroll. That range shows Ezekiel circulating as a broad literary work rather than merely as isolated visionary extracts. The copy also provides a disciplined bridge between faith and textual history: its closeness to later Hebrew wording is significant continuity, while its corrections and variants show human transmission. It is most persuasive when described accurately rather than made to prove either perfect uniformity or wholesale textual instability.
Authoritative sources
Institutional catalogs, excavation reports, and academic publications let you examine the evidence beyond this summary.
4Q Ezekiel
Israel Antiquities AuthorityOfficial manuscript record and exact-fragment images for 4Q73.
Ezekiel Manuscripts in Qumran: Preliminary Edition of 4QEz a and b
Peeters / Leuven University PressAcademic manuscript inventory giving the 4Q73 photographic plates, editor, and preliminary publication citation.
Resurrection and Biblical Tradition: Pseudo-Ezekiel Reconsidered
BiblicaPeer-reviewed comparison that distinguishes biblical Qumran Ezekiel manuscripts including 4Q73-75 from Pseudo-Ezekiel and assesses their broadly shared textual tradition.