Research notes · Before AD 300
What the Dead Sea Scrolls add
An ancient manuscript preserves Joel’s allegation that Judeans were sold to Greeks. Other texts illuminate slave-sale restrictions and foreign domination. Their different kinds of evidence matter.
H6882 · Ancient manuscript attestation
Joel’s sale-to-Greeks allegation
Joel 3:6 in common English numbering is Joel 4:6 in the Hebrew text. Murabbaʿat 88 preserves the sale-to-Greeks wording in column II, lines 26–28. The scholarly transcription distinguishes surviving letters from reconstructed gaps.
| Witness | What survives | How it is recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Mur.88 | The sale-to-Greeks wording, with some local letter gaps. | Ancient attestation of the allegation. |
| 4Q78 | Part of the verse, including sale language; the Greek-buyer wording is not preserved. | Partial textual witness. |
| 4Q82 | The corresponding sale clause is reconstructed in square brackets. | Editorial restoration distinguished from surviving text. |
These are copies of the biblical text, so they do not independently verify the transaction. The sale’s date, number of people and destination remain unknown. The manuscript’s date is not the event’s date.
Read the critical transcription ↗ · Joel 4:6; Mur.88 II 26–28; 4Q78 frgs.18–20 line1; 4Q82 frgs.31bR+38–40a lines3–4.
Murabbaʿat is a separate Judaean Desert findspot from Qumran. This finding strengthens the existing Joel record; it adds no second slave cohort.
H6899 · Legal context
A rule against sale to Gentiles
Damascus Document XII 10–11 prohibits selling covenant-affiliated male and female slaves to Gentiles.
The rule does not show that a sale occurred. Covenant affiliation also does not establish Judean birth or biological ancestry.
The cited clause is accessed in the Genizah CD text of a work also attested at Qumran. This review has not verified this particular clause on a Qumran fragment.
Hebrew text, translation and Schiffman’s analysis ↗H6900 · Foreign domination
Plunder, subjection and tribute
The Habakkuk commentary, 1QpHab VI 1–8, describes the Kittim’s domination and tribute imposed on peoples.
This is useful extrabiblical testimony about foreign power. It supplies no identified Jewish slave-sale cohort, transaction date, buyer or headcount.
The identification of Kittim depends on the text and historical interpretation. Political subjection cannot by itself establish chattel slavery.
Primary passages in Hebrew and translation ↗Oren Ableman, PDF p.6.
Sixteen review decisions
Other passages and documents checked
The spreadsheet’s Enslavement review records the decisions and remaining leads:
- War Scroll: its projected return and war are eschatological expectations, not a dated migration census.
- Community Rule: comparison with a slave’s conduct does not identify an actual enslaved cohort. Read Qimron’s translation ↗.
- Wadi Daliyeh: real slave contracts require individual identity checks before a slave can be classified as Jewish or Judean.
- Refugee archives: a cave findspot or refugee document alone does not establish enslavement. IAA discovery-site descriptions ↗.
- Nahum Pesher, 11Q13 and 4Q521: relevant leads remain held for fuller critical-text verification.
This pass establishes no new securely dated Jewish slave-sale transaction. The two new contextual records have no population values, arrival or departure dates, or invented map positions.
Follow the sources
The updated spreadsheet includes eight source references, four source issues and sixteen review decisions. Edition 2.47 also publishes the seventeen earlier enslavement research additions and the previously revised records.
In the population map, select “Uncertain / undated” and search for H6882, H6899 or H6900 to read their full records. Historical claims remain separate from proof of descent from Jacob.