New Title: “Rethinking Naming in Dead Sea Scrolls Research: A Case Study on “4QInstruction”

Names have a way of shaping our understanding of a text before we have even begun to read it. As Molly Zahn comments, “once an object or phenomenon is given a particular name or placed in a particular category, we approach that object or phenomenon with specific expectations in mind regarding what sort of thing it is” (2011, 93). For the manuscripts 1Q26, 4Q415–4Q418, 4Q418(a+c), and 4Q423―which were identified as different manuscript copies of the same text―English-speaking scholars often refer to this composition with names recommended by the editors in Discoveries in the Judean Desert volume 34 (DJD 34). Thus, scholars refer to these manuscripts collective as “4QInstruction” or they use its Hebrew name Musar le-Mevin, which translates to “Instruction for the Understanding One.” These names were proposed by the editors on the understanding that the text is predominately characterised by a series of admonitions directed by a speaker (who is presumed to be a teacher of sorts) to students who are most commonly referred to in the document as “mevin” in the singular. Because of this, the editors believed the composition corresponded best with the category of Wisdom literature (a generic category used for certain books in the Hebrew Bible and other ANE texts). The objective of this thesis is to re-examine this characterisation and suggest an alternative name that is based on an understanding of its purported literary genre.