Dead Sea Scrolls – Web View Initial Release

Dead Sea Scrolls – Web View Initial Release

To continue a raft of updates coming to The Way to Yahuweh over the course of 2024, I am pleased that some work over the past few months has finally come to fruition!

As many people have informed me, the PDF versions of the Dead Sea Scrolls (and the papyrus transcriptions etc.) are not very easy to work with (especially when trying to copy and paste). I have accordingly been working to convert them into easily readable XML (eXtensible Markup Language) files, which can also be viewed a lot easier on The Way to Yahuweh itself.

At the present time the Dead Sea Scrolls Textual Critical Edition is available by following the relative links here. On each page for the specific Tanakh book you’ll find the full Textual Critical Edition completely readable and able to be copied with very little hassle. At the bottom of each page the XML file for the page can be downloaded, along with the XML file containing the full cache of notes (although not all books contain notes). As usual, PDF versions will always remain available via the downloads page.

Whilst very good for being able to convert into web-viewable format, the XML files can also be utilised by any other software package or developed API which are able to read XML data. This can then be converted into other formats. This will allow all the files (eventually) up on TWTY to be disseminated among other platforms, and utilised in a variety of ways. It also means updates to any file can be done very quickly, and not have to be reduced to redoing a PDF file (which can be quite cumbersome!). This will also be able to be distributed among other platforms that link to or use the XML files once new updates are added.

I’m still working on how things look on each page, so there may be a few times where pages aren’t loading. Rest assured these will only be temporary outages, so always check back if you are unable to load a page.

As always, any errors please let me know. 🙂

Update! New Section, and More!

For the year of 2018, TWTY will be endeavouring to be giving a few more updates than has been occurring the past year or so, so it gives me great pleasure to announce a new section for TWTY: Septuagint/LXX Manuscript Transcriptions.

This is a ‘sister’ section to the Ancient Papyrus one (which concentrates on Renewed Covenant manuscripts), and is already a collaborative one, with Dr. Th.A.W. van der Louw of the Protestant Theological University (Netherlands), and SIL International Member, kindly providing a transcription of one of the oldest Septuagint Manuscripts (P. Ryl. 458). With his permission I have turned the transcription into TWTY format, which can be downloaded from here.

Another release is provided by TWTY reader Galen, who has created two Bibleworks Databases that contain the TC Editions of the DSS text! Due to the limitations of the Bibleworks Software, both Greek and Hebrew portions are in separate files. Despite this, it is still readable and searchable, giving greater capabilities for those with the Bibleworks Software.

Give the modules a download from here.

Here’s to more updates like this in the future!

Update! Complete TC Edition & More

I may be cutting it quite close, but as mentioned back in April, I have managed to complete the DSS TC Edition! All Scriptural Books found among the Dead Sea Scrolls will now have their TC Editions online, both as separate books, and also in one giant TC Edition PDF File. Included in this Full publication are a small Preface, along with an Appendix regarding the text of Isaiah 61:1-2.

See the Downloads Page for the files to download/view 🙂

As with all TC Edition’s that have been completed, I end up updating most of the relevant Dead Sea Scrolls Transcriptions along with them. I did keep a ‘sort-of’ list, so may be worth re-downloading any document you’ve already had.

The list that I kept was as such:

4QpaleoDeut^r; 1QDeut^a; 4QDeut^k2; 4QLev^b; 4QLev^d; 11QLev^b; MasLev^b; 1QIsa^a; 1QIsa^b; 4QIsa^a; 4QIsa^b; 4QIsa^c; 4QIsa^d; 4QIsa^e; 4QIsa^f; 4QIsa^g; 4QIsa^h; 4QIsa^k; 4QIsa^l; 2QJer; Leviticus Parallel; Deuteronomy Parallel; Isaiah Parallel.

There is now very little I can do to assist in everyone’s DSS studies. Bar the occasional manuscript that appears once every decade or so, all of them are on TWTY for people to use for their studies!

I will be releasing them in other formats in the future (Bibleworks, E-Sword, even possible The Word), but these will be sporadic and won’t be coming forth any time soon.

I’ll also be taking a little break for at least up until the end of January. Then I will commence completing all the other projects I’ve already started (namely the Ancient Greek Papyri transcriptions & translations, as well as versions 2 and 3 of the Renewed Covenant Translation).

I have also removed a section from TWTY – and that is the Greek-English Interlinears section. I have come to understand that Interlinears don’t help – they rather hinder study, and make people think that they are translating when using an Interlinear to “assist”. They’re not; they’re mainly producing drivel. As such, I will not be producing any interlinear – ever. Plain parallel versions are fine though, so will be keeping those projects alive.

Anyway, apologies for waffling on. I shall stop 🙂

Hope everyone has an enjoyable new year, and I shall be posting again in 2017!