"The copy of the letter."
— 4Q465, apparatus-confirmed (פרשגן האגרתא)

4Q465 — Cave 4 Hebrew Fragment — Dead Sea Scrolls

4Q465 is a single highly fragmentary Cave 4 manuscript, preserved in approximately seven short lines of which only one yields a legible phrase. That phrase — פרשגן האגרתא, "the copy of the letter" — is a Persian loanword embedded in Aramaic chancellery idiom. The word פרשגן (ultimately from Old Persian pati-grāθana, a copy or transcript) appears in the Hebrew Bible in Ezra 4:11, 4:23, 5:6, 7:11, and Esther 3:14, always in the context of official royal correspondence and imperial decree.

The apparatus records three variant forms: פרשגן האגרתא (copy of the letter), פתשגן הכתב (copy of the writing — the form used in Esther 3:14 and 8:13), and פרשגן הנשתון (copy of the document). All three are chancellery synonyms drawn from the Persian administrative vocabulary that saturated post-exilic Jewish scribal culture. Their appearance in a Qumran fragment suggests a text engaging with Ezra-type narrative material — perhaps an Apocryphon of Ezra or a pseudepigraphical legal document modeled on the Persian imperial correspondence style.

The remaining lines are too damaged for continuous translation. Line 4 may preserve an isolated word or phrase but the context is irrecoverable. This fragment is presented for completeness and for the singular witness it bears to the Qumran community's engagement with the Persian-period administrative register.

Fragments

[...] [...]
[...] [...]

The copy of the letter [...]
[...] to him [...]

[...] [...]
[...] [...]
[...] [...]

Colophon

A Good Works Translation of 4Q465. Translated from Hebrew by Tulku and Autumn (the Miko), New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Working from apparatus-verified readings after Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts (Zenodo 2020, CC BY 4.0), p. 904. Only one phrase recoverable; all other lines too damaged for translation. Lacunae marked with [...].

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Source Text

Hebrew/Aramaic, Qumran Cave 4. Apparatus-verified readings only, after Qimron composite edition (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0), p. 904. No text conjectured.

4Q465 Fragments (Apparatus-Confirmed)

[...] [...]
[...] [...]

פרשגן האגרתא [...]
[...] אליו [...]

[...] [...]
[...] [...]
[...] [...]

Line 3 apparatus: "פרשגן האגרתא" (the copy of the letter); variants "פתשגן הכתב" (Esth 3:14/8:13 form) and "פרשגן הנשתון." Persian loanword. Cf. Ezra 4:11; 5:6; 7:11. Qimron p. 904.

Source Colophon

Apparatus-verified Hebrew after Elisha Qimron, The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts (Zenodo 2020, CC BY 4.0), p. 904. Biblical cross-references: Ezra 4:11; 5:6; 7:11; Esth 3:14. Only apparatus-confirmed phrase translatable; all remaining lines too fragmentary.

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