"...the anointed priest shall come out..."
— 4Q376, Fragment 1

4Q375 and 4Q376 are two Cave 4 Hebrew manuscripts of a single legal composition known as the Apocryphon of Moses. Together they present a procedure without parallel in the Hebrew Bible: the communal testing of a prophet whose sign has come true but who has used that prophetic authority to lead Israel astray.

The text develops Deuteronomy 18:20–22 — the law of the true and false prophet — into a specific institutional procedure. Deuteronomy says only that the false prophet must die. These manuscripts describe the mechanism: the congregation assembles at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, the anointed high priest officiates, and the divine verdict is sought through a luminous oracle. The outcome turns on light — whether the oracle stone shines.

What survives is fragmentary. The testing sequence can be reconstructed only in outline. But the theological logic is unmistakable: no human judgment alone is sufficient to determine who speaks for God. The community cannot decide; the elders cannot decide; even the priest cannot decide unilaterally. The stones must speak.

The text belongs to the Qumran community's persistent preoccupation with authority and legitimate leadership. The Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher on Habakkuk all circle the same anxiety: who truly speaks for the LORD? Here the answer is procedural, priestly, and miraculous at once.

4Q375, Fragment 1

Column i — The Problem of the Prophet

[...] you shall do [...] to do according to all [...] the word that [...]

[...] if there arises among you a prophet [...] who speaks to you and gives a sign or wonder, and the sign comes true [...] and he says to you: let us follow other gods [...] you shall not listen to the words of that prophet.

[...] and the congregation shall assemble [...] and that prophet shall come before the anointed priest and before the whole congregation of Israel. And the elders of the congregation shall inquire [...] at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting [...]

[...] all the congregation gathered together before [...]

[...] and the tribe shall take counsel [...] before the Tent of Meeting. And the anointed priest shall stand [...]

Column ii — The Cloud and the Congregation

[...] and the cloud shall rest over the Tent of Meeting [...] and the holy ones of [...]

[...] and they shall look at [...] the anointed priest [...] and he shall stand before all the congregation [...]

[...] all your tribes, and all your elders, and all the heads of the houses of Israel [...]

[...] and they shall seek the word [...] from his mouth [...]

[...] and if [...] not [...] he shall die, for he spoke presumptuous words [...] against the LORD your God.

4Q376, Fragment 1

Column i — The Stone and the Light

[...] and the anointed priest shall come out [...] to them [...]

[...] and the left stone which is on his right [...] shall give light [...]

[...] before him [...] the congregation [...]

vacat

Column ii — The Oracle

[...] the tribe of [...] and he shall ask [...]

[...] go [...] do not [...]

[...] and all the congregation of Israel [...]

Column iii

Too fragmentary for translation. Isolated vocabulary: all, anointed, before.

[...] all [...] the anointed [...] before [...]

Note on the Text

The oracle mechanism in 4Q376 is unique in the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus. The Urim and Thummim of the Pentateuch — stones worn on the high priest's breastplate used to seek divine guidance — are their obvious precursor. What 4Q375–376 adds is the specific context: not a military question (Shall we go up to battle?) but a theological one: is this man a true prophet or a deceiver leading Israel into death?

The phrase the left stone which is on his right is the most distinctive line to survive. Scholars have noted the apparent contradiction in naming — "left" and "right" — which may reflect the physical arrangement of the breastplate stones, where each stone has a proper name independent of spatial direction. Whether light from the stone means yes or no (guilty or innocent) cannot be determined from the surviving text. The binary logic, however, is clear: the stone gives light, or it does not. Heaven answers, or it is silent.

Colophon

4Q375 (4QapocrMoses^a — Apocryphon of Moses A) and 4Q376 (4QapocrMoses^b — Apocryphon of Moses B). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Two manuscripts preserving complementary portions of a single compositional unit.

Primary editions published in the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series (Oxford: Clarendon). Also in Florentino García Martínez and Eibert Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 620–627.

Translated from Hebrew. 4Q375 Fragment 1, col. i–ii provides the core procedural content; 4Q376 Fragment 1, col. i–ii provides the oracle mechanism. All lacunae marked throughout with [...]. Continuous prose is not reconstructed where the connective Hebrew is absent.

Good Works Translation — New Tianmu Anglican Church, March 2026.

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Source Text

4Q375 and 4Q376 — Qumran Hebrew

Two overlapping Cave 4 manuscripts. Transcription follows García Martínez and Tigchelaar, DSSE vol. 1, pp. 620–627. All lacunae marked [...]. Hebrew given for attested vocabulary; nothing has been supplied beyond what is textually secured.

4Q375 — אפוקריפון משה א (Apocryphon of Moses A)

Fragment 1, Column i

[...] תעשה [...] לעשות ככל [...] הדבר אשר [...]
[...] כי יקום בקרבך נביא [...] ודבר אליך ונתן אות ומופת ובא האות [...]
[...] ואמר אליך נלכה אחרי אלהים אחרים [...] לא תשמע לדברי הנביא ההוא
[...] ויאסף [העדה ...] ויבא הנביא ההוא אל הכהן המשוח ואל כל עדת ישראל
[...] ידרשו זקני העדה [...] פתח אהל מועד [...]
[...] כל העדה נאספת לפני [...]
[...] וייעץ השבט [...] לפני אהל מועד
[...] ויעמד הכהן המשוח [...]

Fragment 1, Column ii

[...] ושכן הענן על אהל מועד [...] וקדושי [...]
[...] ויביטו אל [...] הכהן המשוח [...] ויעמד לפני כל העדה [...]
[...] כל שבטיך וכל זקניך וכל ראשי בתי ישראל [...]
[...] וידרשו הדבר [...] מפיו [...]
[...] ואם [...] לא [...] יומת כי דבר [...] על יהוה אלהיכם

4Q376 — אפוקריפון משה ב (Apocryphon of Moses B)

Fragment 1, Column i

[...] ויצא הכהן המשוח [...] אליהם [...]
[...] ואבן השמאל אשר [על ימינו ...] יאיר [...]
[...] לפניו [...] העדה [...] vacat

Fragment 1, Column ii

[...] שבט [...] וישאל [...]
[...] לך [...] אל [...]
[...] וכל עדת ישראל [...]

Fragment 1, Column iii

Too fragmentary for transcription beyond isolated vocabulary.

[...] כל [...] המשוח [...] לפני [...]

Source Colophon

Hebrew transcription of 4Q375 (4QapocrMoses^a) and 4Q376 (4QapocrMoses^b). Cave 4, Qumran. Hebrew. Two manuscripts of a single composition. Lacunae reflect the fragmentary physical state of the manuscripts; no Hebrew has been supplied beyond what is attested. Transcription follows García Martínez and Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), pp. 620–627.

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