Great Isaiah Scroll and GA 1506 Manuscripts Reveal Textual Differences

Scholar Drew Longacre highlighted that many of the largest discrepancies between the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa‑a) and the Masoretic Text can be explained by physical damage to the scroll’s exemplar, causing missing verses and blank lines in the original copying process. His 2013 article argues that the scroll’s second‑half differences are likely the result of scribal lapses rather than substantive textual variants.

A separate study of the Greek manuscript GA 1506, a copy of John of Damascus’s commentary on Romans, re‑examines a previously noted blank space for Romans 16:1‑24. The analysis finds a marginal note in the correct location, suggesting the verses were originally present but are now illegible due to ink bleed‑through, classifying the gap as a lacuna rather than an omission.