Deuteronomy
4QTestimonia: A Scripture Anthology from Qumran
4Q175 (4QTestimonia) is a single Qumran scroll, copied by one scribe in the Hasmonean era (roughly 100-50 BC), that strings together Deuteronomy 18's 'prophet like Moses,' Numbers 24's 'star out of Jacob,' Deuteronomy 33's priestly blessing, and a Joshua-based line against a rival figure. It is physical, pre-Christian evidence that Jewish scribes were already practicing the same technique of excerpting and combining Scripture texts that the Church would later use - and call testimonia - to present the case for Christ from the Old Testament.
100 BC – 50 BC
The Nash Papyrus
Four Hebrew papyrus fragments bought in Egypt in 1902 preserve the Ten Commandments followed by the Shema (Deut 6:4-5). Dated c. 150-100 BC, it was the oldest known Hebrew biblical manuscript until the 1947 Dead Sea Scrolls discovery.
150 BC – 100 BC
The Prophet Like Moses
In Deuteronomy 18, Moses promises Israel a prophet 'like himself,' who will carry the Lord's own words. About a century before Christ, Qumran's 4QTestimonia scroll (4Q175) quoted this passage alongside other end-times texts, and the Samaritans independently built a "Taheb" (Restorer) hope on the same figure - two pre-Christian, non-Christian witnesses that Israel was watching for this Prophet before Jesus was born. The apostle Peter identifies Jesus as that Prophet, preaching to the crowd at Solomon's Portico soon after Pentecost (Acts 3:22-23), a reading Stephen repeats (Acts 7:37) and the Fathers, including St. John Chrysostom, carry forward.
1400 BC – AD 33