ABSTRACT
This chapter provides precise information that the Book of Jeremiah follows rather closely the Greek Septuagint version and departs a great deal from the classic Hebrew text. It is interesting to point out here that in the collection of manuscripts from Cave IV bought by the McCormick Theological Seminarya copy of the Book of Jeremiah was found which followed very closely the version transmitted by the Septuagint. The fact that a copy of the Alexandrine version of the Book of Jeremiah has been found in Cave IV is a definite proof that this version was accounted "apocryphal" by the rabbinic authorities of Judea, and not that the Essenes of Qumran had been the faithful guardians of a more authentic tradition going back to the fifth century BC It is this story which the present writer wishes to disentangle in the short commentaries which follow his translation of the texts found in Cave I of Qumran.
