4Q448
Encyclopedia
4Q448, often called the "Hymn to King Jonathan," is a piece of parchment from among the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...

 containing two separate short works, part of Psalm 154 and a prayer mentioning King Jonathan.

The only King Jonathan in early Jewish history was Alexander Jannaeus
Alexander Jannaeus
Alexander Jannaeus was king of Judea from 103 BC to 76 BC. The son of John Hyrcanus, he inherited the throne from his brother Aristobulus I, and appears to have married his brother's widow, Shlomtzion or "Shelomit", also known as Salome Alexandra, according to the Biblical law of Yibbum...

 ("Jannaeus" being an abbreviated form of "Jonathan") and it is widely believed that this was the King Jonathan of 4Q448, though some doubt has been raised over the identification.

The first column of the prayer may read:
1 "the holy city,
2 for Jonathan the king
3 and all the congregation of your people
4 Israel
5 which have been dispersed to the four
6 winds of the heavens
7 let peace be on all of them
8 and your kingdom"
9 "And may your name be praised"


Others translate the first line quite differently:
"Arise O Holy One"


If this text does in fact portray Alexander Jannaeus in a favorable light, it discounts his identification as the Wicked Priest, a figure mentioned in other scrolls. For the reading that the text is *against* Alexander Jannaeus, according to K. Penner, E. Main, A Lemaire, D. Harrington and J. Strugnell, G. Lorein, and S. Goranson, with bibliography, see Goranson in the references.
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