This scroll is in a very fragmented condition. Today it consists of 97 fragments. However, only 31 of those fragments can be reasonably reconstructed and deciphered, allowing for a reading of Leviticus 1.11 through 5.25; the remaining fragments are too small to allow for reliable identification. Additionally, space bands are occasionally used for the separation of concepts, and divisions within the text. A special sign for separation of paragraphs is found fragment 27, between the lines 6 and 7. While the later divisions would label these verses 5:20-26, it appears to testify to a classical transition from chapter 5 to 6. Skehan dated 4Q120 to "late first century BCE or opening years of the first century CE". Scriptio continua is used throughout. Text according to A. R. Meyer: Lev 4:27 αυτωι εαν ηκουσιως εκ εν τωι ποιησαι μιαν απ των εντολων ιαω ου πο Lev 3:12–13 12 εαν δ ον αυτο αω 13 και ε
ΙΑΩ
Apart from minor variants, the main interest of the text lies in its use of Ιαω to translate the tetragrammaton in Leviticus 3:12 and 4:27. Patrick W. Skehan suggests that, in the Septuagint version of the Pentateuch, this is more original than the κύριος of editions based on later manuscripts, and he assumes that, in the books of the prophets, the Septuagint did use κύριος to translate both יהוה and אדני, the word that traditionally replaced the tetragrammaton when reading aloud. Emmanuel Tovclaims the use here of Ιαω as proof that the "papyrus represents an early version of the Greek scripture" antedating the text of the main manuscripts. He states that "the writing of the Tetragrammaton in Hebrew characters in Greek revisional texts is a relatively late phenomenon. On the basis of the available evidence, the analysis of the original representation of the Tetragrammaton in Greek Scriptures therefore focuses on the question of whether the first translators wrote either κύριος or Ιαω." No other extant manuscript uses Ιαω in the biblical text. The Codex Marchalianusgives it in a marginal note to accompany the text of Ezekiel 1:2 and 11:1, as in several such marginal notes it gives ΠΙΠΙ.
