SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

98 Chapter 4: Technical Aspects of Scroll Writing
size of the intercolumnar margin is described as a ‘full thumb’ (ldwg awlm) and likewise in b.
Menah≥. 30a as ldwg bjwr jwyr alm.
An exceptionally small right margin appears at the beginning of the first sheet in 4QWords of
Michael ar (4Q529) 1 (0.2–0.5 cm), preceded by stitching (and a handle sheet). However, this is a
special case as there were no earlier sheets for the scribe to take into consideration.
Detailed data on the intercolumnar margins are recorded in most DJD editions as well as in
Yadin, Temple Scroll, I.13–14.
f. The written text vis-à-vis horizontal and vertical ruling
Most literary texts from the Judean Desert were ruled (§ a), and in the great majority of these
texts, the letters (except for the lamed) were suspended from below horizontal lines in such a
way that their tops were written flush with these lines or just under them.
In earlier times, this procedure was used on cuneiform clay tablets from the Ur III period onwards (Ashton,
Scribal Habits, 110, 113). In some Egyptian demotic texts and in Greek papyri, a similar procedure was followed;
for the latter, cf. some early papyri of the New Testament. 141 In later periods, letters were suspended also in
Samaritan manuscripts (Robertson, Catalogue, xix: ‘The bodies of the letters thus appear to hang free in the
interlinear space, like clothes pegged to a clothes-line.’). According to some scholars, this custom was adopted from
the Elamite cuneiform script by the Jewish scribes who began to use the Aramaic script during the Exile. 142
According to Ulrich, DJD IX, 161, 195 a similar practice was followed in 4QLXXLev a and 4QLXXDeut, and
according to Kraft 143 this was also the case with P.Rylands Greek 458 of Deuteronomy (2 BCE) and 8H≥evXIIgr
scribe B (end of 1 BCE). Even though no ruling is visible on the plates, and possibly was not applied to the texts,
these scribes worked with at least an imaginary continuous line indicating the position of the tops and bottoms of
letters, since the writing of these texts, as all Greek texts from the Judean Desert, is extremely regular.
In a few Qumran texts, many of the letters are written slightly below the ruled lines; see, for
example, 11QT a (11Q19) cols. XLV–XLVIII (0.1 cm below the line), 4QXII g (0.1 cm), and
4QHodayot-like Text C (4Q440; 0.2 cm). In some other texts, scribes disregarded the guidance of
ruled lines altogether.
• 1QMyst (1Q27): The words are more frequently written on the lines than below them. Words are also written
between the lines.
• 3QpIsa (3Q4): Most words are written through the line.
• 4QSama : Words are sometimes written through the line (DJD XVII, pl. XII and frg. 26).
• 4QText with a Citation of Jubilees (4Q228) 1: The letters were written irregularly between the lines, at some
distance from them, and they were also written through the lines.
• 4QCal Doc/Mish D (4Q325): An irregularly ruled line between lines 5 and 6 was disregarded by the scribe.
• 4QapocrMosa (4Q375): The words are more frequently written on the lines than below them. Words are also
written between the lines.
• 4QProphecy of Joshua (4Q522), especially frgs. 9–10 and 22–24: The letters were written irregularly between
the lines, on the lines, and often also through them (illustr. 1 7). 7 Among other things, the scribe squeezed two lines
of writing between two ruled lines (frgs. 9 i–10 13–14).
• An unidentified Qumran fragment: PAM 43.684, frg. 97 (DJD XXXIII, pl. XXIV).
• An unidentified Qumran fragment: PAM 43.692, frg. 81 (DJD XXXIII, pl. XXXI).
• Mas apocrJosh: The scribe of this manuscript, possibly reflecting the same composition as 4QProphecy of
Joshua (4Q522), but written in a different script, wrote words through the line (A 4–5).
• MasSir IV: This column is often written through the lines, as is evident from a comparison of that column
with the adjacent col. V written neatly below the lines. The two columns are juxtaposed in Yadin, Ben Sira, and
idem, Ben Sira 1999, pl. 5.
141 See Metzger, Text of the New Testament, 12.
142 R. D. Barnett, “A Legacy of the Captivity: A Note on the Paleo-Hebrew and Neo-Hebrew Scripts,” ErIsr 16 (1982) 1–
5; Ashton, Scribal Habits, 121. In that script, Barnett noticed a ‘top-line consciousness’ (p. 4).
143 http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/lxxjewpap/style1.jpg.