SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

(4) No indication
Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 111
Probably only very few manuscripts had no external system for indicating the end of the scroll.
One such case is 1QIsa a in which the unstitched vertical edge following the last column is
inscribed almost to the end of the sheet rendering it necessary for users of this scroll to hold it by
the inscribed areas. This resulted in the ends of lines 1–10 of the last column having to be re-inked
(ch. 4i).
Summarizing the data for biblical scrolls, evidence for initial handle sheets has been preserved
for two copies of the Torah (4QGen g , 4QGen k ) and one of Isaiah (1QIsa a ), and there is indirect
evidence for a final handle sheet for 11QpaleoLev a and MasDeut. This evidence is in agreement
with Sof. 1.8 according to which such handle sheets should be attached to both sides of the Torah
scrolls and only at the beginning of the scrolls of the Prophets (note that 1QIsa a did not have such
a handle sheet at its end). In twelve other biblical scrolls evidence for handle sheets is either
negative or absent.
It is unclear why in a few cases the beginnings and ends were not indicated in a special way,
while in other instances two different procedures were followed. These different procedures
probably reflected the preferences of manufacturers and/or ‘librarians,’ and were probably
unrelated to the contents of scrolls (see the last columns in TABLES 23 and 25). Various systems
were used in manuscripts of the same work due to the fact that scrolls were manufactured by
different persons at different times. Thus 4QBarkhi Nafshi b (4Q435) was preceded by a handle
sheet, while 4QBarkhi Nafshi a (4Q434) was not. In the case of the latter scroll, there was almost
no uninscribed area for handling when reading the scroll.
The only evidence for the existence of wooden bars, rollers (µydwm[, >amudim) for handling
the scrolls pertains to 11QapocrPs (11Q11, ascribed to 50–70 CE), described as follows by
García Martínez–Tigchelaar–van der Woude: ‘The handle with which the scroll was rolled has
been preserved. It has the appearance of a stick and is now somewhat curved . . . the stick has
been attached to it with pieces of string on the upper and lower part’ (DJD XXIII, p. 183 and pl.
XXII). This scroll was rolled around a single bar, while the main evidence for the use of single and
double wooden bars for synagogue scrolls derives from a later period. See, inter alia m. Yad. 3.4;
b. B. Bat. 14a; y. Meg. 1.71d; Sof. 2.5, all referring to a single bar attached to the end of a regular
scroll and two bars for the Torah scrolls, each attached to one of the extremities (y. Meg. 1.71d).
Such bars (wooden or bone sticks) are also known from the classical world, where they were
named ojmfaloiv or umbilici. According to M. Haran, “Torah and Bible Scrolls,” 101 (see n. 127),
these bars were invented in the Roman world. In the synagogue, >amudim became integral
components of sacred scrolls.
h. Titles of compositions and headers of sections
Since the beginnings and ends of most scrolls were lost, only partial data is available on the
existence of titles or name tags denoting the content of compositions. Full or partial data for the
beginnings of fifty-three compositions from the Judean Desert (fifty-one from Qumran) are
available, thus presenting us with a good impression of the recording of titles in these scrolls. The
evidence for titles pertains only to nonbiblical scrolls, with one doubtful case of a biblical scroll
(4QGen h-title [4Q8c]).
There seems to be sufficient evidence for establishing two different titling practices which
also may have been used concurrently since they served two different purposes: (1) the first
words in the running text, identifying the scroll for the user; and (2) on the outside, for users and
‘librarians’ when the scroll was stored. 1QS preserves evidence for both systems; this pertains