SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

124 Chapter 5: Writing Practices
In the early Aramaic, Hebrew, and Moabite texts, scriptio continua is used only sparingly (Ashton, Scribal
Habits, 131). Usually words were separated by dots or very short vertical lines: the Tell Fekheriyeh inscription from
the ninth century BCE (occasionally), early inscriptions in the Hebrew script such as the Moabite Mesha Stone, the
Tell Dan inscription from the eighth or ninth century BCE, other Hebrew inscriptions (Siloam, Ekron, and Ophel)
and a few Phoenician inscriptions such as the plaque from Sarepta. On the basis of this evidence, it seems likely that
word division of some kind (dots or lines?) was also used in the earliest biblical scrolls (so Millard and Naveh in
the studies mentioned above). The custom of systematically separating words with spacing developed later. If this
opinion is correct, the word division in the earliest sources reflected the views of the biblical authors, editors, or first
scribes.
On the other hand, several scholars claim that the earliest biblical scrolls were written without any word
division in the scriptio continua, as already suggested by Nachmanides in his introduction to the Torah. 170 This
assumption is supported both by some Phoenician inscriptions, which do not contain word division, and by indirect
evidence, viz., many variants in biblical manuscripts and the ancient versions that reflect differences in word division
(see Tov, TCHB, 252–3). These variants, representing different views on the content of the text, may indeed have
been created with the introduction of word division. However, they could also have been created only in those cases
in which the indication of word division was unclear in the ancient scrolls.
Dots, strokes, and triangles in paleo-Hebrew texts (illustrations 14 and 14a) 14
In the Judean Desert texts written in the paleo-Hebrew script, most words were separated by
dots, while sometimes similar graphic dividers were used (for the background of this practice, see
Tov, TCHB, 208–9). 171 The practice of separating words with dots in papyri is evidenced as
early as the eighth-seventh century BCE, the date assigned to the papyrus palimpsest Mur 17 (A:
papLetter; B: papList of Personal Names). These dots were written on the line from which the
letters were suspended (see 4QpaleoExod m and 11QpaleoLev a ), at the same level as the tops of
letters. This practice is reflected also in the only text employing the Cryptic C script, 4QcryptC
Unclassified Religious Text (4Q363a). This text is written mainly in paleo-Hebrew letters,
intermingled with some cryptic signs.
W. J. Horwitz, “The Ugaritic Scribe,” UF 11 (1979) 389–94 showed that scribes in Ugarit divided words with
small vertical strokes. See further D. Sivan, “The Glosses in the Akkadian Texts from Ugarit,” Shnaton 11 (1997)
222–36 (Heb.). In cuneiform texts, originally there was no word division, but at a later stage a sign was inserted
between the words (Driver, Semitic Writing, 42). Dots are employed as word dividers in early inscriptions written in
the Hebrew script. viz., the Moabite Mesha Stone, and the Siloam, Dan, Ekron, and Ophel inscriptions. Likewise,
the words in all manuscripts of SP are separated by dots (Crown, Samaritan Scribes, 80). These dots were written
level with the tops of the letters, although sometimes they were written at the mid-letter level, see MS Nablus 8
(Crown, Dated Samaritan MSS). Words were separated by spaces with dots in the middle in most Latin
inscriptions. See J. C. Egbert, Introduction to the Study of Latin Inscriptions (New York/Cincinnati/Chicago
1896).
The word-dividers in 2QpaleoLev, 4QpaleoDeut s , and 6QpaleoGen are shaped like small
oblique strokes (which may be compared with vertical line dividers in many early lapidary texts),
while in Mas 1o (Mas pap paleoText of Sam. Origin [recto] and Mas pap paleoUnidentified Text
[verso]) the word-dividers resemble small triangles. In 4QpaleoJob c , the words were separated
either by dots or small strokes. Several scribes forgot to insert some word-dividers within the
line. At the ends of lines they were usually omitted (4QpaleoGen-Exod l , 4QpaleoExod m ,
4QpaleoDeut s , and 11QpaleoLev a ), and this practice was continued in SP manuscripts prior to
the sixteenth century (Crown, Samaritan Scribes, 80 and Robertson, Catalogue, xxvi). The scribe
of 2QpaleoLev placed both the dots serving as word-dividers and short oblique lines guiding the
drawing of horizontal lines at the end of the lines.
170 Pp. 6–7 in the edition of C. B. Chavel, Commentary on the Torah by Moshe Ben Nachman (Nachmanides), vol. 1
(Jerusalem 1959).
171 For other uses of dots in manuscripts, see SUBJECT INDEX, ‘dot.’