SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

138 Chapter 5: Writing Practices
This system is represented in several texts written in the square script, and only in 4QpaleoGen-
Exodl among those written in the paleo-Hebrew script. MurXII contains no less than 32 empty
lines indicating new sections (e.g. VII 15 [Amos 7:11]; XI 17 [Jonah 3:3]). The procedure followed
is well exemplified in the layout of Genesis 1 in 4QGenb in which the account of each day ends
with an open section (illustr. 18). 18 However, in frg. 1 i 27, the end of the account of the fifth day
(Gen 1:23) reaches the end of the line, leaving no room to indicate an open section, and
accordingly the scribe left the following line completely empty. The same layout of this pericope
was followed in 4QJuba (4Q216) and 4QGeng , but in the latter text there was enough room to
indicate the open sections at the end of the account of each day of the creation.
Empty lines are found in many additional biblical and nonbiblical scrolls, e.g. 1QM (e.g. V 14–15; VI 6–7);
4QpaleoGen-Exod l (e.g. 3–4 7 after Exod 2:25; 7 ii 13 after Exod 11:10); 4QNumb (e.g. VI 20 after Num 16:7; XXXI
13 after Num 35:21); 11QTa (e.g. XIX 10; XXI 11); 4QCanta II 7 after Cant 3:11; 11QtgJob (e.g. III 2 before ch. 20;
X 7 before ch. 27); MasSir VII 23.
This system was also used for the indication of stanzas within 4QPsg (illustr. 17a) 17 and 11QPsa , both in Psalm
119, and of individual Psalms (see § 4 below).
Most scribes of ancient documents did not present a text division into units of a higher
hierarchy than that of open sections, such as that initiated in the Middle Ages with the division
of the text into chapters. On the other hand, one of the scribal marks added to 1QIsaa by a later
scribe or user, a slightly curved horizontal paragraphos line with a semi-circle on top (fig. 1.6
see § c1), possibly denotes just such a section unit, similar to that of the chapter division of the
Middle Ages. According to modern logic it would have been helpful, for example, to mark a group
of sections ending with open spaces in a special way, such as the biblical story of the creation,
the Table of the Nations in Genesis 10, the Decalogue, or other groups of laws, but such a
system was not devised in antiquity (the practical division of the text into units for the reading of
the Torah in a triennial or annual cycle does not pertain to this issue, and in any event, it was not
indicated in the early manuscripts). The medieval division of Scripture into chapters by Stephen
Langton (see n. 186) tried to address a practical need, and according to our modern understanding
the chapter division facilitates the reading, even though that system, too, is often flawed and
some chapter divisions are inappropriate. 195
Even though the scrolls denote no consistent higher hierarchy beyond open sections, some
scribes inconsistently used two types of marking that were intended to indicate such a hierarchy:
(c) The greatest section division, at least according to some scribes, was a space extending
from the last word in the line to the end of the line (open section) followed by a completely
empty line; illustr. 1 (differing from system b ii above).
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• Various individual Psalms, see § 4 below.
• 1QIsa a after XXXIV 15 (Isa 41:11) in the segment written by scribe B. This scribe may have left such a space
in places in which he realized that a section had to be supplemented. In this particular case, segments of Isa 41:11,
12 were not represented in the scroll and not supplemented by a later hand. In three other places, however, similar
lines were left empty by the first scribe, and two or more lines of writing were subsequently added in regular or
smaller characters in the space: XXVIII 18 (Isa 34:17b–35:2); XXX 11–12 (Isa 37:4b-7); XXXIII 15–16 (Isa 40:14b-16;
illustr. 1).
• 1QIsa b III 9–10 before a major break (Isa 39:1).
• 1QH a V, VII, VIII, IX etc. (Suk. = Puech XIII, XV, XVI, XVII) before new hymns.
195 See Tov, TCHB, 52–3 and J. Penkower, “The Chapter Divisions in the 1525 Rabbinic Bible,” VT 48 (1998) 350–74.
1.6;