SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

PREFACE
This monograph deals with small details pertaining to scribes. These details are important in their
own right for improving our understanding of these scribes and the compositions they copied.
They should be added to our storehouse of knowledge relating to the biblical and nonbiblical
compositions found in the Judean Desert. At the same time, the various sets of data analyzed in
this book can sometimes be combined to form a larger field of information contributing to our
understanding of the background of specific Qumran compositions and of the transmission of the
biblical text in antiquity. The information gathered here may also be relevant to the study of the
transmission of other documents from antiquity, such as ancient Greek literature. I have also
looked at parallels in the ancient Near East, but undoubtedly these parallels can be expanded.
This book has been written over the course of twelve years alongside my editorial work for
the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series. My mind was always working at two levels; when
reviewing text editions and examining photographs for this series, I also jotted down notes for
myself concerning matters of special scribal interest. This interest in scribal features goes back to
my student days when I wrote a seminar paper on the signs used by the Alexandrian grammarian
Aristarchus (c. 217–145 BCE) for Prof. B. Lifschitz of the Department of Classical Studies at the
Hebrew University.
It is a pleasant task to thank the main libraries used: the Mount Scopus Library and the
National and University Library at the Hebrew University, the Andover Divinity Library and the
Widener Library at Harvard University, the Bodleian Library and the library of the Semitic
Institute in Oxford, and the Theologicum in Tübingen. The photographs used to examine the
Judean Desert texts are from the valuable PAM (Palestine Archaeological Museum) series at the
Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem. Also used were the newer photographs produced by the
Jerusalem West Semitic Project (Claremont, Calif.). All early Greek biblical papyri that could be
located in the libraries of the Philologisches Seminar in Tübingen and at Macquarie University in
Sydney, Australia (especially in the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre) were
consulted.
This book was written over a long period, mainly during brief sabbaticals and research travels.
I am grateful to all the institutions that provided hospitality and good conditions for research. In
chronological order they were the Oxford Centre for Postgraduate Hebrew Studies (1994–95),
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (1999), Sydney University (1999), Harvard Center for Jewish
Studies (2000–2001), Tübingen University (2000, 2001), Göttingen University (2002), Uppsala
University (2003), and the University of Munich (2003). Thanks are expressed to the Alexander
von Humboldt-Stiftung in Germany which, by presenting me with a Forschungspreis, enabled
my work at German Universities.
Various individuals showed an interest in the topic of this monograph and remarked on my
earlier papers which lay at the basis of several sections in the book. At the final stage several
colleagues, all of whom are personal friends, were kind enough to read major parts of this book. I
am especially indebted to R. A. Kraft from the University of Pennsylvania, an authority in
matters papyrological, who saved me from many an imprecision and also made many valuable
suggestions. Making good use of his recent retirement, he spent countless hours on my
manuscript. I also very much appreciate the insightful remarks of M. Abegg from Trinity
Western University in Langley, B.C., Canada and A. Lange from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. At an earlier stage, I discussed various issues with J. Strugnell at
Harvard.