SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

168 Chapter 5: Writing Practices
one another closely (c1b, c1g) and that the texts using single letters in the Cryptic A script are of
a sectarian nature (§ c3).
The scribal marks were inserted into specific copies of a Qumran composition, and are not
indicative to the scribal transmission of the composition in all its copies. Thus, the marks in 1QS
are not found in the copies of that composition from cave 4 (e.g. the signs in 1QS V are not found
in the parallel 4QS b [4Q256]). For additional examples, see § 1.
We consider any element which is not part of the content of the originally inscribed text, but
is additional to it, as a scribal mark. This definition thus excludes guide dots written at the
beginnings and ends of sheets guiding the drawing of lines on the leather, since these were inserted
before the writing of the text (ch. 4a). The shapes of these signs are mostly distinct from the
letters of the script in which the text was written, although some letters in the square, paleo-
Hebrew and Cryptic A scripts are also used as signs. Some markings were inserted by the original
scribes, but probably a greater number were inserted by later scribes and generations of users, and
usually we are not able to distinguish between these three levels. Sometimes the color of the ink
or the shape of the sign show that the sign was written after the text was completed.
Scribal markings identified—in varying degrees of frequency—in nonbiblical as well as biblical
manuscripts, may be subdivided into nine categories. 223
1. Section markers, almost exclusively in the margin, and other scribal systems, pertaining to the division of
the text into sections
2. Marks pertaining to scribal intervention, mainly for the correction of errors
3. Single letters in the Cryptic A script primarily written in the margin
4. Single paleo-Hebrew letters written in the margin
5. Marks, including unexplained signs, drawing attention to matters in the text
6. Marks written at the ends of lines as line-fillers
7. Separation dots between words
8. Letters and marks possibly numbering sheets and units
9. Signs for numerals
With regard to the lack of consistency in the use of these signs, McNamee’s remarks (Sigla,
7) relating to Greek literary papyri are worthy of note:
While I have tried to present the collected information in as orderly a way as possible, I do not want to
overstate its systematic nature. It was human scribes who added signs to papyri, and their work is full of
human whim. Conventions existed, but it will be obvious from the start that particular sigla are not used
in the same way by every scribe.
(1) Section markers, almost exclusively in the margin, and other scribal systems, pertaining to
the division of the text into sections
In addition to the indication of new sections by spacing at the ends of the lines, in the middle of
the line, and between lines as described above, scribal markings are often used to indicate new
sections with an additional type of marking. Thus, the one-column text 4QTest (4Q175)
consistently indicates each new section with a section marker. Also in 1QS, the division between
sections is indicated rather consistently, referring not only to ‘open sections,’ but also to some
‘closed sections’ (see below). However, in the majority of the texts, in which one or more of
these section markers appear, they were inserted sporadically and very inconsistently, as far as
we can judge, unless the very use of the marking has a special meaning that escapes us. Since the
section markers usually appear together with other systems of content division, the very use of a
223 For an earlier classification, see M. Baillet, DJD VII, index: ‘1. signes de division, 2. séparation des mots, 3. signes de
correction, 4. autres signes.’