SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 183
1QpHab VII 2 . awl . the meaning of the dots is unclear.
In some cases the dots are more or less written around the word to be canceled such as in the case of the box-like
shapes around words (§ iii below).
6.4) 6.4
1QM III 4 ú wbów≥tók≥óy
4QShirShabb f (4Q405) 3 i 13. The dots were imprecisely placed above, below, and to the left of ú hó[ób≥çb≥.
4QapocrMos c ? (4Q408) 3 6 h‚w_hó≥yú > . ˚w?rb. The substitute words ynwda hta were written above the line.
g. Cancellation dots on both sides of supralinear words or letters, canceling the addition (fig.
The scribes of 1QIsa a and 4QM a (4Q491) added dots on both sides of supralinear words or
letters, thus canceling the added elements. The supralinear letters indicated a correction rather
than a variant reading. On the other hand, according to Stegemann, KURIOS, A 94, n. 512 the dots
to the right and left of the supralinear word indicated variant readings, for which there is hardly
any evidence in the Qumran scrolls. It appears that the example from 1QIsa a VII 2 makes
Stegemann’s view unlikely.
ó w ó
1QIsa a VII 2 (Isa 7:16) bz[t
1QIsa a XXXIV 25 (Isa 41:20) wnybyw
ú wmyçyw ó
yhwlaw
ú ó
1QIsaa XLI 14 (Isa 49:14) ynwdaw (fig. 6 .4) .4
ó t ó
4QM a (4Q491) 11 i 14 bçjta
h. A triangular cluster of three cancellation dots
1QDM (1Q22) III 10 {çdwjl rç[[ µwyb] h[ ]h} ... çdwjl rw[ç[ ]µwy.
The triangular shape preceding a stretch that was to be deleted (and subsequently erased) may
have been a mnemonic device inserted by a scribe or user.
i. A series of cancellation dots around a word
A series of 12 dots were written around hwh[y in a small unidentified fragment without context
(photograph PAM 43.679, frg. 6); see DJD XXXIII, pl. XX. Cf. also § iii below.
The mentioned examples show that dots were written above and below individual letters,
parts of words, and complete words, and in one instance before a long stretch of text. As a rule,
each individual letter was canceled by a single dot, but sometimes there were fewer or more dots
than letters, as shown by TABLE 15.
TABLE 15: Irregular Number of Cancellation Dots
1QIsa a XL 9 (Isa 48:4) yt[dyú≥ ró≥çó≥am: There is no dot on the