SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 187
ii. Crossing out letters and words with a line (fig. 7)
In many Qumran manuscripts written on leather, several words and parts of words were crossed
out with one or more lines indicating the removal of these elements from the context. Thus, when
in 4QCant b 1 3 the scribe wrongly wrote t[ (illustr. 8a) which should have been written later on
in the sentence, that word was crossed out (t[), probably by the scribe himself. Indeed, most
crossings out of elements were executed by the scribes themselves during the course of the
writing. Sometimes, the scribe discontinued the writing in the middle of a word upon realizing his
mistake. In such a case, the scribe would cross out the wrong elements and continue with the
correct word. Thus, when the scribe of 4QNarrative C (4Q462) 19 recognized his mistake, he
crossed out arçy, the first four letters of ‘Israel,’ and immediately afterwards wrote the correct
word µlçwry (thus: µlçwry arçy ta rwkzyw). In 4QM a (4Q491) 1–3 8, the scribe crossed out one
complete and one partial word (partially reconstructed) before continuing with the following
word of the running text. In 4QapocrLam B (4Q501) line 7, the scribe imprecisely placed a line
through only parts of two words, tyrb ynbm, although the cancellation pertained to the complete
words. In 4QM a (4Q491) 1–3 8 ywa [[ynkhl (ditto-graphy of bywa [ynkhl), upon recognizing his
mistake, the scribe stopped in the middle of the second word.
The use of this procedure is especially frequent in 4QD a (4Q266), containing ten such
examples in a long, yet very fragmentary, text. The complete composition would have contained
more examples.
The placement of the stroke differed from case to case. Sometimes it was neatly placed,
almost level with the tops of the letters (4QCant b 1 3; illustr. 8a); sometimes the line was written
through the middle of the word, and sometimes level with the bottom parts of the letters (1QIsa a
XI 10 [Isa 12:6]). With a slightly different procedure, several letters or words were scratched out
in a zigzagged fashion with two or three lines:
1QIsa a XVI 14 (Isa 21:1) hqwjr; XLIX 17 (Isa 59:14) ˚yxanm
4QJer c VII 9 (Jer 20:4). Two letters were crossed out inelegantly, creating a large ink blot.
4QQoh a 1 ii 2 (Qoh 6:4) wmç
4QNarrative C (4Q462) 1 19 arçy
4QapocrLam B (4Q501) 7 tyrb ynbm
Most of the instances of crossing out pertain to complete words or combinations of words. In
other cases, parts of words were crossed out:
4QapocrLam A (4Q179) 1 i 14: An original wnbwakml was changed to wnytkm by adding a cancellation dot to the
yt
right of the lamed, by crossing out bwa, and by writing yt above the word: wnbwakmló
4QMystb (4Q300) 10 2: The scribe wrote al and two illegible letters which were probably crossed out. Above
the line he wrote çy, followed by two dots, creating a word çyal.
4QNarrative C (4Q462) 19 arçy
4QMa (4Q491) 10 ii 17 dqwt (with lk above the last two letters).
4QDibHama (4Q504) 1–2 iii 7 wnrbrtw (corrected to brtw): wnrbrtw In three cases, single letters were crossed out: 4QLevi b ar (4Q213a) 3–4 6 ahm[ (vertical line);
4QRP c (4Q365) 38 2 l y [; and 4QDibHam a (4Q504) 1–2 vii 6 [yqr µykalm.
The crossing out of the word was sometimes combined with the addition of the cor-rected
text above the line, e.g.
harwn
1QIsa a XVI 14 (Isa 21:1) hqwjr ≈ram ab rbdmm (cf. MT harwn ≈ram ab rbdmm = LXX T V)
1QIsa a II 12 (Isa 2:4) µym[ l ˆyb