SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

190 Chapter 5: Writing Practices
Inscriptions, 86–7 describes the use of these signs in Attic inscriptions in order to separate
elements from the remainder of the text.
It is unclear whether the parenthesis signs in the Qumran texts denoted a different idea from
the other deletion systems (cancellation dots, crossing out), but it appears that this system was
used mainly for longer stretches than those deleted using the other systems. The section indicated
with these signs in the MT of Num 10:35-36 (§ 10 below) is longer than any of the other
stretches omitted. Also in the Greek tradition, the elements omitted with parenthesis signs are
longer than the elements deleted with alternative practices.
For indicating omissions (and in one instance, an addition), parenthesis signs were used in five
texts written in the Qumran scribal practice and three texts not written in that system.
• 1QM III 1 (fig. 8 .1) .1 twrxwxjw hmjlmh yrds
(twrxwxjw hmjlmh yrds)
For some reason (the addition of a header or damage to the leather?), the first three words of col. III were enclosed
with parenthesis signs and marked with a line in the middle of the stretch of words above and below the text. These
four signs together resemble a box-like shape that is also used for omissions (see below on 4QDa ). The added text is
identical to the ‘boxed’ words.
• 1QS VII 8 tja hnç
(µyçdwj hçç) çn[nw
The length of the punishment for nursing a grudge against one’s fellow-man (six months, also found in 4QSe [4Q259] 1 i µyç[dwj hçç]) was removed from the context through the use of parenthesis signs and replaced by the
more stringent punishment of ‘one year,’ written above the line.
• 4QQoha II 1 (Qoh 6:4) (wmç ˚çwjbw ˚lh)
The sigma247 + text written in the top margin (fig. 8. 2), 2 indicates an addition of words which had been omitted by
way of homoioteleuton. The writing of the addition in the margin was probably accompanied by a mark in the text
itself (such as in 4QpapTob a ar [4Q196] 6 8 [Tob 3:13]; § iv below and fig. 9) in conjunction with the crossing out
of wmç in the text of line 2 (TABLE 14). 248 A direct parallel for this practice is found in the Greek P.Oxy. 4.656 of
Genesis 14–27 (2 or 3 CE): before the margin of line 139 a single parenthesis sign ) indicated the omission of several
words in the text, probably supplied in the top margin. In P.Oxy. 16 (P.Thucydides iii 3 of 1 CE), the antisigma in
the margin likewise indicates the omitted words which were supplied in the top margin, presumably preceded by the
same sign. The combination of the evidence of these two P.Oxy. fragments provides a parallel to 4QQoh a which is
also paralleled by the ancora sign (see above and fig. 1 5. 1), 1 even though the shape of the two signs differ.
• 4QMa (4Q491) 11 i, end of line 15 (probably): see DJD VII, pl. VI (not the transcription on p. 27): µybwçy.
• 4QDibHama (4Q504) 1–2 vi 2 between lwkm and hrx (possibly).
The same procedure was also used in three texts not written in the Qumran practice:
• 4QJer a XII 11 (Jer 18:23) ({µónúw[ l[ó}) µ‚?nw[ l ¿ [ . The second occurrence of µnw[ l[ was enclosed within
parenthesis signs and subsequently erased. The phrase was written twice, in an identical or almost identical fashion,
either by way of dittography or as a correction. The first occurrence included a supralinear word and therefore the
second phrase was possibly added as a correction.
• 4QCant b 2 ii 12 (Cant 4:10) (wú ¡ ¡ hó. The remnants of the first word in this line, best visible on PAM 42.635
and the ABMC photograph, do not reflect hlk of MT (no remnant of a lamed is visible). Rather, they probably
reflect an incorrectly written word, followed by a sigma to the left of the letters, indicating that the scribe wanted to
remove the word from the context. The antisigma, if ever inscribed, is no longer visible.
247The lack of the right-hand sign is clearly visible in the color photograph in ˚”nth µlw[ hydpwlqyxna (Ramat Gan 1988)
XVI.41.
248See photographs PAM 43.092 and 40.967 well reproduced in Cross, ALQ 3 , figure 13 and see also the photograph
mentioned in the previous note. The view expressed here agrees with that of E. Ulrich, DJD XVI, 225, correcting his
earlier view: “Ezra and Qohelet Manuscripts from Qumran (4QEzra, 4QQoh a,b ),” in Priests, Prophets, and Scribes:
Essays on the Formation and Heritage of Second Temple Judaism in Honour of Joseph Blenkinsopp (ed. E. Ulrich et
al.; JSOTSup 149; 1992) 139–57. A square bracket, used in conjunction with a single round parenthesis sign in 4QEn a
ar (4Q201) II 1 (photograph PAM 41.360, see § iv below and fig. 8. 3), 3 indicates either an omission or an insertion
(thus Milik, Enoch, 150).