SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

194 Chapter 5: Writing Practices
4QS e (4Q259) III 3 (frg. 3a): It is not impossible that the ill-defined signs or letters in this line represent cryptic
letters (larçyb?), though not in the Cryptic A script. Alexander–Vermes, DJD XXVI, 9, 145 do not accept this
view, while the views of those who do believe that these are cryptic letters are described in detail on p. 145 of the
same publication: S. Metso, “The Primary Results of the Reconstruction of 4QS e ,” JJS 44 (1993) 303–8, especially
307; eadem, Community Rule, 53; É. Puech, “L’alphabet cryptique A en 4QS e (4Q259),” RevQ 18 (1998) 429–35.
Puech, 435, points out that only the sectarians would have been able to fully understand the meaning of the context.
4QMystc ? (4Q301) 3 2–4 (fig. 10 . 1 0a): 0 For the three signs written one above the other, cf. the samekh, >ayin,
and sin/shin in the Cryptic A script (figs. 10 . 1 0b–c). 0 These three (lines of?) signs are followed by a blank line
before the continuation of the text. The context does not allow us to understand the mystery of these signs, but the
existence of a sectarian cryptic message in this text would not be surprising. 4QMystc ? (4Q301) 3 resembles
4QHoroscope (4Q186), since both compositions are of a physiognomic nature and both contain encoded messages
written in the Cryptic A script. If this explanation is correct, 252 the three letters strictly speaking are not scribal
signs, since they are part of the composition, as in 4QHoroscope (4Q186).
4QInstrc (4Q417) 2 ii 23 (fig. 10. 8a); 8 cf. the Cryptic A letter kaph (fig. 10 . 4c). 4 It was represented by Strugnell–
Harrington in DJD XXXIV as a samekh in the square script.
4QDibHam a (4Q504) 1–2 v 3 (not iv 3 as recorded by M. Baillet, DJD VII, 143) in the margin to the right of
the text, at the beginning of what is probably a new section (fig. 10 . 9a); 9 cf. the mem in the Cryptic A script (fig.
1 0. 9b). 9
253
4QShirb (4Q511) 18 iii 8 (fig. 10 . 12): 12 The sign could reflect a zayin in the Cryptic A or paleo-Hebrew script
(figs. 10 . 6–7). 6
(4) Single paleo-Hebrew letters written in the margin (figs. 10.12–12.2
10.12 12.2)
Individual letters in the paleo-Hebrew script, written in the margins of several compositions,
probably draw attention to certain matters or to passages of special interest. These letters, like all
other symbols in the Qumran manuscripts, were probably inserted in the text after the writing
was completed.
The decision as to whether a certain letter belongs to the Cryptic A script (§ 3) or the paleo-
Hebrew script is sometimes difficult, in particular since some letters are ornamented or stylized.
Nevertheless, for the sake of description, a distinction is made here between these two scripts,
although letters of both types were used together in the text of 4QHoroscope (4Q186) and in the
margin of 1QIsa a . The use of the paleo-Hebrew letters, with the exception of the use of the paleo-
Hebrew waw as a paragraph sign, probably reflects the same background as the use of letters of
the Cryptic A script.
Although the scribal marks written in the margins of some manuscripts have been known for
some time, no satisfactory solution for their occurrence has been suggested, and some of them
remain enigmatic. These signs probably direct attention to certain details in the text or to certain
pericopes, but they may also refer to the reading by the Qumran covenanters of certain passages,
252 Three vertically arranged signs are preserved at the left edge of the fragment, while the text to the left of these letters (the
continuation of these three words?) has not been preserved. The three preserved letters probably constituted the
beginning of a three-line heading or note written in the middle of the text rather than a three-letter note written one
above the other. The three signs are preceded by blank spaces, before which one recognizes the remnants of two letters
written in the square script, like the remainder of the document. If this explanation is correct, the signs do not constitute
a word ç[s, but rather the three letters form the beginnings of three words or combinations of words, of which the first
one started with a samekh (rp]s ?). A different explanation for these signs was suggested by A. Lange, “Physiognomie
oder Gotteslaub? 4Q301 3,” DSD 4 (1997) 282–96. According to Lange, there is no intrinsic connection between
4QMyst c ? (4Q301) and 4QHoroscope (4Q186), and the third sign serves as a means of identification, such as on
Ostracon 100 in I. Eph>al and J. Naveh, Aramaic Ostraca of the Fourth Century BC from Idumea (Jerusalem 1996) 54.
Upon comparison of the signs, however, one notes that the ostracon has four and not two semicircles, it lacks the
paragraph-like sign under the letter, the bottom line is thicker, and the circles are more rounded than in the case of the
letter in 4QMyst c ?, which in all aspects resembles the samekh of the Cryptic A script.
253 The evidence is not clear for a few additional markings in DibHam a for which detailed drawings were presented by
Baillet in DJD VII, although these shapes are not visible on the plates themselves, nor on photograph PAM 43.611: 1–
2 vi 2 (on the plate this sign has the appearance of a parenthesis sign), 1–2 vii 4, 10 (both at the beginning of new
sections).