SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 209
Many mistakes were not recognized by the scribes or subsequent users of the ancient scrolls.
However, even the recognized errors were not always corrected by either the original or a
subsequent scribe, or a user. Some examples of this widespread phenomenon follow:
• Several instances of dittography, see § d below.
• 1QH a VIII (Suk. = Puech XVIII) 15 twrh ú≥yaz l, with a supralinear nun of instead of twrhnyazbl (p.m.): In the
first space, the scribe forgot to write a bet and, strangely enough, instead of the dotted nun a supralinear nun was
written.
• 1QH a IX (XVII) 8 [ç tçt: The scribe forgot to write an Æayin in the space after the tav; it is unclear whether
the dot above the space is ink.
• 4QNum b XV 10 ˚wlhm: The scribe started writing a lamed after the mem, but upon recognizing his mistake, he
continued writing a he. Nevertheless, the upper part of the lamed was not erased.
• 4QTob a ar (4Q196) 2 2 yl p qybç: A single letter p, which was left between spaces, as if it were a separate
word, was not erased; possibly a horizontal line was drawn through it.
• 4QJub a (4Q216) VII 15 µyrç[w µyçw for µyrç[w µynçw.
• 4QJub d (4Q219) II 32: A he was left out in hkywlaw (hkyhwlaw).
• 4QCommGen A (4Q252) II 4–5 as recorded in ch. 2h.
• 4QD a (4Q266) 5 i 13 ypl l çya: A single lamed, recognized by the scribe as a mistake, was left un-touched in
the text.
• 11QT a (11Q19): For uncorrected errors, see Yadin, Temple Scroll (Hebrew) I.21.
f. Correction procedures and the degree of scribal intervention
a. Relation between the correction and the uncorrected text
Upon completing the copying, and often while still in the process, scribes frequently intervened
in the text; by the same token, correctors and users often inserted their corrections in the text.
Attention to the intricacies of the scribal correction process known from the Qumran scrolls
helps us in better understanding scribal transmission as well as the rewriting of ancient literature.
This intervention is known in four different forms, or combinations thereof:
• Removal of a written element by erasing or blotting out, crossing out, marking with
cancellation dots or a box around the letters or words (§ c2).
• Addition of an element in the interlinear space or, rarely, in the intercolumnar margin (see
below).
• Remodeling (reshaping) of an existing letter to another one (see below).
• Changing the spacing between words either by indicating with scribal signs that the last
letter of a word belonged to the following word (beyond the space) or by indicating that there
should be a space between two words which had been written as one continuous unit (see § c2.7).
The relation between the correction and the uncorrected text differs from case to case:
• Corrections of simple scribal errors (e.g. omission or addition of single letters, words, or
whole sentences), recognizable when the text without the addition, omission, or remodeling makes
little or no sense. For example
1QSam 4 5 (2 Sam 23:12) h k yw = hkyw (MT: ˚yw)
11QPs a XXV 11 (Ps 143:5) lw k b = lwkb (MT: lkb)
Partially written words were often dotted or crossed out with a line when the mistake was
recognized during the course of the writing (§ 2c).