SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

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SCRIPTS 293
a. Square (Jewish) script
In different periods, Hebrew texts were written in different scripts, at first in the ‘early’ Hebrew
script and later in the square script, which developed from the Aramaic script. The late books of
Scripture as well as the nonbiblical Qumran texts probably were written directly in this script.
No early fragments of the biblical text written in the Hebrew script have been preserved,
unless one considers the silver rolls from Ketef Hinnom (Tov, TCHB, 118) as biblical texts, while
Qumran yielded various texts written in a later version of this script, now named paleo-Hebrew
and evidenced in fragments from the late third century BCE to the middle of the first century CE.
The various changes occurring in the script in which the Hebrew language was written
(Naveh, Alphabet, 112–24), also occurred in the writing of Scripture. At some stage during the
Second Temple period, a gradual transition occurred from the Hebrew to the Aramaic script, from
which a script developed which is exclusive to the Jews and which could thus be called the
‘Jewish script’ (thus many scholars) or the square script (according to the form of the letters); in
rabbinic literature (e.g. b. Sanh. 21b), it is sometimes called the ‘Assyrian script’ (tyrwça btk)
due to the fact that its ancestor, the Aramaic script, was in use in the Assyrian Empire.
The date attributed by tradition to the use of the square script for the writing of the biblical
books (period of Ezra) appears possible but lacks external confirmation. In this context, Naveh,
Alphabet, 234–5 speaks of a somewhat later date, namely, the third century BCE. One should note
that after the introduction of the square script, the ancient Hebrew script did not go out of use.
See the material collected by Naveh, Alphabet, 119–24. In any event, all texts written in the
square script necessarily reflect a relatively late stage of writing.
In the period covered by the Judean Desert texts, scribes wrote in a variety of forms of the
Aramaic and square scripts, on the basis of which documents are often dated. In fact, since most
documents do not provide their own dates, external sources are often invoked, especially coins
and inscriptions which are dated. For example, according to Cross, “Development,” the Qumran
texts written in the square script can be divided into three main periods, 250–150 BCE (‘archaic’
script), 150–30 BCE (Hasmonean script), 30 BCE–70 CE (Herodian script). For the relevance of
dating based on AMS examinations, see ch. 1c.
Different writing styles have been recognized, and as a rule, Scripture texts and other
authoritative compositions (note the copies of 11QT [11Q19, 11Q20]) were written in formal
handwriting, but there are many exceptions. Several authoritative writings have also been written
in a cursive script, as noticed, for example, by Alexander, “Literacy,” 15: ‘Both cursive and
formal styles are used for the literary text par excellence—the Community Rule.’ The relation
between content and writing style needs to be investigated further.
293 Background information: N. Avigad, “The Palaeography of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents,” ScrHier 4
(1958) 56–87; Cross, “Development”; idem, “Palaeography and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in Flint–VanderKam, Fifty
Years, 379–402; idem, “Paleography,” Encyclopedia DSS, 2.629–634; J. Naveh, “The Development of the Aramaic
Script,” Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, V, 1 (Jerusalem 1970) 1–69; idem, “Hebrew
Texts in the Aramaic Script in the Persian Period?” BASOR 203 (1971) 27–32; idem, Alphabet; idem, On Sherd and
Papyrus: Aramaic and Hebrew Inscriptions from the Second Temple, Mishnaic and Talmudic Periods (Heb.;
Jerusalem 1992); A. Yardeni, The Book of Hebrew Script (Heb.; Jerusalem 1991).