SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

234 Chapter 6: Scripts
criteria of script, textual character, and scribal approach, namely that the paleo-Hebrew texts found at Qumran came
from the circles of the Sadducees who ascribed great importance to the authenticity of the ancient characters. This
explanation should alleviate the difficulty of the apparent contradiction mentioned above. If this hypothesis holds
ground, it is understood that as the rabbis prohibited the use of paleo-Hebrew characters, such texts of proto-
Masoretic content were written by others. Likewise, on the basis of Diringer, “Early Hebrew Script,” Naveh
hesitatingly ascribed the paleo-Hebrew texts from Qumran to the Sadducees, without any arguments. 310 This
possibility is discussed extensively elsewhere, but it should be admitted that the nature and status of the nonbiblical
paleo-Hebrew fragments from Qumran and Masada remain unclear: E. Tov, “The Socio-Religious Background of
the Paleo-Hebrew Biblical Texts Found at Qumran,” Geschichte–Tradition– Reflexion, Festschrift für Martin
Hengel zum 70. Geburtstag (ed. H. Cancik et al.; Tübingen 1996) I.353–74. 311
310 Naveh, Alphabet, 122. See also É. Puech, “Notes en marge de 11QpaléoLévitique: Le fragment L, des fragments inédits
et une jarre de la grotte 11,” RB 96 (1989) 161–83, especially 167–8. Little is known about the approach of the
Sadducees towards Hebrew Scripture in spite of the analysis of J. le Moyne, Les Sadducéens (Paris 1972) 357–9.
311 For an extensive survey of the different explanations of the background of the Qumran paleo-Hebrew texts, see R. L.
Edge, The Use of Palaeo-Hebrew (see n. 301), especially 334–69.