SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

4 Chapter 1: Introduction
as the size and ruling of columns, without assuming direct influence, for example, in the case of
documents written in ancient Egypt, Ugarit, and Mesopotamia. Medieval texts, such as
manuscripts of MT and SP are also quoted, since these texts meticulously preserved ancient
traditions.
The corpora of texts found in the Judean Desert are of a different nature, but their internal
differences are less relevant for the present analysis that focuses on scribal practices visible in
individual documents. For this analysis, whether or not the Qumranites were Essenes is usually
immaterial 5 (in contrast to the analysis of scribal practices in ch. 8a, where this hypothesis is
relevant). Most of the collections are conceived of as deposited by persons who either lived on
site for an extended period (Qumran) or a brief time (most other localities). The Qumran text
depositories in caves 1, 4, and 11, containing a very large quantity of scrolls (see the lists in DJD
XXXIX), were primarily meant as secret repositories for the scrolls of the Qumran community.
For most aspects discussed below, it is probably immaterial whether or not the Qumran
corpus as a whole or the texts from cave 4 alone should be considered a library, a term used often
in the scholarly literature since the influential study by F. M. Cross, Jr., The Ancient Library of
Qumran, which has dominated scholarship since its first edition (Garden City, New York 1958)
and is consulted here in its 3rd edition (Sheffield 1995). Several studies have been written on the
basis of the assumption that the Qumran collection, especially that of cave 4, represents a library;
e.g. K. G. Pedley, “The Library at Qumran,” RevQ 2 (1959) 21–41, who went as far as
contemplating whether or not there ever existed an inventory of the ‘Qumran library’ such as that
in several ancient libraries. Likewise, the director of the University library in Bonn, V. Burr,
devoted a study to the Qumran corpus based on his experience as a librarian: “Marginalien zur
Bibliothek von Qumran,” Libri 15 (1965) 340–52. However, neither the contents of the Qumran
corpus nor any external features of the caves or a community building can be adduced as
supporting evidence for the assumption that cave 4 housed a library. Several Qumran caves were
used as depositories for all the written material owned by the Qumran community, which may
have been stored previously in several locations in the Qumran compound itself. 6 Among other
things, it is unlikely that tefillin and mezuzot, scribal exercises, personal notes such as 4QList of
False Prophets ar (4Q339) and 4QList of Netinim (4Q340), an inner-Qumran community
document such as 4QRebukes Reported by the Overseer (4Q477), and Greek texts, would have
been kept in a library of the Qumran community (see APPENDIX 4). It should also be noted that
some caves (3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10) served as temporary dwellings for individuals who left behind their
utensils as well as some written material.
The documents studied are fragmentary, and therefore not all the data can be studied
satisfactorily. The best-preserved nonbiblical scrolls are 11QT a (11Q19) and several of the texts
from cave 1 (1QM, 1QS, 1QH a , 1QpHab, 1QapGen ar). As for the biblical scrolls, 1QIsa a is the
only one that has been preserved almost in its entirety containing 54 columns in 17 sheets.
Substantial remains of 1QIsa b , 4QpaleoExod m , 11QpaleoLev a , 4QNum b, 4QSam a (1–2 Samuel),
4QIsa c , 4QJer a , MurXII, 11QPs a , and 11QtgJob were preserved, while the extant remains of all
other scrolls are fragmentary, sometimes very fragmentary. Often a tiny inscribed piece is the
only evidence for a biblical scroll identified by its content, and/or script (e.g. in the case of
4QIsa h–r ).
The Qumran corpus includes a few small groups of texts of a technical nature, namely tefillin
and mezuzot, calendrical texts, and texts written in one of the Cryptic scripts (for all these, see ch.
5 Cave 7 contains no sectarian texts at all, while caves 1–6 contain both sectarian and non-sectarian texts. The contents of
caves 8–10 are too meager for analysis. It appears that cave 11 contains almost only sectarian texts and texts that were
copied by sectarian scribes. See my study “The Special Character of the Texts Found in Qumran Cave 11,” Things
Revealed. Studies in Early Jewish and Christian Literature in Honor of Michael A. Stone (ed. E. Chazon and D. Satran;
Supplements to JSJ; Leiden 2004), forthcoming.
6 For an account as to how these scrolls may have reached the caves, see Stegemann, Library of Qumran, 67–79.