SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

28 Chapter 2: Scribes
scribe could have imitated the column layout of his Vorlage in such a way that the words in the
copy would occur in exactly the same position as in the original. From the outset, however, such
an assumption is unlikely because of the lack of agreement in dimensions between most leather
copies of the same composition (ch. 4e); even if the dimensions are similar, the columns differ
within the individual sheets and between one sheet and another. The uniformity that is visible in
many papyri found in Egypt was possible because papyrus sheets were taken from large rolls of
identical dimensions. This situation allowed W. A. Johnson, The Literary Papyrus Roll to
determine which papyrus scrolls of the first centuries CE followed the dimensions of their
Vorlagen and which did not. Likewise, many medieval manuscripts of MT have identical
dimensions.
In some cases, internal differences between segments of a scroll, especially in orthography,
suggest that a scribe used different Vorlagen for its various parts:
• The first four columns of 4QDeut j differ from those following in orthography and morphology. See n. 340.
• The ‘Apostrophe to Zion’ (col. XXII) differs from the remainder of 11QPs a in the writing of the second person
singular pronominal suffix. See n. 392.
• Some scholars suggested that the differences between scribes A and B of 1QIsa a (see TABLE 1 above) are best
explained by the assumption of different Vorlagen.
• The first biblical quotation in 4QTest (4Q175) which combines Deut 5:28-29 and 18:18-19 is close to SP and
4QRP a (4Q158, of a pre-Samaritan character), while the third one, from Deut 33:8-11, is very close to 4QDeut h , and
may have been based on that scroll or a similar one. 53 These two quotations show that the author of 4QTest used at
least two biblical scrolls of a different character, that is a pre-Samaritan text and 4QDeut h , a textually independent
text.
53 See E. Tov, “The Contribution of the Qumran Scrolls to the Understanding of the LXX,” Septuagint, Scrolls and
Cognate Writings: Papers Presented to the International Symposium on the Septuagint and Its Relations to the Dead
Sea Scrolls and Other Writings (Manchester, 1990) (ed. G. J. Brooke and B. Lindars; SCS 33; Atlanta, Ga. 1992) 11–
47 (31–35); J. A. Duncan, “New Readings for the ‘Blessing of Moses’ from Qumran,” JBL 114 (1995) 273–90.