SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

38 Chapter 3: Writing and Writing Materials
• 4QParaGen-Exod (4Q422): Elgvin–Tov, DJD XIII, 417.
• 11QT a : Yadin, Temple Scroll, pls. 5–12. With the aid of these mirror-image imprints the readings of two
columns were improved by J. H. Charlesworth, “The Temple Scroll a [11Q19, 11QT a (11Q19)]. Columns 16 and
17: More Consonants Revealed,” in Paul, Emanuel, 71–83.
It is possible that some evidence that is explained as pointing to a palimpsest may actually also
reflect this phenomenon (ch. 4b).
Sometimes the stitching left a very clear imprint on the face of the next layer. See 11QTa (11Q19) cols. XXVI (pl. 13*), XXXVI, LVI and illustr. 13 below.
Leather scrolls were closed or fastened in one of three ways:
(1) Many scrolls were fastened by tying thongs (inserted in reinforcing tabs) or strings around
them. In the words of J. Carswell, “Fastenings on the Qumran Manuscripts,” DJD VI, 23–8,
‘The fastening of each scroll appears to have consisted of two elements, a reinforcing tab of
leather folded over the leading edge of the scroll and a leather thong slotted through it, one end of
which encircled the scroll and was tied to the exterior’ (p. 23). A tool such as KhQ 2393 (DJD
VI, 25) may have been used for this purpose. Different systems of tying were used (see the
diagrams of Carswell). The thong was connected to a reinforcing tab attached to the scroll itself
(only at its beginning), in such a way that the thong was tied either straight or diagonally around
the scroll (thus 4QDa [4Q266]). In the latter case, the one preserved specimen of this type has
uninscribed areas of 3.5–4.3 cm preceding the first column and 9.0 cm following the final column,
both folded for further strengthening before the thong was tied around the scroll (DJD VI, pl. IV;
DJD XVIII, pls. I, XIV). The fact that the uninscribed area at the beginning of some forty scrolls
has been preserved (ch. 4g) while only two tabs survive in place (see below) may or may not be
significant, as the methods used for attaching the tabs to the scrolls may not have been identical.
Many detached reinforcing tabs made of coarse leather, differing from the prepared leather of
the inscribed scrolls, were found in the Qumran caves; see Carswell, ‘Fastenings,’ DJD VI, 23–8
and pl. V and Sussmann–Peled, Scrolls, 114–5. In cave 8, archeologists discovered sixty-eight
such reinforcing tabs, usually of coarse leather, together with remains of only five manuscripts.
Since each reinforcing tab was once attached to a scroll, this cave probably contained a leather
workshop or depository, unless it originally contained an equal number of scrolls and reinforcing
tabs and many of the former subsequently disintegrated. In only two cases have scrolls with
attached reinforcement tabs been preserved, namely, 4QApocryphal Psalm and Prayer (4Q448;
see illustr. 11) 11 and 4QDa (4Q266; see DJD VI, pls. IVa–IVb and DJD XVIII, pls. I, XIV).
Although only two thongs have been found attached to scrolls, there is still much evidence of
their use through the imprint of thongs or strings on the leather itself, which created a horizontal
fold in the middle of most columns of 1QpHab, 1QS, 1QSa, 1QSb, 1QIsaa , 4QTest (4Q175), and
4QcryptA Words of the Maskil (4Q298; see S. J. Pfann, DJD XX, 5). According to G. Brooke,
DJD XXII, 190, there is also the imprint of a reinforcement tab in the margin preceding the first
column of 4QCommGen A (4Q252).
A similar method of binding scrolls was referred to by Catullus 22.7, who mentioned a ‘lora
rubra,’ a red thong tied around the scroll (quoted by Birt, Buchwesen, 68).
In the case of the Qumran scrolls, it is unclear whether the reinforcement tabs were attached
to the scrolls before or after inscription. Most scrolls in which an uninscribed area has been
preserved at the beginning had room for such a tab. In the case of 4QApocryphal Psalm and
Prayer (4Q448; illustr. 11), 11 it appears that the large uninscribed area at the beginning of col. I
enabled the attachment of the tab; the bottom part of the scroll (col. II) could then be inscribed
closer to the edge of the leather. The remains of this scroll create the impression that it contained
a special arrangement of three columns, but this layout probably resulted from the space left for
the tab.