SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

54 Chapter 4: Technical Aspects of Scroll Writing
Most scribes writing on any material needed some form of graphical guide for their writing.
This was provided by horizontal ruling (scoring) for the individual lines, as well as vertical ruling
for the beginning and/or end of the columns (illustr. 13). 13 The ruling was sometimes applied with
the aid of guide dots/strokes, or with a grid-like device (see below on 4QpsEzek c [4Q385b] and
11QTa ), while in other instances no aid was used.
The technique of ruling, prescribed by Talmudic sources for sacred scrolls, is named fwfrç (b.
Shabb. 75b; b. Meg. 18b). In Palestinian texts, it is referred to as hnqb ˆylgrsm, ‘one rules with a
reed’ (y. Meg. 1.71d; Sof. 1.1).
The first step in the preparation of the scrolls for writing was that of the ruling (scoring)
meant to enable writing in straight lines. The so-called blind or dry-point ruling was usually
performed with a pointed instrument (such instruments have not been preserved), probably a
bone, which made a sharp crease in the leather, causing the leather to be easily split in two and
even broken off (e.g. 1QapGen ar XXI–XXII; 1QIsaa XXXVIII, XLVI11; 11QTa [11Q19] XVIII,
XXII). It is unclear why some sheets in the mentioned scrolls are split more than others; it is not
impossible that differences in material, ways of preparing the skin, or force used with these
rulings may account for the variations.
TABLE 1 records the few manuscripts that were ruled with diluted ink. The large proportion
of D and S texts among these documents should be noticed. Alexander–Vermes, DJD XXVI, 6, n.
7 assert that the use of diluted ink for ruling may have been more widespread than evidenced by
the preserved manuscripts, since the examination of ink is complicated by possible fading.
TABLE 1: Manuscripts Ruled with Diluted Ink
4QDan d : S. Pfann, “4QDaniel d (4Q115): A Preliminary Edition with Critical Notes,” RevQ 17 (1996) 37–71,
especially 39 (‘very diluted ink).
4QS b (4Q256) and possibly also 4QS f (4Q260): Alexander–Vermes, DJD XXVI, 6.
4QD b,c,d,e,f : S. Pfann, DJD XVIII, 95, 115, 123, 137, 169.
4QUnid. Frags. C, c (4Q468c).
11QShirShabb (11Q17): García Martínez–Tigchelaar–van der Woude, DJD XXIII, 260, 304. On p. 304, this
ink is described as ‘red.’
Unidentified fragment PAM 43.692, 81 (letters written on the line): DJD XXXIII, pl. XXXI.
Usually, the horizontal ruling on the sheets was continuous for each of the sheets within the
scroll, starting to the right of the vertical line indicating the beginning of the first column of the
sheet, and continuing as far as the left border of the sheet beyond the left vertical line of the final
column; for good examples, see 11QTa (11Q19), e.g. XXVI– XXVIII; 11QtgJob XVII–XVIII. In
all these cases, the ruling was continued in the blank interlinear spaces. Usually, vertical ruling
was also continuous, extending beyond the written text into the top and bottom margins as far as
the edges of the leather (see, e.g. 1QIsaa II–IV; 1QIsab VIII; 1QM VII; 4QGenc 1 ii; 4QDana frg.
3; 4QDe frg. 7 representing the end of the scroll [4Q270; illustr. 12]; 12 11QTa [11Q19], e.g.
XXVII).
In the few Qumran documents that were not ruled, the distance between the lines is irregular
and the writing is not straight. The absence of vertical ruling meant that the beginnings of the lines
were also not straight (e.g. 4QToh A [4Q274] 1 i). Some of the Egyptian leather texts were ruled,
while others were not (Ashton, Scribal Habits, 112). Several demotic literary papyri from the
2nd and 3rd centuries CE had horizontal ruled lines on which the text was standing (Tait,
“Guidelines”). The Aramaic documents from the fifth century BCE published by Driver, Aramaic
Documents, were not ruled.