SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 57
cm from the edge of the sheet (TABLE 7). In a few instances they appear at a considerable
distance from the edge of the sheet: 4QUnid. Frags. C, c [4Q468c]; 3.0 cm), MasSir V (2.5 cm),
2QpaleoLev (1.5 cm), 4QRP e (4Q367; 1.5 cm).
In 4–6 manuscripts, the dots appear in the intercolumnar margin in the middle of a sheet
serving as a vertical line:
• 4QpHos a (4Q166) to the right of the column
• 4QRP c (4Q365) 12a to the left of the column
• 4QShirShabb f (4Q405) 17–19a, 20 i, and 23 i to the left of the column on a fold in the leather
• 4QNarrative A (4Q458) to the left of the column on a fold in the leather
• 4QVisions of Amram e ar (4Q547) 4 (probably)
• 4QDan d 2 4, 5 (to the left of col. 2 i), only in these two lines and not in the previous ones.
The first three texts were copied in the Qumran scribal practice.
The guide dots/strokes were intended to guide the drawing of dry lines and were therefore
inserted by the persons who manufactured the scrolls, rather than the scribes themselves. Just as
scribes often wrote beyond the left vertical line (§ f below), they also wrote very close to these
dots, on and even beyond them (e.g. 4QGen-Exod a 19 ii; 4QIsa a 11 ii). As a result, the space
between the dots/strokes and the left edge of the writing differs from scroll to scroll, also within
the scroll, and even between the lines in individual columns. In contrast, within a manuscript,
dots indicated to the right of the column always appear at the same distance from the right edge
(see TABLE 7).
The dots/strokes at one of the two extremities of the column appear at different distances
from the vertical line. In some manuscripts, they were indicated 1–2 millimeters before the line:
1QMyst (1Q27), 4QXII c 18, 4QRP a (4Q158) 1, 4QShirShabb f (4Q405) 17, 20 i, 23 i,
4QIndividual Thanksgiving A (4Q441), 4QNarrative A (4Q458); and sometimes slightly after the
line: 4QpaleoExod m col. I, 4QT a ? (4Q365a) 1.
The employment of guide dots/strokes reveals some details regarding the preparation of
sheets although not of their provenance. The use of guide dots/strokes is limited to a minority of
scrolls from Qumran and Masada (MasSir only). One notes that none of the large Qumran scrolls
had guide dots/strokes. In the case of Qumran, a special pattern is noticeable. Among the
documents containing guide dots/strokes, the majority of nonbiblical texts, that is, nineteen of the
twenty-six identified texts written in Hebrew, reflect the characteristics of the Qumran scribal
practice. A connection between this system of preparing scrolls and the Qumran scribal practice
is therefore likely, at least during a certain period. At the same time, another forty-three texts
written according to the Qumran scribal practice do not seem to have guide dots/strokes (TABLE
6). Such a situation shows that scribes writing in what we label the Qumran scribal practice either
used skins prepared elsewhere using a different convention or themselves employed differing
manufacturing procedures over the course of several generations.
A further point of interest:
• 4QLevi a ar (4Q213) and 4QLevi b ar (4Q213a) are prepared with the same type of dots, appearing very close to
the edge of the sheet.
Usually all sheets containing a particular composition were prepared in the same way, and
accordingly if guide dots/strokes were present, they appeared in the same position in all sheets.
However, several compositions consisted of sheets prepared by different persons resulting in
variations, with some sheets having no guide dots/strokes. Some scrolls have guide dots only in
either the right or left margin. For details, see TABLES 3 and 4 and the list below.
The guide dots/strokes usually appear level with the top of the letters, coinciding with the
ruled lines. In a few cases, they appear level with the middle or bottom of the letters, see TABLE
7. The explanation for the latter position seems to be that the scribe intended to indicate the letter