SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

58 Chapter 4: Technical Aspects of Scroll Writing
size: 4QIsa g 1–8; 4QWork Containing Prayers B (4Q292) 2; 4QShirShabb f (4Q405) 20 i;
4QNarrative A (4Q458) 2 i.
The guide dots/strokes aided the manufacturer in ruling the lines from the beginning of the
sheet to its end, while excluding the right and left edges of the sheet beyond the guide dots. In
some cases, the ruling extended beyond the dots/strokes to the edge of the sheet: 2QDeut c ,
4QIsa f , 4QIsa g , 1QMyst (1Q27), 4QRP a (4Q158) 1, 4QShirShabb f (4Q405) 17, 4QUnid. Frags.
C, c (4Q468c).
Each sheet was ruled separately, usually without reference to the preceding and following
sheets; compare e.g. 11QtgJob col. XXXI (last column of sheet 11) with the following column,
XXXII (first column of sheet 12) and 11QT a (11Q19) XLVIII (last column in a sheet) with col.
XLIX (first column of a sheet). However, in some scrolls (de luxe editions? [§ j]), a grid-like
device ensuring fixed spacing in the columns in each sheet must have been used for one or more
sheets. Within each column, often no fixed spaces were left between the lines. For details, see § f
below.
As a rule, the guide dots/strokes aided the scribes in the drawing of lines. Occasionally,
however, there is no physical evidence of ruling. In such cases, either the dots themselves guided
the writing as in 4QLevi a ar (4Q213) 2 (left margin), or the ruling, once present, is no longer
visible. In yet other cases in which a grid was presumably used, as in 11QT a , there was no need
for guide dots.
Turner, Greek Manuscripts, 4 mentions several instances of guide dots in Greek papyrus scrolls, placed in
different positions, at mid-line or preceding each or every few lines. From a much earlier period, the Old Kingdom
Egyptian papyri from Gebelein and Abu Sir contain similar dots (Ashton, Scribal Habits, 103).
Guide dots or strokes occur at the beginnings and/or ends of sheets in nineteen or twenty
biblical scrolls, as illustrated in TABLE 3.
TABLE 3: Guide Dots/Strokes Indicated in Biblical Scrolls
4QGen k frg. 1: right margin (probable).
4QGen-Exod a frg. 19 ii: left margin; frg. 22 ii: right margin (MT).
4QpaleoExod m oblique strokes in the left margin of col. I and the right margin of col. II; not in the right
margins of cols. XXVII, XXXVIII, XLV (pre-Samaritan).
2QpaleoLev left margin; oblique strokes (character unclear).
4QLev-Num a frgs. 6, 27: right margins; frgs. 54, 69: left margins (not easily visible on the plates, but see
the description in DJD XII, 153; MT/SP).
4QLev b frg. 2: right margin; dots, diagonal strokes (MT/SP).
4QNum b XIX and XXIV: left margins, but not the right margin of col. I (pre-Samaritan/ LXX;
Qumran scribal practice).
1QDeut a frg. 12: left margin (Qumran scribal practice).
2QDeut c right margin (Qumran scribal practice).
4QDeut n sheet 2: right margin (some lines, with strokes in other lines), but not in the single-column
sheet 1 (independent); illustr. 1 5. 5
4QDeuto frgs. 3, 14: right margins, but not in the left margin of frg. 2 (MT/SP).
4QIsaa frg. 9: right margin (?); frg. 11 ii: left margin (MT/LXX).
4QIsaf frg. 27: right and left margins (MT/LXX).
4QIsag frgs. 1–8: right margin (MT/LXX).
4QIsai right margin (character unclear).
4QJerd left margin (close to the LXX).
4QEzeka frg. 4: right margin (independent).
4QXII c frg. 18: left margin (independent, Qumran scribal practice).
4QPs b I, XX: right margins (independent); illustr. 1 9
1 9.
4QPs f frg. 11 iii (col. X): left margin (independent).