SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

66 Chapter 4: Technical Aspects of Scroll Writing
papyrus texts: Mas pap paleoSam. Text (recto)/Mas pap paleoUnidentified Text (verso); 4Q433a/4Q255; 4Q509,
4Q505, 4Q509 (sic; recto)/4Q496, 4Q506 (verso).
• In documentary papyri, the writing of signatures on the verso is usually perpendicular to that on the front, in
both cases in accord with the fibers that were horizontal on the recto and vertical on the verso. This pertains to the
signatures written, for example, on 4QDeed A ar or heb (4Q345); XH≥ev/Se papMarriage Contract? ar (XH≥ev/Se
11); XH≥ev/Se papUnclassified Frag. A ar (XH≥ev/Se 9a); XH≥ev/Se papDeed of Gift gr (XH≥ev/Se 64); XH≥ev/Se
papCancelled Marriage Contract gr (XH≥ev/Se 69); MasLoan on Hypothec (P.Yadin 11). It also pertains to Mur
papLiterary Text gr (recto: Mur 112) and Mur papProceedings of Lawsuit gr (verso: Mur 113); Jer papList of Loans
ar (Jer 1) and Jer papDeed of Sale ar (Jer 3). The same system is used for some texts written on leather, e.g.
4QLetter nab (4Q343) and 4Q460 frg. 9 (Hebrew)/4Q350 (Greek), and various tefillin (DJD VI). In the case of
tefillin, the writing on the verso is often performed in two different directions (see the description of 4QPhyl J by J.
T. Milik, DJD VI, 36 and in illustr. 9 below, and see further 4QPhyl K and M).
• In some instances, the text on the verso was written on the flip side of the document, that is, upon turning the
material 180 degrees. This system is evidenced for 4QpapHymns/Prayers (4Q499)/4QpapWar Scroll-like Text A
(4Q497); 4QpapPrQuot (4Q503)/4QpapRitPur B (4Q512); 4QNarrative Work and Prayer (4Q460) frg. 9/4QAccount
gr (4Q350).
The dimensions of the texts inscribed on each side were different. The intercolumnar margins
and the top/bottom margins of 4Q414/4Q415 were of different sizes. Likewise, in 4Q324/4Q355,
the spaces between the lines differed on both sides of the leather and the arrangement of columns
in 4QpapM f (4Q496) (verso) differed from that on the recto (M. Baillet, DJD VII, 57). P.Scheide
of the LXX of Ezekiel (codex) has 52–57 lines on the recto and 49–53 lines on the verso.
(g) Relation between the texts on the recto and verso
Writing on both sides of the material sometimes implies that the texts on the recto and verso are
somehow related with regard to their content or external features. For example
• The recto and verso are closely related when the verso continued the text of the recto, as probably was the case
in 4QLetter nab (4Q343). In short texts containing a single column, the verso would immediately continue the text
written on the recto, but few such texts have been preserved.
• The recto and verso of the fragments of 4Qpap cryptA Text Concerning Cultic Service B? (4Q250a) are both
written in the Cryptic A script. The relation between the content of the two sides is unclear.
• 4QEn a ar (4Q201) I–III containing the first chapters of Enoch, which ultimately go back to Gen 5:18-24, has
on its verso 4QGenealogical List? (4Q338). Little is known regarding this text, but one reads dylwh and dyl[wh on
two different lines, and its subject matter (a genealogical list of the patriarchs?) may therefore be connected to the
recto.
• In many opisthographs, both the recto and verso were written in the Qumran scribal practice (see below).
• The nature of Mas 1o is unclear. The two sides of this papyrus fragment (Mas pap paleoText of Sam. Origin
[recto] and Mas pap paleoUnidentified Text [verso]), written in paleo-Hebrew in two different handwritings, probably
represent two different compositions. 122 At the same time, the link between the two sides is not only the writing in
the paleo-Hebrew script, but also the use of little triangles as word dividers (elsewhere one finds dots or, more
rarely, strokes).
• The relation between Mas papVirgil lat (Mas 721 recto) and Mas papUnidentified Poetic Text lat (Mas 721
verso) is unclear. See APPENDIX 6.
122 The two sides were published by S. Talmon as representing a single text in Masada VI, 138–47. Talmon suggests
(Masada VI, 142–47) that this fragment is of Samaritan origin, based especially on the continuous writing of µyzyrgrh,
which is indeed customary in Samaritan sources, although not exclusively so. Talmon considers the two sides of the
document to contain a ‘Samaritan prayer or hymn of adoration directed to holy Mount Garizim’ (p. 142). However, the
two sides seem to have been written by different hands, with a different ductus, in different letter-sizes, and involving a
few differently shaped letters. Whether or not the two sides reflect two different texts remains difficult to determine, and
even the connection with the Samaritans is debatable. Pummer and Eshel stress the problematical aspects of this
assumption, emphasizing the occurrence of the continuous writing of µyzyrgrh in non-Samaritan sources, such as once in
Josephus, Bell. Jud. I 63, the Old Latin translation of 2 Macc 5:23; 6:2; Pliny, Natural History V.14.68, Pap. Giessen
13, 19, 22, 26 of Greek Scripture (if these texts are not taken as representing a Samaritan-Greek translation), as well as
various Church Fathers from the fifth century CE onwards: R. Pummer, “ARGARIZIN: A Criterion for Samaritan
Provenance?” JSJ 18 (1987) 18–25; H. Eshel, “The Prayer of Joseph, A Papyrus from Masada and the Samaritan Temple
on ARGARIZIN,” Zion 66 (1991) 125–36 (Heb.).