SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

68 Chapter 4: Technical Aspects of Scroll Writing
verso 4Q506 4QpapDibHam c y y
recto 4Q509 4QpapPrFêtes c y y
verso 4Q496 4QpapM f y y
If the understanding of ‘recto’ and ‘verso’ is correct in the texts recorded in this table, the
sectarian use of the material is both primary and secondary. In other words, sectarian scrolls of
various natures were subsequently reused by others, among them sectarian scribes. The fragment
on which the Hebrew 4QNarrative Work and Prayer (4Q460 9) appears on the recto, and
4QAccount gr (4Q350; both: DJD XXXVI) on the verso is probably irrelevant to this
analysis. 124
It should be noticed that both copies of 4QRitPur (A [4Q414]; B [4Q512]) were written on
the verso of other texts.
(2) Palimpsests
A palimpsest is a piece of material (papyrus or leather) which has been used a second time by
writing over the original text, after it had been partially or mostly erased or washed off (in the
case of papyri). Thus, the long Ahiqar papyrus from Elephantine (fifth century BCE) was partly
written on sheets of papyrus which had contained a customs account and which were
subsequently washed off (Porten–Yardeni, TAD 3.23). Among the Egyptian Aramaic papyri,
several such palimpsests were detected (Porten–Yardeni, TAD 3.xiii). For other Egyptian
parallels, see C7erny, Paper, 23 and in greater detail Caminos, “Reuse of Papyrus.”
The texts from the Judean Desert contain very few palimpsests (see TABLE 9 in which the
strongest evidence pertains to papyri). According to a variant in Sof. 1.5, the writing on qwjm ryyn,
‘erased papyrus,’ is forbidden, but the correct reading is probably ryyn (‘papyrus’) without qwjm
(‘erased’). The late tractate Soferim refers to sacred texts, but among the texts from the Judean
Desert only a certain percentage was considered sacred.
TABLE 9: Palimpsests from the Judean Desert
• Mur 10: Account (10A) and Abecedary (10B).
• Mur 17: papLetter (17A) and papList of Personal Names (17B). Both layers of this papyrus were dated by the
editor (J. T. Milik, DJD II, 93) to the eighth century BCE and by F. M. Cross to the second half of the seventh
century BCE (see n. 10 above).
• 4Qpap cryptA Midrash Sefer Moshe (4Q249): the possibility that this text is a palimpsest is raised by S.
Pfann, DJD XXXV, 6.
124 According to our analysis, the recto (4Q460 9) was copied (not necessarily authored) in Hebrew by a sectarian scribe,
while its verso contains a text of a completely different nature inscribed in Greek. Parallels to the Greek document are
found in Mur 90, 91, 96, 97. According to Tov, “Greek Texts,” Greek was not in active use among the Qumranites, as no
documentary Greek texts were found at Qumran, but this document is an exception, and the implications are unclear. If it
were certain that all documentary Hebrew/Aramaic and Nabatean-Aramaic texts and the one Greek text labeled
‘Qumran’ were indeed found there, it would seem that they are part of a probably larger depository of administrative
documents. However, serious doubts regarding the Qumranic origin of 4Q342–360 were raised by A. Yardeni, DJD
XXVII, 283–317. In some instances, Yardeni points to joins with texts which definitely derived from Nah≥al H≥ever
(note especially 4QpapDeed F ar [= XH≥ev/Se 32] which forms, together with 4Q347, one document). Radiocarbon
analysis of the documentary leather texts 4QLetter? ar r + v (4Q342) and 4QDebt Acknowledgment ar (4Q344), viz.,
late first and early second century CE indeed points to a late date which would suit that site. Some of these texts may
have derived from other sites. For a detailed analysis, see the end of APPENDIX 4 below. A different view on the contested
Qumran texts is expressed by H. Eshel, who believes, on the basis of a new reading and analysis, that three Hebrew
documentary texts did derive from Qumran: H. Eshel, “4Q348, 4Q343 and 4Q345: Three Economic Documents from
Qumran Cave 4?” JJS 52 (2001) 132–5; idem, “The Hebrew in Economic Documents from the Judean Desert,”
Leshonenu 63 (2000–2001) 41–52 (Heb.). Each text must be judged separately, and indeed 4Q343 (Nabatean), 4Q345,
and 4Q348 would be too early for Nah≥al H≥ever. See further H. Cotton and E. Larson, “4Q460/4Q350 and Tampering
with Qumran Texts in Antiquity,” in Paul, Emanuel, 113–25.