SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 73
4QInstr b (4Q416) 2.57–3.00 (Elgvin, Analysis, 21)
4QInstr c (4Q417) 2.31–2.86 (17–20 cols.; Elgvin, Analysis, 21)
4QInstr d (4Q418) 3.20–3.50 (25–27 cols.; Elgvin, Analysis, 32)
On the sizes of papyrus scrolls and sheets from the Judean Desert, see below § d.
Unlike the far older papyri from Egypt which were often placed in boxes (containers) and
jars, the Qumran papyri were not afforded any special protection, since most of them did not
possess the same level of sanctity as the Qumran leather scrolls (see p. 252 below). Therefore, in
no single case has the full size of a papyrus column been preserved with its top and bottom
margins.
It is difficult to compare the aforementioned data relating to scrolls composed of leather sheets with the data
from the classical world, since most Greek and Latin scrolls were written on papyrus. For detailed data on such
scrolls, see Birt, Buchwesen, 256–73, 288–341; C7erny, Paper, 9; Schubart, Das Buch, 55–63; Ashton, Scribal
Habits, 65.
Much data regarding the size (length) of leather scrolls is derived from the scope of individual
columns, since there was a direct correlation between the size of the leather and columns and the
length of the scroll: large columns imply long scrolls and small columns imply small scrolls. In b.
B. Bat. 14a, this proportion is laid down as a rule for Torah scrolls:
wkra l[ rtwy wqpyh alw wqpyh l[ rtwy wkra al hrwt rps
Our Rabbis taught: A scroll of the Torah should be such that its length does not exceed its
circumference, nor its circumference its length (thus also Sof. 2.9).
In other words, the circumference of the Torah scroll when rolled in two separate rollers (see the
continued discussion in b. B. Bat. 14b) should not exceed the column height. This rule applied
only to the rabbinic rules for the writing of Torah scrolls, but evidence from Qumran shows that
it also pertained to other scrolls.
Because of the close relationship between the length of scrolls and their column sizes, some
general remarks on small and large scrolls are included in § e below. Furthermore, the data
included in TABLE 11 above may be supplemented by the data in TABLE 15 below regarding the
column sizes of all categories of scrolls (small, medium-size, large, and very large).
There is evidence for long scrolls in ancient Egypt as well as Greece, 128 but it is unclear to what extent this
evidence is relevant to Hebrew Scripture, as the Egyptian scrolls were ceremonial and not meant for reading which
would have been made difficult by their length. However, it may also be possible that some Torah scrolls were
ceremonial. In fact, all views about the length of the earliest biblical scrolls are hypothetical, the only evidence being
the description of a scroll containing the prophecies of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36), but its scope is unknown. Zech 5:2
mentions a scroll of ten meters in length (twenty cubits), but as its height is mentioned as five meters (ten cubits),
these measures should not be taken at face value (they probably imitate the measures of the µlwa, ‘porch,’ before the
temple as described in 1 Kgs 6:3).
Haran, “Size of Books” (n. 75) tackled the issue of the scroll size from another angle; see also idem, “Bible
Scrolls in the Early Second Temple Period: The Transition from Papyrus to Skins,” ErIsr 16 (1982) 86–92 (Heb.).
Taking the length of individual biblical books such as those of the Torah or the prophetic books as his point of
departure, Haran claimed that the following three compositions could not have been contained in single scrolls at the
time of their composition: the Torah, the historiographical cycles Joshua-Judges-Samuel-Kings, and Chronicles-
Ezra-Nehemiah. The Qumran evidence is too late for Haran’s hypothesis and actual data for earlier periods, almost
certainly involving papyrus scrolls, are lacking.
128 Much evidence pertaining to Egyptian papyrus scrolls ranging between 17 and 44 meters in length is provided by
Diringer, The Book, 129–33; C7erny, Paper, 9; Kenyon, Books and Readers, 50 ff. Thus the ‘large’ Harris papyrus of
‘The Book of the Dead’ from the eleventh century BCE is 41 meters long (see Kenyon, ibid., 53 and Millard, Reading
and Writing, 61). Greek papyrus scrolls of 12 meters and less were mentioned by Kenyon, Books and Readers, 54,
while Gamble, Books and Readers, 47 refers to the average Greek papyrus scroll as measuring 7–10 meters.