SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

74 Chapter 4: Technical Aspects of Scroll Writing
Contents of Qumran scrolls. The length of scrolls is closely connected to that of their
contents. Scripture scrolls feature frequently in the list of long scrolls, and statistically they form
the majority among the longer Qumran scrolls. However, these statistics are misleading since the
contents of Scripture scrolls are known, and therefore scholars have indulged in more speculation
regarding their length than for other scrolls.
To the best of our knowledge, each Qumran scroll contained only a single literary
composition, and very few scrolls are known that contain a compilation of different literary
works on one side of the writing surface; for possible examples, see the list in the beginning of ch.
3d. When scrolls were inscribed on both sides (opisthographs), often different compositions were
inscribed on the two sides of the leather or papyrus (§ b above).
If two or more biblical books were contained in a single scroll, these books were part of a
larger unit. However, evidence for scrolls containing such a larger unit is scanty (TABLE 10), while
there is evidence for single books within those larger units that were demonstrably not part of
such larger units. Of course, scrolls starting with Genesis (4QGen b,g,k ), Joshua (XJosh), Kings
(5QKgs), Isaiah (1QIsa a and MurIsa), or the Minor Prophets (4QXII d ), preceded by a handle
sheet or a large uninscribed area should cause no surprise. Nor should it be surprising that
MasDeut, MasPs b , and 11QPs a ended with a final handle sheet or an uninscribed area. At the
same time, there is some evidence for scrolls which contain a single biblical book and are not part
of a larger unit:
• 11QpaleoLev a , ending with a ruled uninscribed area of 15.6 cm—covering a complete column—as well as
with a separate handle sheet, was not followed by Numbers.
• 4QLev c and 4QDeut h , both beginning at the top of a column, probably started a new scroll, although they also
could have followed the previous biblical books, which ended somewhere on the previous column.
• 6QDeut? (6Q20), starting with an initial uninscribed area of 5.0+ cm, was not part of a larger scroll of the
Torah.
• 1QIsa a , not followed by an additional book (no sheet was stitched unto it), formed a single scroll probably
preceded by an uninscribed handle page.
• Most extant Qumran copies of the Five Scrolls were probably contained in separate scrolls (note their small
dimensions recorded in TABLE 18; see also the analysis there).
There is no evidence that large compositions found in the Judean Desert were written on more
than one scroll, with the exception of the books of the Torah. 1QIsa a was written by two scribes
(ch. 2e and TABLE 1 there), but the sheets written by these scribes were sewn together. Hence,
the custom to subdivide large compositions into different scrolls (bisection) may derive from
either different circles or later (earlier?) times. Thus, while 4QSam a contains the text of both 1 and
2 Samuel, later manuscripts divided the book into two segments.
It is difficult to date the bisection of 2 Samuel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in the LXX scrolls, but it could have
occurred around the turn of the era (E. Tov, The Septuagint Translation of Jeremiah and Baruch: A Discussion of
an Early Revision of Jeremiah 29–52 and Baruch 1:1–3:8 [HSM 8; Missoula, Mont. 1976] 161 ff.). Also in the
classical world, large compositions were subdivided into independent units (scrolls), often regardless of their
content. See Birt, Buchwesen, 131–40; Hall, Companion, 7–8; F. G. Kenyon, “Book Divisions in Greek and Latin
Literature,” in William Warner Bishop: A Tribute (ed. H. M. Lydenberg and A. Keogh; New Haven 1941) 63–76
(especially 73–4); idem, Books and Readers, 64–70; J. van Sickle, “The Book-Roll and Some Conventions of the
Poetic Books,” Arethusa 13 (1980) 5–42; Gamble, Books and Readers, 42–66.
d. Dimensions of Sheets
At Qumran, the length of most sheets of leather varied between 21 and 90 cm. The natural
limitations of the sizes of animal hides determined the different lengths of these sheets within
each scroll, which varied more in some scrolls than in others. In two instances (MurXII,
11QpaleoLev a ), the preserved sheets are more or less of the same length. Some examples of the
sheet sizes in well-preserved scrolls are listed in TABLE 13 in ascending order of size. 4QCal