SCRIBAL PRACTICES AND APPROACHE S ... - Emanuel Tov

Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts from the Judean Desert 75
Doc/Mish A (4Q320) 4 iii (4.7 cm) and iv–v (9.8 cm) are extremely narrow sheets. In this case,
the scroll manufacturer may have had access to these small pieces only.
The dimensions of papyrus sheets were more uniform than those of leather. In Egypt, the most frequent width of
papyrus sheets was 48–96 cm in the Old Kingdom, 38–54 cm in the Middle Kingdom, and 16–20 cm in the New
Kingdom, all measured between the joins of sheets (C7erny, Paper, 9, 14–16; for a detailed analysis, see Ashton,
Scribal Habits, 65–6). On the sizes of single papyrus sheets from the Judean Desert and elsewhere, see Lewis, Bar
Kochba, 11–12 and Kenyon, Books and Readers, 50 ff. Kraeling, Aramaic Papyri, 127 notes that Egyptian papyri
were manufactured in 40 cm-long sheets, while Wenke, “Ancient Egypt” speaks of sheets of 16–42 cm in length. No
comparable data are available for columns or sheets of Qumran papyrus texts.
TABLE 13: Length of Sheets (cm)
4QCal Doc/Mish A
(4Q320) 4 iii, iv–v
4.7; 9.8
11QtgJob 21–45
1QIsab 26–45
1QIsaa 25–62.8
11QTa (11Q19) 37–61 (Yadin, Temple Scroll, 1.10)
4QDanc c. 38
1QapGen ar 45–82
1QM 47–89
4QNumb 56 (N. Jastram, DJD XII, 207)
4QCommGen A 60
MurXII 62
1QpHab 62–79
11QpaleoLeva 63
11QapocrPs (11Q11) 64
11QPsa 72–87
The number of sheets per scroll depends on the scope of the composition and the length of
individual sheets. This information can be calculated only for the scrolls in which both the
beginning and end have been preserved. Thus 1QIsa a consists of seventeen sheets (ten sheets
measuring 35–47.7 cm, five 48.7–62.8 cm, and two 25.2–26.9 cm). 11QT a is composed of
nineteen sheets (eight measuring 37–43 cm, ten 47–61 cm, and the final sheet measuring 20 cm).
Precise details regarding the dimensions of sheets in well-preserved scrolls were listed for 1QIsa a
by J. C. Trever in Burrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls, I.xvii–xviii; for 11QpaleoLev a by Freedman–
Mathews, Leviticus, 7; for 11QT a (11Q19) by Yadin, Temple Scroll (Hebrew), 11–12; and in
most DJD editions of long texts.
Data for Aramaic papyrus scrolls were summarized by Porten–Yardeni, TAD, 3.xiii. C7erny, Paper, 9 notes that
papyrus scrolls in Egypt and Rome usually contained twenty sheets (cf. Pliny, Natural History, XXIII.77). On the
whole, however, comparative material for scrolls is not as easily available as it is for early codices recorded by E. G.
Turner, The Typology of the Early Codex (Philadelphia 1977).
In accordance with their differing sizes, sheets contain varying numbers of columns of written
text, typically three or four (e.g. 1QIsa a and 11QT a ). 129 The seven columns appearing in both
1QapGen ar and 1QpHab and the single columns of the first sheet of 4QDeut n (with stitching on
both sides), the final sheets of 1QS and 4QDeut q , and the first and last columns of 4QD a
(4Q266) are exceptions. 4QCal Doc/Mish A (4Q320) 4 iii–v presents an unicum: with one sheet
of 4.7 cm (col. iii) and one of 9.8 cm (cols. iv–v) this document presents the narrowest sheets in
129 A scroll containing three or four columns per sheet is also mentioned in Jer 36:23. See the analysis by Lansing Hicks,
“Delet and M e gillah,” 46–66 (see p. 31 above), especially 61.