Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert

This monograph is written in the form of a handbook on the scribal features of the texts found in the Judean Desert (the Dead Sea Scrolls). It deals in detail with the material, shape, and preparation of the scrolls; scribes and scribal activity; scripts, writing conventions, errors and their correction, scribal signs; scribal traditions; differences between different types of scrolls (e.g., biblical and non-biblical scrolls), the possible existence of scribal schools, such as that at Qumran. In most categories, the analysis is meant to be exhaustive. The detailed analysis is accompanied by tens of tables as well as annotated illustrations and charts of scribal signs. The findings have major implications for the study of the scrolls and the understanding of their relationship to scribal traditions in Israel and elsewhere.

Emanuel Tov, Ph.D. (1973) in Biblical Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is J.L. Magnes Professor of Bible at the Hebrew University. He is the editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls publication project and the author of two handbooks on textual criticism and co-author of The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader (Brill, 2004).

"Das Werk ist für alle, die sich mit der Textgeschichte der biblischen Bücher beschäftigen ein unabdingbares Handwerkszeug." – A. Lange, in: Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
"...the essential starting point and reference work for any future work on scribal practices and scribal production of texts during the second temple period in the Palestine. Like the scribes he so clearly admires, in this volume Tov has produced a De Luxe edition dedicated to the study of their work." – Russell Fuller, in: Revue de Qumran