Tue Feb 11 00:30:59 1997

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Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 07:36:32 +0200
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From: habas@netvision.net.il (Dr. E. Habas)
Subject: Re: professional scribes
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>I believe there were a lot of differences between NT scribes and OT
>scribes.
>Initially they were copied in scriptoriums by paid scribes and many
>manuscripts
>were most probably copied in a hurry to get them circulating.
>

>cheers,
>Andrew

I confess to knowing very little about the practices of NT scribes. Is
there much "hard evidence" for the practices described above? In any case,
the Jewish *attitude* is completely different. The written text itself is
considered to be holy to a certain degree, and there are therefore rather
rigid rules to be followed. As noted by a list-member, such rules still
apply, and have done so for millenea. As for the period I understand most
of us are concerned with, there is quite a lot evidence. Just to give two
examples: Prof. Emmanuel Tov has been studying scribal practices in Qumran
with interesting results. Also, there is much information in the Talmudic
literature about practices of Rabbi Meir, who was a professional scribe
(actually, this could be of interest to NT scholars, since it is said that
in his scrolls a couple of changes were found, which happen to agree with
Christian interpretations of a couple of places in the OT).

Effie

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