Wed Feb 12 10:31:21 1997

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Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 10:31:20 -0500 (EST)
From: "James R. Adair" 
To: tc-list@shemesh.scholar.emory.edu
Subject: Re: professional scribes
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On Tue, 11 Feb 1997, Lewis Reich wrote:

> On 11 Feb 97 at 12:58, Professor L.W. Hurtado wrote:
> 
> > On the question of NT vs. Jewish scribal practices, it is just a bit 
> > anachronistic to compare Massoretic scribal discipline with what 
> > might have been going on in the first two centuries CE.  Here E. 
> > Tov's work (e.g., _Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible_) is useful, 
> > in drawing upon early evidence (esp. Qumran) about the relatively 
> > greater fluidity/variety of the text of the OT in this early period.
> 
> Isn't the question of the variety of versions of the the text at that 
> point a different question from whether the different versions were 
> being accurately reproduced and transmitted?

One question that Tov's analysis of the Qumran material raises is, When
did the meticulous attention to detail that characterized the Masoretes'
work with the text begin?  Since there are so many different forms of the
Hebrew text present at Qumran, I think we can at least say that extreme
attention to detail did not characterize the transmission of the entirety
of the Hebrew ms tradition during or slightly before the first century
C.E.  An interesting question to ask concerning scribes transmitting both
the Hebrew Bible and the Greek NT is, What factors influenced scribes to
begin to regard attention to even the minutia of the text (e.g., spelling)
as an essential part of their jobs?  Some possibilities spring to mind: an
increased regard for the importance of the biblical text, the increasingly
important role of the text in the social or religious fabric of the
community, doctrinal controversies with rival groups, growth of mystical
traditions, rivalries among scribal groups.

Jimmy Adair
Manager of Information Technology Services, Scholars Press
    and
Managing Editor of TELA, the Scholars Press World Wide Web Site
---------------> http://scholar.cc.emory.edu <-----------------

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