Subject: HEBREW SCROLLS PICTURES (was: Hebrew paleography)

From: Jean VALENTIN <[email-masked]>
Date: Jeu, 2 Oct 97 23:16:20 +0200

Deear TC-ers,

Following my query about my hebrew scrolls, Jimmy Adair kindly offered to 
put pictures of them on the TC web site, so that they can be examined. A 
picture of each of the scrolls is now available at the following 
locations:

http://purl.org/TC/extras/scroll1.gif
http://purl.org/TC/extras/scroll2.gif

scroll1.gif
This is the scroll I was speaking about in my previous message. You can 
notice the irregular and quite "personal" writing. Is it a sign of 
"antiquity" (between quotation marks because, of course, it's not the 
writing of the DSS!) or of a special (confessional?) origin? In what 
measure is it possible to date such a writing?

scroll2.gif
This is provided for comparison, as a "standard" writing. The writing of 
this scroll is more conventional. Quite regular, it has the usual 
features like the "taggin" (the little crowns above letters that are 
specified by the scribal rules.

The scrolls were bought in Damascus (Syria) ten years ago. Both scrolls 
are not on parchment, but on leather - my scanner is only black and 
white, otherwise you would see the characteristic brown colour of the 
animal skin (parchment is usually grey). I've read somewhere (but where? 
it was long ago...) that it's usual in the East to have scrolls written 
on skin rather than on parchment.

Each of the files takes approximately 300 Kb, so it might take some time 
to download them before you can view them completely (here in Western 
Europe, with a 28.8 bps modem, it took 2-3 minutes for each).

Thanks to any of you who could provide me any information about my 
treasures, and also once again thanks to Jimmy Adair for his help in 
providing the images to you.

Greetings,

Jean Valentin - Brussels

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From: Jack Kilmon <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 17:55:44 -0500

> providing the images to you.

    They are indeed interesting.  They appear to be medieval in style.
Thewords are separated and YHWH is in square script and not
palaeohebrew.
Sure looks like Exodus IV to me....I'll study it a bit more.

Jack

--
D’man dith laych idneh d’nishMA nishMA
   Jack Kilmon ([email-masked])

 http://users.accesscomm.net/scriptorium

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From: "Lewis Reich" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 15:06:53 +0000

> Thewords are separated and YHWH is in square script and not

Wouldn't you expect the Tetragrammaton in (Samaritan) palaeohebrew 
only if it was a Samaritan scroll?

> Sure looks like Exodus IV to me....I'll study it a bit more.

I think you'll find that scroll 1 is Exodus 19, just before the ten 
commandments, while scroll 2 is Leviticus 14.

What also strikes me as interesting is the apparent lack in scroll 1 
of the usual scribed horizontal lines to guide the scribe in forming 
them letters.

Lewis Reich
[email-masked]

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From: Jack Kilmon <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 14:45:07 -0500

> only if it was a Samaritan scroll?

    No, it was the practice to write YHWH in palaeohebrew.  I am
sendingyou a gif of 1Qps (psalms Scroll) where if you enlarge the view
of the
first page (on the right) you will see the palaeohebrew YHWH is the
Hasmonean style Hebrew.

> commandments, while scroll 2 is Leviticus 14.

    I see that now...took a little time to read it.

Jack