RT Article
T1 The significance of scribal practices in   11QpaleoLev : Adrianus van Selms Memorial Lecture
JF Journal for semitics
VO 19
IS 1
SP 1
OP 18
A1 Lübbe, J. C.
LA English
YR 2010
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/193776396X
AB This paper was delivered as the Van Selms Memorial Lecture at the 2006 congress of the South African Society of Near Eastern Studies, at the University of Pretoria. The audience was composed of specialists and the general public. A visual display on screen of details of the scroll facilitated discussion, especially for non-specialists. In the light of the composition of the audience, the paper is divided into two parts, the latter more technical than the former. Several aspects of the work of textual critics are presented in order to demonstrate to non-specialists the level of technical expertise required before emending the received text. The explanation is intended to counter preachers and teachers who appear to alter the text at will, in order to achieve a preconceived goal. It is, however, not only the layman who is obliged to hesitate before the text, but the expert must also re-evaluate his own conclusions in the light of additional evidence. The latter aspect is argued in response to Tov's most recent assertion that a certain group of texts, characterised by scribal procedures and traces of a Hebrew dialect, were copied at Qumran.