Culture and History of the Puzzling Out the Past

Ancient Near East

Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and
Literatures in Honor of Bruce Zuckerman
Founding Edttor

M.H.E. Weippert
E&ted by
Editor-in-Chief Marilyn J. Lundberg
Steven Fine
Thomas Schneider
Wayne T. Pitard

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Irene J. Winter

VOLUME 55

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BRILL

LEIDEN • BOSTON
The titles pubhshed in this serws are hsted at brill, nl/chan 2012
 SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM
IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT

EW. Dobbs-Allsopp
Princeton Theological Seminary

The earliest written copies ofbibhcal poems currently extant come from the Judean Desert. And
not a few of these exhibit some ldnd of special formatting. The essay that follows, in the main,
consists of a series of observations about this special formatting that does not so much argue a
position as elaborate an ever richer description of practice. My governing ambition throughout
is "to take into account," as M. Haran urges, "the actual circumstances of scribal activity";1 to
take seriously, that is, the material reality of these texts and to probe the kinds of literacy that
they imply or require.2 Such "thick" (re)description is valuable in its own right. In this case,
for example, it provides a basis from which to uncover a possible Levantine (West Semitic)
genealogy for the manner of verse layout at Qumran and to juxtapose other known conventions
for representing verse in writing. It also is not without implications for our understanding of
biblical Hebrew poetry more generally. I tease out a number of these over the course of the
discussion--some more elaborately than others. I close, in a much more heuristic vein, with
some thoughts as to the material nature of Hebrew poetry in Iron II Judah and Israel?

Special spacing and layout appears in many copies of the poetic texts of the Bible recovered
from the Judean Desert, some of these predating the earliest medieval Masoretic manuscripts
by almost a millennium (e.g., 4QDeutb, ca. 15o-loo BCE; 4QpaleoJobc, ca. 225-15o BCE). E. Tov,
in his recent survey of this material,4 isolates some thirty scrollss in total that exhibit some form
of special layout for poetic texts (4QRPc [Exodus 15]; 1QDeutb, 4QDeutb, 4QDeutc, 4QDeutq,
and 4QpaleoDeutr [all only Deuteronomy 32; if other chapters are preserved, they are in prose

1 M Halan, "Book-Scrolls in Isiael In Pie-Exilic Times;' JJS 33 (1982). 161 In a related vein, though with
ieference to Old English verse, see K O'Brlen O'Keeffe, Visible Song Transitional Literacy m Old Enghsh Verse
(Camblldge' Cambridge Unlv, 199o)' 4
2 W Schnledewind ("Orallty and Literacy in Ancient Islael;' Rehgtous Studies Review 26/4 [2ooo]'33o-331) well
stiesses the need foi those mteiested in questions about literacy in ancient IsIael and Judah to directly engage the
"aicheological and lnScliptional evidence"
3 It is a privilege to take pait in celebIating the life and work of my good fliend and colleague, Biuce Zuckerman,
or "Uncle Bruce;' as he as more fondly known in my household. To know Bruce IS to love him. It is that simple.
He is one of this world's good guys He also happens to be a talented scholar with a rich diversity of interests
and expeItIse My foiay into the epigiaphy of poetic line format at Qumran and my use of images as a cntical
component of the argumentation mean, above all, to salute Biuce's own achievements in the field of Noithwest
Semitic epigraphy, and especially his revolutionary work with photographic Images and their electronic storage,
manipulation, reproduction, and dlstrlbutmn Special thanks to the participants in the inaugural "Old Testament
Research Colloquium" at Princeton Theological Seminary (Fall 2oo8) wheIe a draft of this paper was plesented and
discussed and, in paitlcular, to Slml Chavel, Dan Pioske, Seth Sanders, and Leong Seow foi their caieful reading of
the manuscript and insightful comments Many thanks, as well, to Maiilyn LundbeIg for hei work in otchestIating
the figures for this essay
4 E Tov, "Special Layout of Poetical Units in the Texts from the Judean DeseIt" in Give Ear to My Words' Psalms
and Other Poetry m and around the Hebrew Bible (J Dyk, ed ; AmsteIdam' Societas Hebialca Amstelodamensls,
1996). 115-128; ldem, Scrlbal Practices and Approaches Reflected m the Texts Found m the ludean Desert (STDJ,
Leiden' Bnll, 2oo4) 166-178
s Esp Tov, ScrtbalPzacttces (N 4) 168 and Table 8
20 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 21

format]; 1QPsa [only Psalm 119]; 4Qpsb;6 4QPsc; 4QPsd (parts of Psalm lO4); 4QPsg; 4Qpsh;
4QPst; 4QPs"; 5QPs; 8QPs; llQpsa and llQPsu [only Psalm 119]; 5/6HevPs, MasPsa; MasPsU;
4QJob'ÿ; 4QpaleoJobc; 4QProva; 4QProvb; 3QLam; 5QLamU; zQSir; MasSir; 4QMessianic Apoc-
alypse)7 As he observes, in every instance but one (4QMessianic Apocalypse), stlchographic
format in the scrolls from Qumran is reserved for biblical texts only (including Ben Sira).8 The
range of poetic texts specially formatted is roughly consistent with what is found in the later
Masoretic manuscripts, though at Qumran the formats utilized are more variable and there
is an equal number9 of manuscripts of (often the same) poetic compositions that are set in a
running format (4QExodc and 4QExoda [with respect to Exodus 15]; 4QDeutJ XII [Deuteron-
omy 32]; 1QPsa [except Psalm 119]; 1QpsU; 1QPsc; 4QPsÿ; 4QPse; 4QPd [col. 111.5 onwards];
4QPse; 4QPsf; 4QPg; 4Qpsk; 4Qpsm; 4Qpsn; 4QPs°; 4QPsp; 4QPsq; 4QPsr; 4QPss; 4QPsu; 4QPs89;
4QPslz2; 6QpapPs (?); llQPsÿ and llQPsb [except Psalm 119]; llQpsc; 11Qpsd; 2QJob; 4QJobb;
4QLam"; 4QCantÿ-ÿ; 5 QLamÿ; 6QCant; 11QapocrPs)--that is, special formatting for poetic texts
apparently was not required at Qumran.I° Toy describes three principal systems for formatting
poetic texts at Qumran. The first utilizes the line of writing as a means for framing the verse
line, either with one verse line per columnar line (e.g., 4QDeuV; 4QPsb; 4QPsÿ; cf. Deuteronomy
32 in the Greek p. Fouad inv. 266; 4QDeutq [contains a combination of one and two hnes per
columnar line])H or two (e.g., 4QDeutb; 4QPsg; 4QPsh; llQPsa [only Psalm 119]; 4QpaleoJobc;
4QMessxanic Apocalypse). Both varieties lack (perceptible) line-internal spacing?2 The second
system recognized by Toy entails two verse lines written on one line of writing, with a space
(ofuninscribed text) separating the two verse lines and centered in the middle of the columnar
line (e.g., 1QDeutb and 4QpaleoDeutr [only Deuteronomy 3z]; IQPs° [only Psalm 119]; 4QPsÿ;ÿ3
5QPs; 8QPs; 5/6HevPs; MasPsa; 4QProv"; 3QLam; zQSlr; MasSlr; see fig. 1). These tend to give
Fig. 1: MasPs" col II 3-7 (Ps 82:1-4). (SHR 5255, Courtesy the Israel Museum, Jerusalem).
the appearance of the "bl-columnar arrangement" typical of Deuteronomy 32 in the Masoretic
tradition)4 In the third system, space is inserted between the individual verse hnes (as in the
second system) but is not centered on the line of writing, i.e., it may occur at different points the Judean Desert are organized in columns of writing of more or less uniform dimensions.15
along the columnar line (e.g., 4QProvb; MasPsb). This system resembles (to greater and lesser This follows the general practice evident in both Egyptian papyrus rolls and cuneiform clay
degrees) the variable Masoretic spacings in the a"raÿ books. tablets--in neither instance does the columnar arrangement vary with regard to the nature
In general, the specially formatted poetic texts at Qumran do not show any further distinc- of the discourse being copied (figs. 2-3).ÿ By contrast, fol example, it (eventually) becomes
tion in their columnar arrangement. All hterary compositions, whether verse or prose, from conventional in Greek papyrus rolls from the Hellenistic and Roman eras to display prose in
narrower, squared-off columns of writing, separated by uniform lntercolumns of uninscribed
space, and poetry in wider columns of writing to accommodate the natural lengths of the

6 In has discussion, Toy assumes that 4QPsb contains aemaans of Psalm 119 which as lined daffeaently than the
other psalms in this scroll According to the editors of the edltlO princeps, howevea, this scaoll contains no remains
from this psalm (EW Skehan, E Ulrich, and PW. Flint, "Psalms;' m Qummn Cave 4.X1 Psalms to Chtontcles
[DJD XVI, Oxfoad Clarendon, zoo@ 23-48, pls III-VI); cf. P Flint, The Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls and the Book
of Psalms (Leaden. Brall, 1997)' 33-34.
7 Fhnt (The Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls [N 6]. 32, n z3) adds the taW and fragmentary 3QPs to this llst--"on the
basis of the aelatlve positions of the aemalnang letters an verses 6 and 7, which began on successive lanes:'
8 So theae are a good many nonbabhcal poetic compositions that aae not foamatted specially (e g, 1QHa' b; 4Q38o,
4Q 381, 4QSharShabba4)
9 Toy, Sct tbal Practices (N 4) 169 and Table 9, cf Flint, Dead Sea Psahns Scrolls (N 6) 49, n 153
10 j Kugel (The Idea of Btbhcal Poetry [Baltlmole Johns Hopkins Unlv, 1981]. a21) makes the same point with
aespect to the Masoretlc manuscupts. "whale stlchography may well have been the rule m ceatam books, at was not
requzred" (emphasis an the original) The flexibility at Qumran is much more pronounced
n Inteaestmgly, this lane fmmat presages the formatting scheme that as used by R Lowth an has Praelectlones (De
Sacra Poest Hebmeorum Praelecttones Acadenucae Oxonu Habitae [London Clarendon, 1753]) and modern poets
wratmg m Hebrew (cf T Caama, The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse [New Yoak. Penguin Books, 1982])
12 Notice, however, that in Psalm 119 an 11Qpsÿ a number of the component lanes of a couplet are sometimes
sepaaated by space (e g, VII, 4; VII, 6, XI, 7, XII, 12), see Toy, "Special Layout" (N 4) 12o
13 Mistakenly hsted by Toy with the fiIst group, but internal spacing as clearly present an the lane foImattlng of
this scaoll (cf Skehan et al, "Psalms" IN 6] 5o-51)
14 Ibad, 121
is Toy, ScrtbalPmcttces (N 4) 82
16 See esp R Parkanson and S Qunke, Papyt us (Austin. Unlveislty of Texas, 1995) 44. Of the two, at is Egyptian
practice that ultimately seaves as the model anfoamlng the columnar layout of the leathei manuscnpts fiom the
Judean Deseat Consider J Cerny's description of the layout ofhaeaat,c iolls written an horizontal lanes (a practice
that begins an the Middle Kingdom)'
Foa horizontal lanes therefore a suitable length was chosen which vanes from book to book and even within the
same book. A numbea of honzontal lanes were wi Itten each tame, one below the other, and when the bottom
of the papyrus had been reached, a blank space was left at the left of th,s sequence of hnes [direction of wr,tmg
was from right to left] and then a new series of lanes was written, this paocedure being repeated tall the text
was completed The book [a e, the papyrus Ioll or scroll] as an this way dawded into a number of columns or
pages with blank spaces of 1.5 to 3 cm between them ... In Egyptian manuscripts, even m the best ones, the
blanks are sometimes so naarow that the ends of the lines of one column nearly touch the beginnings of those
of the next, and the scribe thought at advisable to separate them an places by aaaegulaa vertical lanes (Paper
and Books m Anclent Egypt [London' K Lewaas, 195z]. zo; cf Parklnson and Qmrke, Papyrus IN 16]' 38)
The ch,ef daffeaence between writing on papyrus and writing on leathea IS that an the latter the individual sheets
were (nolmally) stitched togethea only aftra inscription (Toy, ScttbalPmcttces [N 4]. 35-37) It IS hkely that Egyptian
influence on columnar layout an Levantine writing dates back at least into the earliest part of the first millennium
(see N 89 below on the foamat of the Deai 'Allah plastei texts and its significance, cf Haran, "Book-Scrolls an Israel"
[N 1] 161-173).
 SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE IUDEAN DESERT 23
22 F,W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP

Fig. 3 Late New Kingdom hieratic roll showing typical column layout
(ANooo35792_ool, Abbott Papyrus, EA lO221, © Trustees of the British Museum)

FN 2' Though only fragmentary, EA 373 displays well the columnar layout typmal of
cunmform htmary tablets more generally. IBM134864 obverse, InscliptiFact Text
ISFTXT_o1773, InscliptiFact Digmal Object ISF DO 13831] Photograph by Bruce
Zuckerman and Mardyn Lundberg, West Semitic Research. Courtesy Brltlsh Museum, London.

Fig. 4. POxy 223, col. 2, Homer, Ihad 5.1-153 (Ms. Gr. Class a 8; The
BodMan Library, Umverszty of Oxford) shows wide column with
ragged right-hand margin typmal of Greek poetm manuscripts
 SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE IUDEAN DESERT 25
24 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP

(metrical) verse lines, which are almost always longer than lines of prose (the hexameter line--
sixteen syllables, 34-38 letters--is the longest verse line), with ragged right-hand margins
(fig. 4),17 The major variation of note in the specially formatted manuscripts from the Judean
Desert comes in copies in which the columnar line flames a single verse line. These columns
are (comparatively) very narrow (c. 3.7-4.5 cm; cf 4QPsb)Y
Several observations may be offered with respect to the "special layout" of poetic texts at
Qumran. First, it exists--poetic texts are formatted as verse19 (in a variety of ways) already
almost a millennium before the earliest Masoretic manuscripts. This is no small thing. Com-
menting on the practice in England from the eighth century (CE) on of copying Latin poetry
in verse hnes, K. O'Brien O'Keeffe underscores the significance of any visual display of verse
structure in writing:
Because this technique xs so commonplace to the reader of modern verse, the significance of such
a shift in formatting is easily overlooked. But the developing conventions of copying Latin poetry
spatially by hnes of verse underlies an important step in using spatial and nonverbal cues (especially
capitals and punctuation) to assist readers in their tasks. As information in a text shifts from
purely hngulsttc to pamally visual, verse becomes increasingly chlrographically controlled and its
formatting increasingly conventional.2°

HistoricallB the graphic display of the verse line m writing is epiphenomenal.21 It is a byproduct
of writing and the "meta-scrlpt" conventions22 that grow up around this particular technology
and not, at least initially, inherent to the notion of the verse line itself. Oral verse, for example,
by its nature cannot exploit graphic means of signification in writing, and therefore signals
line-ends or the like,23 as it must, by alternative mechanisms and cues (e.g., pause, pausal

17 See FW. Hall, A Compamon to Classical Texts (Oxfoid Clarendon, x913). 11-12, FG Kenyon, Books and
Readers m Ancwnt Greece and Rome (2nd ed, Oxford Clarendon, 1951)' 56; EG. Tuiner, Greek Papyri An
Introduction (Princeton. Princeton University, 1968)' 63; ldem, Greek Manusct tpts of the Ancwnt World (Princeton.
Princeton University, 1971). 8; cf WA. Johnson, Bookrolls and Scribes m Oxyrhynchus (Toionto. University of
Toronto, 2oo4). loo-13o. Interestingly, Masoretic practice enshrines a variation on the lattel piactlce, mranging
all biblical compositions in thIee columns pei codex page, except the seveial festival songs (e g, Exodus 15, Judges
5) and the m"raÿ books--the latter are written in two (wider) columns per codex page, for details about the origins
and evolution of the codex, see E G Turner, The Typology of the Early Codex (Philadelphia' Unix, of Pennsylvania,
1977)' esp. lo, 35-37, Harÿy Y Gamble, Books and Readers m the Early Church A History of Early Cht tstmn Texts
(New Haven Yale Univ., 1995) 42-81, C Sarat, Hebrew Manuscripts of the Middle Ages (Cambridge. CambiIdge
UnIveI slty, 2oo2),
s Toy, Scrtbal Practices (N 4)' 83
19 "2he stichographic i epresentatmn of specific texts probably mainly reflects a recognition of the poetical nature
of these units" (Toy, Sct tbal Pmcttces [N 4] 167)
2o O'Brien O'Keeffe, Vtstble Song (N 1)' 26-27
zi Esp TVF Brogan, "Line" in NPEPP, 696
az Foi this notion and suppoiting hteiature, see M W Green, "ÿhe Construction and Implementation of the
Cuneiform Writing System;' Vtsual Language 15 (1981). 345-372, esp 348-349, cf. A.F Robertson, "Word Divideis,
Spot Maikers and Clause Markels in Old Assyrian, Ugaritic, and Egyptian Texts: Sources for Understanding the
Use of Red Ink Points in Two Al&adian Llteiary Texts, Adapa and Ereshkagal, Found in Egypt" (Ph D. Dlss, New
York Univ, 1993) 1-3. Meta-scrxpt conventions, though pelipheral to a writing system's main visual component,
the grapheme, are critical nonetheless, supplying readers with lmpoitant infolmatlon, such as direction of wiiting,
wold dmslon, punctuation, paragi aph boundaries, and so on.
;3 The concept of a "lind'--"a row of written or printed letters" (OED)--IS Itself a product of writing, of a
chirographic world, and therefore Its application to oral aI t forms can only be belated and knowingly not qmte literal.
What is really meant in such cases is the rough eqmvalent of the (wi itten) "line" in oral performance, what E Zumthor
(somewhat ineloquently) calls "an autonomous unit between what comes before and what after" (Oral Poetry. Fig. 5: London, British Library, Cotton Vitelhus A XV, tÿ (Beowulf). (olo6:z5;
An Introductton [K. Mmphy-Judy, tians, Minneapolis' Univ. of Minnesota, 199o] 147). But such terminological Courtesy Brmsh Library) exhibits the running format ("long lines across
pIecision need not be pressed m a discussion of biblical verse, since however pervasively oral was the biblical world, the writing space") typically used m copying Old Enghsh verse
the technology of wrmng and its attendant practices were also not eveI not known. Cf. F Bauml, "Varieties and
Consequences ofMedleval Literacy and IlhteIacy;' Speculum 55 (198o) 246-247
 26 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE ]UDEAN DESERT 27

lengthening, parallelism, gestures, volume). Even in written verse traditions the presence of stele (ICAI 269; fig. 9), an Aramaic funerary inscription of the fifth or fourth century BCE, do we
meta-script conventions for displaying verse is not inevitable, as O'Brien O'Keeffe's comments have a Mnd of graphic display of line format in West Semitic (WS) prior to Qumran. In Egyptian
on the copying of Latin verse in Anglo-Saxon England show. But this is even more conspicuous practice, which would have provided the principal model for writing on papyrus and skins in the
with regard to Old English verse, which is O'Brlen O'Keeffe's principal subject of interest, qhere, southern Levant during the first millennium, "texts were generally written continuously.''27 Even
too, the use of non-linguistic spatial and graphic conventions as aids for decoding and reading in in Greek papyrus rolls verse compositions early on appear in a running format (e.g., Timotheos
manuscripts develops only gradually over time, fl'om the eighth through the eleventh centuries papyrus,2s ca. fourth c. BCE; fig. 12).29 In fact, contrary to modern chirographic conventions in
CE.24 The same is true of the ancient Levant. Verse compositions were not initially set out the West, the "tendency not to distinguish verse from prose in writing;' as R. Parkinson and
with any kind of special formatting, at least as far as we can tell. Admittedly, there are only S. Qulrke observe, "is far from unique" (emphasis added).3° Whether or not verse structure is
two major corpora of verse currently extant, the Ugaritic mythological texts (ca. thirteenth given explicit, graphic representation in any particular writing system is not a given but falls
century BCE; fig. 7) and the collection of Aramaic proverbs attached to the figure of Ahiqar out (1fit falls out) as a matter of local practice.
(Elephantine, ca. fifth century BCE; fig. 8). There are also several display Inscriptions (ink on Second, not all verse compositions at Qumran receive special formatting. Why this is so,
plaster): those from Deir 'Allah (KAI 312; 8oo-75o BCE; fig. 26) and one from Kuntillet Ajrud as Toy observes, is not entirely clear.31 However, such variation does effectively demonstrate
(ca. 80o BCE), whose patently high hterary registers (which contrast noticeably with the work- that verse (qua verse) at Qumran is ultimately separable from the technological formatting
a-day register of West Semitic epigraphs) are suggestive of West Semitic and biblical poetry that it receives in writing at Qumran, i.e., specific Psalms, for example, retain a recognizable
more generally.2s Neither, however, manipulates space or the hke systematically for the specific (though variable) compositional identity whether or not they also happen to be arranged in
purpose of displaying line format. In the case of Ugarltic, although the normal practice is to writing with a special layout. Two examples may be offered by way of illustration. Ps lo2:18-29
write verse, like prose, continuously across the column, there are some notable exceptions,
is formatted with one verse line per column line in 4QPsb and as a running text in 11QPsÿ. And
such as CTU 1.1o and, to a lesser extent, CTU 1.23 (cf. CTU 1.96, 161), where the verse line in the Leningrad Codex (fig. 13) space (of varying dimensions) is used to delimit the several
corresponds to the columnar hne on the tablet.26 Otherwise only in the so-called Carpentras verse lines in a columnar line. A similar ldnd of formatting diversity is exhibited with regard
to Ps 18:39-41, which is set as a running text in 11QPsd and with two verse lines per columnar
line with intervening medial space in 4QPsÿ; and two still different formats are attested in the
Masoretic tradition, depending on where the psalm appears as a part of the Psalms (fig. 14) or
24 FOI details, see O'Brlen O'Keeffe, Visible Solg (N 1) As a geneial plactice, accolding to O'Bllen O'Keeffe, Old as a part of Samuel (fig. 15). In both instances, the words and phrases of the psalms remain
English verse "is copied in long lines acioss the Wilting space" (fig 5), with no consistent scrlbal distinctions for relatively stable, the poetic works they enact are identifiably the same.32
marking veise (at least until very late, when some line-end pointing is evidenced, e.g, Oxford, Bodlelan Llbraiy,
Junlus 11) By conti ast, "Latin vei ses copied in England after the eighth century ai e set out one to a line ofwl ltmg,
capitals begin each hne, and often some soit of pointing marks the end of each velse" (esp 23, cf. 138-154, fig 6)
AppaIently, eally in the eighth centuiy, Latin veIse copied m England was still in long lines (143)
25 Esp S L Sandeis, The Invention ofHebtew (Urbana Unw of Ilhnols, 2oo9). 142, also see the opening thoughts of
E L. G1 eensteln on the Kuntlllet Ajrud text in his "Signs of Poetry Past Lltei armess in Pre-Blbhcal Hebrew Llteratm e"
(unpubl. ms ), cf M Dllkstra, "Response to H -P. Muller and M Wmppert" in The Balaam Textfiom Detr "Alia Re-
27 Parklnson and Qulrke, Papyrus (N 16). 44. Sometimes, as Palklnson and Quuke also note, Egyptian verse
Evaluated (J Hoftuzei
"Kuntdlet 'Ajrud Plastei and
WallG. vanlptlon
Iusci der Koolj, edsin; The
(2 47D)" Leiden. BIIll,of1991)
Context 211-217
Scripture. (on Delr Inscttpttons
Monumental 'Alla); P.K McCarter, Jr,
(W W Hallo, compositions aie graphically distinguished Foi example, theie is a Thud Intermediate Pellod copy of"qhe Teaching
of Amenenope" in which "each hne ofveIse was written on a sepaIate line" (fig lO) and red "verse points" would be
ed, Leiden Bnll, 200o) 173 (on Kuntlllet Ajiud 15) In both Instances, howevm, the question of the nature of used (often Inconsistently) in some vmse compositions (beginning already in the Middle Kingdom, but becoming
the undeilylng medmm--piose or poetry--Iemams open and debated Of the two, the Kuntlllet Ajrud plaster text
widespread only in the New Kingdom) to malk the ends of lines (fig 11)--the latter practice has even influenced the
(apparently written in a Phoenician script but in the Hebl ew language) is the mot e suggestive of poetly, given the
writing down of two Ald(adian compositions in Egypt, see Robertson, "Wold Dwldms" (N 22) q]ae Aramaic text in
seveI al leported Instances of pal allehsm and the general hkeness in theme and imagery to a number of poems In the
Demotic SCllpt (Amhei st papyl us 63; COS 1 99), chI onologlcally very close to the eaIhest Dead Sea scrolls (ca. third
Bible (esp Deuteronomy 33, Judges 5, Psalms 24 and 68) Unfortunately, even after almost thirty years since the text's
c BCE), well exemplifies the standard Egyptian folmattmg piactice The ahgnment of the verse and columnai line
putatwe d,scoveiy, no piopm scholally edition has yet to be published, nor have any images been publicly Ieleased
m some Ugal itlc vet se compositions is l emlnlscent of the occasional appealance of special formatting fol vmse in
(for ti anscrlptlons, translations, and genei al discussions, see Z Meshel, Kunttllet 'Aft ud A Rehgtous Center fi om the
Egyptian--in both tla&tIons the normal plactice is to wnte continuously across the column
Time of the ]udaean Monarchy on the Borde, of Stoat [Jerusalem Israel Museum, 1978]; McCartel, "Kuntlllet 'AjI ud"
28 U von WilamowItz-Mollendorff, Der Ttmotheos-Papyt us (Lmpzlg J C Hemilchs', 19o3)
173, F W Dobbs-Allsopp et al, Hebrew Inscÿ tpttons Texts from the Btbhcal Period of the Monarchy with Concordance 29 L D Reynolds and N G Wilson (Sct lbes and Scholats' A Grade to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature
[New Haven. Yale Univ, 2oo5]. 286-289, S Ahltuv, Echoes fiom the Past. Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the
[3rded, Oxford Clarendon, 1991] 4-5)notethatevenwlthoutfindshketheTlmotheuspapyrusthepievalhngpIose
Blbhcal Period [Jerusalem CARTA, 2oo8]' 324-329). As foi the Dmr 'Allah texts, while there is no mistaking their
fmmat of early GIeek lyric vmse would be inferable flom the tladition that Anstophanes of Byzantium (c 257-
high hteral y I eglster, syntactically they have mot e of a nat ratlve feel about them, suggestive of the kinds of pi ophetm
c 18OBCE) devised the colometiy which distinguishes Greek vmse structure, cf Hall, Compamon (N 17). 11-12,
repoits well known from the Bible and its envuons
26 Cf G del Olmo Lete, Mttos y Ieyendas de Canadm seg(tn la tta&ct6n de Ugartt (Madlid Crlstlandad, 1981) Turnel, GI eek Papyri (N 17) 63, M.L. West, The East Face of Hehcon West Astatlc Elements m Greek Poetry and Myth
(Oxford Clarendon, 1997)' 26 FoI an early example of the one-verse-per-hne foImat, see EMIl. Vogl VIII 3o9
463 and n 3, W.G.E Watson, "Llneatlon (StlchometIy) in Ugantic Velse;' UF 14 (1982)' 311-312, ldem, "UgarltlC
(fig 32), a beautifully preserved, late third centuiy BCE papyrus poetIy book contammg epigIams of Posldlppus
Poetiy," in Handbook of Ugattttc Studies (WG E Watson and N. Wyatt, eds., Leiden BIfll, 1999)' 166 This happens
(G. Bastlanlm and C. Gallazzl [eds.], Postdtppo dt Pella Eptgrammt (PMtl Vogl/VIII 3o9) [2 vols, Mllano LED,
penodlcally anyway, as the typical width of a column is roughly equwalent to the average length of a verse hne
2OOl])
(on average nine-twelve consonants, see O Lmetz, "Die Analyse de1 ugarltlschen und hebralschen Poesle mlttels
30 Parkmson and Qmrke, Papyÿ us (N 16) 44
Sttchometric und Konsonaenzahlung" UF 7 [1976]' 267), and sometimes theie are even luns of hnes wheie the
3i Toy, Scrtbal Practices (N 4) 166
veise line and columnaI line match up (e g., CTU 1 15 III 1-23) Foi the abnormal use of word dwldeis in CTU 1 24
32 This "sameness" and "stability" is ÿelatwe since no two inscriptions of a llngmstlc artifact in scnbal and
and its possible lmphcatlons for ve, se foi matting, see A F Rob ei tson, "Non-Wo, d DwideI Use of the Small Vertical
manuscript cultuies ate evei exactly identical. RatheI, variation and difference is the noim. Still, the point here is
Wedge in Yat tb and Nlkkal and in an Ald<adlan Text WI itten in Alphabetic Cuneifolm;' in Kl Bat uch Hu (R Chazan,
that the hngulstlc content of the psalms in question (aitificlally hypostIclzed here fol the sake of algument), given
W.W Hall, and L Schlffman, eds, WInona Lake Elsenblauns, 1999)' 89-1o9
the nmmal hmlts of scnbal vanablhty, is not otherwise armed by the presence m absence of veise formatting
28 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 29

'1
Fÿg 7' First tablet from Kÿrta (CAT 1 ]4 obv), showing running format written in horizontal
hnes and an columns, wÿth wold &wders. [InscnptlFact Text ISF_TXT_o 1254,
Inscnpt,Fact Dtgttal Object ISF_DO_ÿ745o, *K14Poÿ]. Photograph by Wayne
Pÿtard, West Sernÿtÿc Resewch. Courtesy Department of Antÿqmtws, Syrm
Fzg 6. Auct FI ]5, 57v (De consolattone Phdosophtae) (The Bodletan
Ltbrary, Oxford Umverstty). Formatting--one verse hne to a hne of
writing, matml capatals, endpoints--typacal for the copying out of
Latin verse an Anglo-Saxon England (flora the eighth century on)
3° F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 31

fNÿ

Fig lo Part of papyrus roll containing several columns from the

Teaching ofAmenemope (BM ÿo474,2) (wÿth single verses placed
% on separate hnes). (AN313o9ool, © Trustees of the Brtttsh Museum).

Fig 8" From Ahlqar (TAD Cl.1, col 6) [InscriptlFact Text ISF TXT ooo71, InscrlptiFact
Digital Object ISF_DO_o57o5, AT_9LP13446E R_P]. Pkotograph by Bruce and
I@nneth Zuckerman, West Semitic Research. Courtesy Agyptlsches Museum, Berlin.

Fig. 11: Limestone ostracon, containing final lines of the Tale of Slnuhe, EA 5629 (with
red velse dots). (ANoo4o965o_ool; © Trustees of the Brÿtÿsh Museum)
Fzg. 9. Caipentras stele (ICA1269). J.C.L Gibson, Textbook of Syrmn Semttlc
Inscmptmns, Volume II. Aramaic Inscrtptions (Oxford. Clarendon, 1975): Fig. 13
My last set of observations focuses on the material means of verse layout at Qumran and, in
particular, on how its two outstanding features--spacing and the line (of writing)--themselves
evolve out of ancient, Levantine (WS) scribal habits and practices. The material particulars of
any meta-script convention, when and if they eventually occur, whether they are deliberately
designed or arise incidentally, will vary with time, place, and script tradition. That is, meta-
script conventions, like the script tra&tlons and writing systems of which they are a part, are
 32 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 33
%

- zÿi-- rAMff/<

Fÿg. 12: Timotheos papyrus, U. von Wilamowitz-Mollendorff, Der Tÿmotheos-Papyrus

(Leipzig HeinIichs', ,9o3) Kol. V (Corn tesy Staatsbÿbhothek zu Berhn). Early (ca.
fourth century BCE) Greek papyrus roll in which verse appears in a running format

themselves artifactual in nature. They are technologies,33 practices (of writing) that arise and
take on meaning only locally, m culturally and historically specific environments. In the West, ÷
the usual means nowadays for displaying poetry m writing (or print) is to set the mdiwdual
verses on a line of thmr own with the lines following one after another down the face of the
page. This manner of lineation ("division into lines;' OED) is a longstanding convention and
may be traced back through the various European vernacular traditions (e.g., Old English, Old
French) to Medieval Latin models, which in turn were themselves borrowed and adapted from
Greek forerunners.34 In fact, the practme of writing hexameter verse with each verse on a line of
ts own appears to date as far back as the eighth century BCE (e.g., "Nestor's cup" see fig. ÿ6)?s
Fig. ÿ3: B *9A, folio 386 reverse (Ps 99 9-*o2:24A) D.N. Freedman et al, The Leningrad
As M.B. Parkes notices, this is an especially felicitous means for spatiahzing verse that is both
Codex: A Facstmile Edttton (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, ,998). Photograph by Bruce
stichic and metrical?ÿ However, there is no reason to think that this manner of lineation is and Kenneth Zuckerman, West Semttic Research, in collabomtton with the Anctent
the only way to display verse m writing. To the contrary, even the most cursory of surveys Btbhcal Manuscript Center Courtesy Russian Nattonal Ltbrary (Saltykov-Shchedrm)
reveals a bewildering array of spaces, points, wedges, lines, and other forms of punctuation

33 See W.J. Ong, Otahty and Dteracy: The Technologtzmg of the Word (London/New Yolk Routledge, 1982)
esp 83-85.
34 Hall, Companion (N 17) 9-14; Kenyon, Books and Readers (N 17) 78, O'Blien O'Keeffe, Visible Song (N 1),
M.B Parkes, Pause and Effect An Introduct|on to the Hÿstol y of Punctuatmn in the West (Albmshot Scholars, 1992).
97-98, R Hmsman, The Written Poem Semtottc Conventionsfi om Old to Modetn Enghsh (London/New York. Cassell,
1998) 99-126
35 C Watkms, "Obsmvatmns on the 'Nestor's Cup' Inscnptmn" Hat yard Studies in Classtcal Phdology 8o (1976).
25-40, cf West, EastFace ofHehcon (N 29)' 26
36 Parkes, Pause and Effect (N 34) 97
34 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
Fig. 14: B *9A, folio 368 reverse (Ps 18:7B-19'A). Freedman et al., The
Lemngrad Codex. Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West
Semmc Research, m collaboration wlth the Ancient Blbhcal Manuscript
Center Courtesy Russian Natlonal Library (Saltykov-Shchedrin)
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 35
Flg, 15: B 19A, folio 182 revmse (2Sam 22:25-23.3A). Freedman et al.,
The Lemngrad Codex. Photograph by Bÿ uce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West
Semitic Research, in collaboratmn wÿth the Ancient Bÿbhcal Manuscript
Center Courtesy Russmn NatÿonaI Lÿbrary (Saltykov-Shchedrm)
 7

36 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE ]UDEAN DESERT 37

(individually or in combination) used to display verse in known writing systemsY The display
of verse structure in the texts from the Iudean Desert (and also among the many Masoretic
J
manuscripts39 is a case in point. The line (of writing) here, too, factors as an important means
for setting out verse structure (see further below), but it has a different profile than the one verse
per line format so familiar from the classical tradition and as often as not is used in combination
with spacing, the manipulation of smaller and larger spans of unlnscribed textual material. It
is the latter that is the more prominent and sigmficant means for distinguishing the verse line
at Qumran and gives the column of writing its distinctive look (rnise en page).39 Neither of the
pre-Qumran collections of Levantine poetry nor the Carpentras stele utilize space to frame
smgle lines of verse, and therefore, on present evidence, this particular development in scribal
practice appears to be an innovation of the Hellenistm period.
Still, there must be cultural antecedents even for innovative practices. In the case of using
space to lay out line format beginning at Qumran, the likeliest antecedent would appear to
be the use of space to divide words, an otherwise well-attested and (relatively) ancient scribal
practice in the Levant.4° In fact, separation marks are already used on occasion to delimit units
on several of the earliest alphabetic epigraphs from the second millennium BCE (e.g., Naglla
sherd, Sinai 527, Grossman seal, Sinai 363, Lachish ewer; figs. 17-18), though, not surprisingly,
the norm in the early alphabetic texts is to follow Egyptian scribal conventions, where word

F¢g. 16' Nestor's cup (ca eighth c. BCE), from

37 Consldm only those wlmng systems given visibility m the ctment essay m Egypt, the norm is to wllte http://wwwÿ.umon edu/wareht/greek3/wntlng_nestor.jpg.
evmythmg (including verse) continuously, though sometimes mdmdual verses are written on then own lines, and
m the New Kingdom Period m pattmular (red) verse dots me used commonly m verse composlhons (figs 3, lO-11);
in the cuneiform tradition from Mesopotamm, Akkadmn verse is formatted thl ough a combmatmn of the columnar dividers were not used (because they were not needed).ÿl By the end of the Late Bronze Age
hne, spacing, and/or various sorts of wedges (fig 31), in Greece, the memcal hne is mapped to the written line (the earliest point at which we have continuous discursive and plainly decipherable texts in the
early on (figs 4, 32), but even here the plactme is not invariable (fig. lz); Palkes Identifies thlee basic layouts for
various WS dialects), the graphic indication of word division is the rule.42 Dividers of various
Medieval Latin poetry (Pause and Effect [N 34] 97), but varmhons abound and all of these then can get overlmd
with various forms of punctuation (e.g, points marking the end of verses, blaces Nming rhyme words, a httera sorts--dots, sequences of dots, separator lines, short vertical strokes--are the most common
notabÿhot heading individual rinses or stanzas [fig. 6J--Latin hymns, for example, wine often written continuously (and earliest) scribal technique used to separate words, as they are spatially economical and
across the hne with only points sepal atlng the Individual vmses, Palkes, Pause and Effect IN 34J' 98), and the sevei al
graphically conspicuous (particularly evident m monumental dÿsplay inscriptions, e.g., KAI
(European) velnaculal tradmons (e g, Old English, Old lhench) ultimately model their own practices for wntmg
vmse after the latter, but these evolve only gl adually and distinctly unsystemahcally--thme is a prolonged period m a4, ÿ8ÿ; Tel Dan). A small vertical wedge is used consistently at Ugarxt to separate (line-
which Old English verse, for example, is not distinguished (or only minimally so) in wmmg (fig. 5). Presumably, a Internal) wordsa3 (fig. 7) and a small vertical stroke is prominent among various early first
1 mher survey of the world's writing systems would 1 eveal still other conventions for displaying verse. Similarities m
pl actme are apparent (e g, m page or column layout, hneatlon, use of spaces, dots, or other kinds of strokes), some of
which me genealogical m migm (as with the classic tra&tlon and its hens), while othms no doubt fall out as a result
4ÿ The use of "determlnatwes and phonetic complements" in Egyptian appmently obviates the need of wold
of the genm al technology of wlltmg itself Still, the mfmmmg mlpHnt of local custom and culture remains patent
&vldms m Egyptmn, see G.J Hamilton, The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet m Egyptian Scripts (CBQM 40;
throughout. This is most conspicuous m Mesopotamia whme the materlahty of the wl ltmg surface (clay tablets) so
Washington CBA, 2oo6). 4o6, n 7; cf A H Galdmer, The Theory of Speech and Language (Oxfold, ÿ93ÿ) la2,
slgmficantly impmges on practices of layout (e.g, the uses ofvmtlcal wedges) In Egypt, too, the writing matmlals
A. Loprieno, Ancwnt Egyptmn A Linguistic Intÿoductmn (Cambridge' Cambtldge Umv, 1995) ÿ3, J Naveh, "Word
drive practice For my conslderatmns, the practices that evolve for wilting on papyrus (with only two Mnds of ink,
Division m West Semitic Wlitmg;' IEJ 23 ('973) 206, A R Mlllard, "'Scrlpho Continua' m Eally Hebrew Ancient
black and led) me critical. But convention also plays a role. The Egyptmns nolmally wrote htelarg composmons
Practice or Modmn Surmlseÿ" JSS 15 (z97o). 5 Mlllard ("'Scnptlo Continua';' '3) ÿs smely cmrect m his estimate
continuously acl oss the column The Greeks, to offer a thn d obwous example, bm rowed the materml (papyl us 1 olls) that "the rich provision of syllabic signs" m the syllabic cunelfmm fiom Mesopotamia similarly rendered the use
flora Egyptian practice, but also evolved their own writing conventions, including perhaps most spectacularly the
of word dividers unnecessaly, though, as Gleen obsmves ("Cuneffmm Writing" IN 2z] 35ÿ), word separation does
lsommphm mapping of the metrical hne with the written line m verse compositions Levantine practice for writing
appear (and not uncommonly) m cunmfotm hteraly texts. For brmf surveys of the early alphabetic corpola, see
vmse, not smpnsmgly, shows similar kinds of genelal and genealogical commonality, as well as local developments
and distinctions. G J Hamilton, "WF Albnght and Early Alphabetic Epigraphy;' NEA 65 (2ooÿ). 35-42; EW Dobbs-Allsopp, 'ÿsla,
38 Throe ale obvious family lesemblances m the specml fmmats used by the two tra&hons, see Toy, ScHbal Ancient Southwest Scripts, Eathest" m Encyclopedm of Language and Lmgmstÿcs (ÿnd ed, K Brown, ed; Oxford.
Elsewer, 2oo6)' ÿ 495-5oo
Practices (N 4)' 174-175, 274-276.
39 By comparison, throe is no compmable use of spacing m the Gleek (and Latin) papyri In Akka&an, howevm, 42 Tins convention, even where consistent, is never unexceptional Scÿlbal practice m manuscript cultmes, as an
empmcal fact, is always marked by variation. Furthermore, word dlwders are sometimes neglected m short and
as B.R.line
"each Fostm obsmves
tends (Before
to be &vlded thehalves,
into Musessometimes
An Anthology of Akkadmn
m&cated, Literature
especially [2 vols
m latin ; BethesdabyCDL,
manuscripts, 1993].
a blank 1.14),
space m non-folmal scripts, see Naveh, "Word Division" (N 4ÿ) 2o6
the middle of the [columnar] line" (see fig 31) 4ÿ Cf W] Holwltz, "A Study of Ugmlttc Scnbal Plactlces and Prosody in CTA 2 4;' UF 5 (ÿ973) ÿ65 The
40 Fol a fascinating appleclatlon of the levolutlonary significance of mhatextual space m writing dining the practice of wind &vision at Ugant is especially noteworthy pleclsely because the scribes of Ugarlt so obviously
bmrowed (and adapted) the notion of cunmfotm writing and ÿts techmques from Mesopotamia where word
Medieval period, see P Saenger, Space Between Words The Ot 1gins of &lent Readmg (Stanford Stanfold Unlv, 1997)
&wders are not a palt of the scrlbal conventions for writing Space ÿs sometimes used to sepmate words at Ugarlt
Unfmtunately, he gives the phenomenon of woÿd separation m ancient WS writing, about which he is not overly
well-mfoÿmed, shmt-shilft (pp 9-m) (WJ. Holwltz, "Dlscÿepancms m an Important Publlcatmn m UgaHhcÿ' UF 4 [197z] 51, n 15), and very often the
wind &wdm is absent at the end of a line (see below). Horwÿtz's suggestion to see m the small vertical wedge at Ugant
38 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE IUDEAN DESERT 39

millennium WS eplgraphs (e.g., ICAI 1, 4, 6, 2ol, 202; Kerak; fig. 19). The dot becomes dominant
by the eighth century BCE (e.g., KAI 24, 181, 216; fig. 20) and is especially characteristic of
the Iron II Hebrew inscriptions (e.g., Arad; Jerusalem 23; Kuntillet Ajrud *4, 18-2o; Lachlsh;
Mesad Hashawahu 1; E1 Qom 3; Samaria; Sfloam; figs. 21-22).44 Writing in scrzptio continua
(i.e., wrmng that does not distinguish word boundaries) is infrequent but attested throughout
the Levant in the Iron I and II periods (e.g., KAI 26, 222-224; fig. 23), though it never becomes
normative except m the late Phoenician scripts, where it is used systematicallyY The use of
space as a delimiter of words, which neurophyslologically is more readily perceivable than
dots, strokes and the like,4ÿ is attested only occasionally early on (e.g., KAI 26), but becomes
prominent in Aramaic inscriptions beginning in the seventh century BCE (e.g., ICAI 233; TAD
A1.1; fig. 24). The practice is normative for all Persian period Aramaic textual materials (fig, 8)47
This latter observation is not insignificant, as it is from the Aramaic script traditions of the fifth
and fourth centuries BCE (and not the Iron II "Old" Hebrew script tradition) that the various
"Jewish" scripts (and presumably their attendant scribal practmes) at Qumran develop.48 And
even the transition to the use of sldns (instead of papyrus) as the preferred material of writing
evidenced at Qumran may reflect and emerge out of larger Aramaic scribal practice.49 Therefore,
that the scribes responsible for the texts recovered from the Judean Desert would extend one
well-known practme of dehmitation and isolation to another domain of textual organization IS
unobjectmnable and even, on the face of st, likely--as W.J. Horwitz observes, graphic symbols
may "perform more than one function."5° In this case, it appears to be an extension of scnbal

"an abblevlated folm of the Sumerian 'cases'" ("2he Ugantm Scribe" UF 1, [1979] 390, n 51) seems unhkely xn hght
of the nature and early tradition of wold division in WS scripts Rathm, hke the dot ol hne m othel WS scripts, its
origin probably mine lea&ly 1,es m its slmphclty of execution and graphic perspmuousness
44 As Naveh notmes ("Wind Dÿvtslon" [N 41]' 2o7), m the sem>formal and cursive styles of the ostraca (e g, Arad,
Lachlsh) it is not uncommon fm &wdels to be omitted And throe me certain medm on which &wders larely occur
(e g, seals). Still, the nm matlve use of dots as wmd &vlders m Hebrew mscnptmns is patent
45 Mlllmd, "'Scnptlo Continua'" (N 4*) 9; Naveh, "Word Dlvlsloff' (N 4*) 2o8 ]he stimulus fol this development
is uncleal As Hamilton notes (West SemlttcAlphabet [N 41]' 406, n 7), the norm in the earhest alphabetic texts 0 e,
the texts flom Smablt and the Wa& el-Hol and the so-called "Proto-Canaamte" and "Old Canaamte" inscriptions)
is contmuous wilting without regular use of word separatms. 3he point to be stressed ÿs that this is an mhmlted
convention from Egyptian writing pÿactlces So the few places whine separators do appeal m the early texts is qmte
telhng, foreshadowing the basic tlajectoly of the Late Bronze and Iron Age hneat alphabetic scl,pts 3bus, it seems
unhkely that the shift to sct tptto continua m the late Phoemclan scrLpts is at all related to this m 1gram y phenomenon
46 Saengm, Space Between Words (N 4@ 26
47 Mdlard, "'Scnptm Continua;" (N 4*). 9, *o-**, Naveh, "Word Dlwsmn" (N 4*) 207.
48 Fm details, see F M. Closs, "The Development of the Jewish Scripts" m Leaves from an Eptgmphet Notebook
(HSS 5., Wmona Lake' Elsenbrauns, 2003). 3-43. As Naveh remarks ("Word Dlvlsloff' IN 4'] 207, n 14), when the
scribes at Qumlan wlote in the Jewish script, "they natm ally followed the Mamalc spacmg:' In contlast, manuscllpts
fiom Qumlan written m the paleo-Hebrew script (e g, 4QpaleoExodm) and Samm 1tan mscllptmns and manuscripts
use dots as a lule (Naveh, "Word Dlwsmn" [N 4'] 207, M111ard. "'Scllptm Continua;" [N 41] 10) N.B. 4QpaleoIobÿ
(and also apparently 4QpaleoDeutr) uses space to amculate the velse hne Fig ÿ7: Sxnm 363 [InscrlptÿFact Text ISF_TXT_oo96o, InscnptÿFact
49 See M. Hman, "Book-Sclolls at the Beginning of the Second Temple Period' The Tlansmon from Papylus to Dÿgttal Object ISF DO o6932]. Courtesy Harvard Semitic Museum.
Skins;' HUCA 54 (1983) ***-.22
0 Horwltz, "Ugantlc Scr,bal PI actlces" (a 43)' 165, cf. Robertson, "Wind Dlwdms" (N 22). 285. As A F Robertson
notes, the "wold divider" m CAT *.24 m actuahty is used as a "spot markm" (as commonly m Old Assyrian practme)
and as a "clause markm" isolating m&vMual verse hnes (as m Egyptmn pl actlce, "Non-Wol d Divider Use" IN 26]: 89-
*09, cf W. Hmowltz, "Our Ugantlc Mythologmal Texts Copmd ol Dmtated?" UF 9 [,977] ,23-,3o), thus exhlbmng
another example of the kind of pathway flom word d,vlder to verse malker as enwsmned here for the use of space at (in thÿs case) alphabetic sÿgns take shape and become meamngful as graphic sÿgmfim s--the provmbml "black malks
Qumlan In fact, space is deafly mampulated to other ends besMe wold &vlsmn and hne folmat (e g, to artmulate on the page" that is wl,tmg leqmres the space of the page for writing to be recogmzable, at all mtelhglble as wt ¢tmg
lalger and smallm sense units, to &stmgmsh m&wdual psalms or books), both at Qumlan and m the Masmetlc And that wrltm s--scribes--would eventually mampulate thin abundance of unmscl lbed material to varxous ends--
manuscripts (Tov, Scrtbal Practices [N 4]. *31-166) It is just as surely the case that the use of space to &wde words m sepmatlng wolds, mttculatmg verse hnes, cleating margins, identifying begmnmgs and ends of larger blocks of
the filst place is itself an outglowth of the mateHahty of wrmng m the Levant Many wntmg surfaces--stone, leather, textuahty (e g, paragraphs, stanzas, poems, whole works)--seems (to me) entirely leasonable Appalently, from
papyrus--requned actual, physmal prepmatmn (through scraping and the hke) before writing could be apphed the 1 eadet's perspective, "the sahant quality of lntratextual space" is not relative width but "the 1 apl&ty wÿth whmh
That is, "space" needed to be clealed, hterally made, created And it is thÿs space--thÿs white space'--of unmscHbed the eye can &stmgmsh it flom the space otherwise contamed within a text" (e g, space between lettm s, words, hnes,
materml that Dowdes the very ground for wrmng, that against whmh the pecuhar marks ol incisions of the vauous opened and dosed sections, see Saengm, Space Between Woÿds [ÿ 4o] 27).
4° F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
practices with a specifically Aramaic lineage21 Nothing short of explicit comment, of course,
can finally prove the suggestion. Nevertheless, it remains an empirical fact that prior to the
texts from the Judean Desert spacing is used chiefly to divide words (as is the case also in the
Carpentras stele) and only beginning at Qumrans2 do we get manuscripts that explicitly deploy
spacing as a technique to both delimit words and to set out verse format, and therefore that the
latter should be a development and extension of the former is entirely reasonable?3
Finally, the use of the columnar line as a technological means for isolating either a single
verse line or couplet (with or without medial spacing) merits attention as well. Even though it
seems an obvious method for hneating verse, it no less than the use of space just discussed
evolved over time and in response to specific material realities. In the medieval Masoretlc
manuscripts, such usage is most visible in the layout of Deuteronomy 32 (and z Samuel z3) and
especially Psalm 119 (fig. z5; in both cases always with internal spacing)--though the focus of
the rabbinic discussions regarding the former and the presence of the acrostic in the latter have
perhaps obscured somewhat the clear perception of this technology in operation. The Qumran
texts help sharpen perception of this phenomenon tremendously, not the least because one
of the places where the structural use of the manuscript line is most conspicuous at Qumran
is precisely with reference to Deuteronomy 32 (e.g., 1QDeutb, 4QDeutb'c'q, 4QpaleoDeutr)
and Psalm 119 (e.g., 1QPsa, 11QPs"'b). This manner of poetic formatting, like the use of
spacing just discussed, may also have roots in older scribal practice. In fact, the very notion
of a line and then writing in a line is itself also a product of cultural knowledge, i.e., it
IS not a given that language must be represented graphically in strings of horizontal lines.
In Mesopotamia, for example, in the archaic Uruk tablets (ca. late fourth millennium BCE)
words and phrases are generally enclosed (haphazardly) in rectangular cases; and only later
toward the end of the third millennium (ca. z3OOBCE) do these boxlike cases begin to evolve
51 Tov also isolates Aramaic plecmsors to the use of spacing m the Dead Sea Scrolls (Scrlbal Practices [N 4]
esp 155, 173, 273), though with dlffment emphases My last conveIsatlon (as it turns out) with the late Michael
O'Connm was on this precise topic and helped to sharpen and to clallfy my thinking about this connection I miss
Michael, both as a friend and as an incisive and Imaginative lnteilocutor
52 ÿIhere is nothing at stake in Qumran ultimately proving to be the site of mnovahon. At this point it is simply the
place where we can first begin to tI ack this phenomenon posltwely. Cmrently, with the exception of the Carpenti as
stele, we simply lack hneated, poetic compositions in WS from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, SO new dlscovel ies
can always potentially change om estimate The CaIpentras stele is itself the pioduct of the same (AIamalc based)
tradition of Scllbal practice as here posited as informing the poetic formatting at Qumran.
53 As to motivation, I can only offm speculation. First, based on the work of Green ("Cuneifolm Writing" [n 22]),
O'Brlen O'Keeffe (Visible Song [N 1]), and others, it may be assumed that whatever other onglnal intent is posited
this kind of innovation in meta-scrlpt convention also would have seiviced local (Scllbal!) readetly needs (e.g, as
cues for otal performance) Second, analogous to the fit between classical plosodies and the hne by hne vel se folmat
(e g., Palkes, Pause and Effect [N 34]. 97), spacing Is congenial both to the principal contours ofblbhcal prosody (e g,
nonmetrlcat, concise but unequal hne-lengths, hne-grouplngs of twos and threes, combinations of both pal allehstlc
and non-pal allehstlc sets of hnes) and as an adaptation to the nolmal practice m the region of writing in columns
of continuously written blocks of text Finally, as deployed at Qumran the use of spacing to separate lines ofvelse
and letteIs, words, and larger blocks of texts makes for an extremely efficient and flexible system No other cues
are needed (contrast the paleo-Hebrew script, which uses sepalator dots and space, cf 4QpaleoJobÿ) The width of
spacing may be adjusted as needed (since detel mined widths are not salient to visual processing, see Saenger, Space
Between Words [n 4o]. 27), ensuring a maximum use of the skin's surface for the display of wilting. Even when the
one verse per line format is chosen, the scribe normally compensates by increasing the number of (skinnier) columns
per page (as in 4QPsb) It is only once the cost of book-making is considerably cheapel (as in the post-Gutenberg
era) that it becomes economically feasible to have manuscript pages dominated by white space instead of Wl Iting (cf.
K van dm Toorn, Solbal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible [Cambridge. Haivard Unlv, 2oo7]. 16-2o)
In fact, it is economic consldmatlons that many cite as a lataonale for why vmse and prose texts wele written in
the same way, in continuous lines of writing. But at best this is only a very partial consideration, as any survey of
poetically fol matted manuscripts reveals maximum coverage of the writing sm face with writing, lntl acolumns and
other margins tend even in poetic texts to be very minimal
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 41
into the horizontal lines that become normative for all later cuneiform writing24 In other
words, the manuscript line in Mesopotamian scrlbal practice is itself indisputably the product
of technological evolution. In Egypt, to take the other great ancient home of writing, the
dominant way of arranging hieroglyphic signs was in groups ss Interestingly, while a lack of
group quadrants is never common in Egyptian, single-file arrangements of both hieroglyphic
and hieratic do occasionally appear, especially in hieratic of the late Middle Kingdom period.5s
It is precisely during this latter period that the "linear" (i.e., drawn in lines) alphabetic script
originates, and as perceptively recognized by G. Hamilton, it is the single-file arrangement of
graphemes that becomes a significant distinguishing feature of this new script (i.e., vis-a-vis its
parent Egyptian writing systems)Y Still, early alphabetic inscriptions, arranged in single file,
may be oriented (as in Egyptian writing) vertically or horizontally. It is only in the eleventh
century BCE that the horizontal direction of writing (slnistrograde, from right to left) becomes
standardized.5ÿ And, thus here again it is most apparent that the line of writing itself is a matter
of technological development and not a given, i.e., not something that is automatically done,
however conventional and matter of fact it may seem.
The basic linear orientation of alphabetic writing in the ancient Levant is also frequently
given material expression, especially in more formal texts and inscriptions, through the prepa-
ration of the writing surface with actual horizontal lines or ruhngsY Most scribes, as Tov notes,
regardless of the material on which they were writing, required graphic guides of some sort to
align the writing.6° Almost all texts written on leather from Qumran and Massada, accord-
ing to Toy€1 have ruled (scored) horizontal lines, while those written on papyrus generally
are not ruled--though on the latter, the horizontal (and vertical) fibers may well have pro-
vided some rough guidanceY Ruling is evidenced on even the earliest cuneiform clay tablets,
though often this ceases to be visible after inscription?3 Rulings appear in the Deir 'Allah plaster
texts (fig. z6)64 and frequently m various of the first millennium WS lapidary inscriptions. So,
54 Gleen, "Cuneiform Writing" [N 22] 349, 366, and esp figs. 1-3 Foi a convenient survey, see JS Cooper,
"Cunelfoim" in ABD, I, 1212-1218 The alphabetic cuneiform in use at ancient Ugant and ItS enwlons is written by
i ule from left to right in hoi izontal lines, as this had long since been the scnbal norm for writing in cuneiform used
by the Babylonians at the tame--it was, of couise, from the syllabic cunmfolm writing system of the Babylonians
that the Uganhc scribes boHowed the notion of cuneiform wilting and its techniques and adapted them to create
an alphabetic syllabary (comprised of thnty signs) to write UgantIc (see M. O'Connol, "Wilting Systems, Native
Speakm Analyses, and the Earhest Stages of Northwest Semitic Orthogl aphy" in The Wotd of the Lotd Shall Go Forth
[C.L Meyels and M O'Connm, eds ; Wmona Lake. Eisenbrauns, 1983]. 439-465, esp 441)
55 Hamilton, West SemttlcAlphabet (N 41). 4Ol-4O2, cf Loprleno, AncwntEgypttan (N 41)' 21-22
56 J.C Dalnell, FW Dobbs-Allsopp, M Lundberg, PK. McCaltm, ]r, and B Zuckmman, Two EaHy Alphabetic
Inscrlptlonsfiom the Wa& el-HOl (AASOR 59 z, Boston' ASOR, zoo5). 93, n Zl
57 Hamilton, West Sermttc Alphabet (n 41). 405-406 Hamilton also shesses that group altangements of signs ate
also attested in the early alphabetic corpus (e g, Sinai 346b), so, as he says, the dominant way of ari angmg Egyptian
signs was not abandoned immediately by WS wi ltel s of the emerging consonantal alphabet
58 For the seminal statement on this development, see FM Cross, "The Evolution of the Proto-Canaamte
Alphabetic;' m Leaves (n 48). 3o9-31z
59 Even on the less folmal letteis, accounts, and hsts of various kinds written in the West on ostraca, the shlations
appeating in the clay as a lesult of the pottm's wheel will often serve as an informal guide foI hneai writing
60 See Tov, So tbal Pt aetlces (n 4) 57-68 Sometimes It would have been sufficient to imagine the presence of such
a ruling hne as a guide for writing.
61 Ibld, 57
62 In contrast, the Egyptian Aramaic documents written on leather (the so-called Drivel documents) do not
exhibit obvious signs of ruling
63 Cf G R Driver, Semitic Wrztmgfrom Pictograph to Alphabet (31d ed; London Btltish Academy, 1976) 39-
40 Actual horizontal lines also often appeai in the alphabetic cuneiform texts from Ugant to divide sections of a
composltmn (e g, CTU 1 z3)
64 A R MlllaId, "Eplgraphlc Notes, Aramaic and Hebrew;' PEQ 11o (1978) 24
42 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
Fzg. 18. Grossman seal. (Drawing by Gordon Hamilton).
Fig. 19 KAI 4 Yehlmllk. [InscriptxFact Text ISF TXT_oo822, InscrlptlFact Digital
Object ISF DO o6285]. Photograph by Bruce Zuckerman and Marllyn
Lundberg, West Semltzc Research. Courtesy Department of Antiqmtws, Lebanon.
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 43
Fig 20: KAI 24. Kllamuwa [InscnptlFact Text ISF_TXT_o1214, InscrxptxFact
Digital Object ISF_DO o9963]. Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman
and Marilyn Lundberg, West Semitic Research. Courtesy Vorderasiatisches
Museum, Berhn. Note use of word dividers and decorative line of writing.
for example, the ruhngs on Bar-Rakib (KAI 217) and on Kilamuwa (KAI 24) are not only plain
to see but even function decoratively on these display inscriptions (figs. 2o, 27). It is also evident
in these inscriptions, as was customary in the first millennium WS scripts more generally, that
the individual letters themselves are hung from these lines--that is, the lines serve as a kind of
"ceiling •line."65And even when such lines were not actually drawn, they were likely imagined,
as the individual letters consistently hang from the same basic vertical point of reference across
a line of writing. And thus, as a consequence of this practice, the visual impression of a line
is focalized acutely even when the line itself is lacking. In sum, the notion "line" is plainly
manifested in the scribal conventions and practices in the ancient Levant, both in the single-file
and horizontal orientation of linear alphabetic writing and in the rulings (so often still extant)
that customarily guided lineal alignment.
All cultural knowledge, once in place, is always potentially manipulable toward other, non-
origlnary ends. Already at Ugarit one notices the scribes frequently using the end of a (written)
line on a tablet to mark word boundaries.66 That is, where in the middle of the line word dividers
6s Cf C.A Rollston, "Scnbal Education in Ancient Islael. The Old Hebrew EpigIaphlc Evidence," BASOR 344
(ÿo6). 58
66 Horwltz estimates that end-of-line boundary corresponds to a word boundaiy in approximately 95 % of the
possible cases m the mythological texts--1898/1997 ("Ugantlc Scnbal Practices" [N 43]' 169)
44 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE IUDEAN DESERT 45

ll Hgn !1

Fig. 21: Samarla Ostracon 53. [InscnptlFact Text ISF_TXT_oo897, InscnptiFact

Digital Object ISF_DO_o6815]. Courtesy Harvard Semitic Museum

Ftg. 23:1(.41 aa4. Sefire III. [InscnptlFact Text ISF_TXT oo8o7, InscnptiFact Digital
Object ISF_DO_o6o68]. Photograph by Bruce Zuckerman and Mardyn
Lundberg, West Semltxc Research Courtesy Department of Antlquitws, Lebanon

Ftg. 22: &loam Tunnel Inscription (ART 1 a53o4; Erich Lessmg/Art Resource, NY)

Fig. 24: ICAI 233 Assm Ostracon. [InscfiptlFact Text ISF TXT_ola2o, InscnptlFact
Digital Object ISFDO 11171] Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman and
Mar@n Lundberg, West Semitic Research. Courtesy Vo, derasmtlsches Museum, Berhn
46 F.ÿDOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 47

are customarily used to signal word boundaries, at hne-end word dividers normally do not
appear (see fig. 7). Here, we may presume, the scribe is using the margin at the end of the line
in lieu of a word divider.67 And even occasionally, as in CTU 1. lO.II.3-31, this practice is used
to demarcate the verse line itself¢8 Also in the proverbs of Ahiqar (figs. 8, 28), the columnar line
is used sporadically but undemably to isolate individual proverbs, normally those composed of
short-hne couplets (e.g., TAD C1.1.8o, 93, 136. 161, 165).69 Sometimes, the scribe ended one
proverb and left the rest of the line blank, starting the new proverb on a new columnar line (e.g.,
TAD C1.1.85-86, 130-131).7° Other times a large 'aleph-like sign is used to delimit proverbs
(e.g., TAD C1.1.88.135,139, 14o, 168, 172). And at still other times a simple horizontal stroke
is placed in between two lines of writing, thereby distinguishing individual proverbs (e.g., TAD
C1.1.1o9. 11o, 122, 123, 124, 144, 145). So both of the pre-Qumran WS collections of verse
exhibit an emergent use of the actual hne of writing as an organizational or structural technique.
The Carpentras stele clinches the argument. If spacing is not used as such to delimit verse lines
in this inscription, here we certainly do have the "manuscript" line (in this case inscribed on
a monument) explicitly used to frame the verse line. Each of its four lines of inscribed text
appears to contain two verse lines (fig. 9). Such a format resembles one of the varieties in the
first system of special formatting of poetm texts at Qumran identified by Tov (e.g., 4QDeutb),
and thus provides an important indicator of the likeliest genealogy for the innovative use of the
line of writing at Qumran to articulate poetic line structure.
The other place where the manuscript line is structurally significant is in lists (fig. 29).71
Cuneiform lists definitely have special formats.72 In WS scribal practice lists may be formatted
either as a running text (e.g., TAD D3.17) or in lines (e.g., CAT 4.47, 63, lOO, 213; TAD D8.7-
lO). In the Iron II Hebrew inscriptions, for example, both strategies are in evidence (e.g., Gezer
1; Jerusalem 1, 5, 26-27; Kadesh-Barnea 3, 6; Lachlsh 19; Horvat Uza 3A-B); also at Qumran
(e.g., 4QCal Doc/Mlsh A, lined; 4QCal Doc/Mish B, not lined).73 In Persian period Aramaic
texts line formatted lists are most common (e.g., TAD C3.15, 4.1-6, D9.3, 9-1o).

67 It IS, of course, also the case that words may be continued on an immediately following hne That is, the lack of
of a wold divider at line end is no guarantee that the wold is necessaIily complete
68 For use of word dividers in CTU 1.24, see Robertson, "Non-Word Dlvldel Use" (N ÿ6)
69 This use of the line m veise, of course, is nolmatlve in cuneiform (at least from the OB period on). In Ald<adian
velse, as Foster obsmves (Before the Muses [ÿ 39]. 1 14, cf A. Falkensteln and W. von Soden, SummeHsch und Fÿg. 25: B 19A, foho 391 reverse (Ps 119 46-93). Freedman et al., 7he
akkadlsche Hymnen und Gebete [Zurich. Artemis, 1953] 39-41, W.G Lambmt, Babyloman Wtsdom Ltterature Lemngrad Codex. Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West
[Oxford' Claiendon, 196o]' Vl; K Hecker, Untersuchungen zur akkadtschen Eptk [AOAT 8, Neuklrchen-Vluyn' Semitic Research, m collaboratmn w¢th the Ancwnt Bÿbhcal Manuscÿ ¢pt
Neuknchener, 1974] lO1-141), "each line tends to be divided mto halves" sometimes with lnteivening space left
Center. Courtesy Russmn Natmnal Lÿbmry (Saltykov-Shchedrm)
in the middle Also a "colon" consisting of either a diagonal or veitlcal wedge, or even two vertical wedges, could
be used to separate the two poetic hnes on a columnar hne Other times, one line per column line was used, with
additional spacing between signs when the number of words was insufficient to fill up the line completely (e.g., fig 31,
see A R MillaId, "In Praise of Ancient Scrlbes:' BA 45 [1982]' 146) Sumerian verse is much less well understood,
but even heie it is clear that the same line stIucture is maintained in successive copies ofhtelaiy texts (unhke for
other kinds of documents, see ] Black, Readmg Sumet 1an Poetry [Ithaca. Cm nell Univ, 1998])
70 Cf Mlllaid, 'ÿnclent Scribes" (N 69). 15o
71 Fol the significance of the "list" as a specifically Wlltten genre, see I Goody, 7he Domestication of the Savage
Mind (Cambridge. Cambndge Univ, 1977) 74-111. G Rublo offeis a Sumerologxst's perspective on lists in ancient
Mesopotamia, at places questioning some of Goody's assumptions ("Early Sumenan Literature' Enumerating the
Whole:' in De Ia Tabhlla a la Intehgencza At t#czal [A Gonzÿlez Blanco et al, Zaragoza. PoItico Llbrerlas, 2oo4]'
197-2o8).
72 J S Cooper (personal communication, 26 August 2oo8)
73 Tov, Sozbal Pmcttces IN 4] 25o.
 48 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE IUDEAN DESERT 49
<

• ,ÿ iS/

Fig 26: Delr 'Allah (IOiI 312). [InscrlptlFact Text ISF TXT oo825, InscnptiFact Fig. 27 IOi1217. Bar Raklb II. [InscÿlptiFact Text ISF TXT_o1216, InscrtpttFact
Dÿgÿtal Object ISF DO_o6542]. Photograph by Bruce Zuckerman and Mardyn Dÿgital Object ISF DO_loo14] Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman and
Lundberg, West Semmc Research. Courtesy Depat tment of Antlqulties, Jordan Marllyn Lundberg, West SermtlC Research Courtesy Vorderasmttsches Museum, Berhn.

As with the above inferences about spacing, whether or not the scribes self-consciously
ultimately, bear on the question of the existence of bibhcal Hebrew verse, though it might, as
elaborated and extended previous structural uses of the manuscript line cannot be known to
suggested here, help us better understand the developing scribal technology of lineation.
us for certain, aside from explicit commentary, which is (currently) lacking. However, that the
In sum, the use of space and the notion of"hne" in evidence in the several varieties of special
manuscript line was already used by scribes for other organizational ends surely makes it an
manuscript layouts for poetic texts--verse--at Qumran ÿs both one of our earliest graphic
obvious and attractive possibility for exploitation in verse format. And that it is precisely in
representation of line structure in the WS (Levantine) poetic tradition and is, as suggested
terms of lists and verse that this means of formatting surfaces in the Masoretlc tradition makes
above, an outgrowth of well-known Levantine (alphabetic) scribal practices and conventions.
the hypothesis all the more appealing. Of course, that the Masoretes set aside special layouts
for both verse and lists has usually been perceived as a problem--why format lists and verse?
Most blbhcal scholars have found the traditions inconsistent graphic representation of verse
J. Kugel may well be correct that the rabbis' articulation, which joined the two, only confused
puzzling. However, much of this puzzlement, I suspect, may be explained by the strong
matters more and ultimately forestalled a full and enlightened appreciation of Hebrew verse
hterate bias of contemporary Western scholarship and the tacit assumption that the graphic
structure.74 But there is nothing to gainsay a scrlbal tradition that lines out different ldnds
display of the verse line in writing is inevitable, somehow inherent to the very nature of verse
of discourse--after all this is the current norm in Anglo-American chirographic practice. If
itself.76 Hopefully, enough has been said here with respect to the meta-script conventions for
verse is by definition poetry arranged in lines,7s not everything written graphically in lines is
representing the verse line in the manuscripts of biblical poems recovered from the Dead Sea
verse. That the Masoretes hned out lists IS interesting (and even commonplace) but it does not,
and its immediate environs to show why such biases and assumptions are misleading. And

74 Cf Kugel, Idea (N 10)' 121 76 'Ihls 1s what J Klttay and W. Godzÿch chmactenze as a "post-prose" view of verse, a conceptuahzatmn that is
"very much affected by the predominance of prose today--prose considered as a gÿven or natural state of written
75 TVF Brogan, "Poetry" in NPEPP, 938
language" (The Emergence of Prose An Essay in Ptosalcs [Mmneapohs' Umv of Minnesota, 1987]' xn-xnl)
50 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 51
rÿ

thus it is M. O'Connor's high estimate of the "tradition of writing verse m line units" as the
single "greatest source" for our knowledge of bxblical Hebrew verse that to my mind more
helpfully places the accent.77 However ultimately "erratm" (O'Connor's word) are the writing
practices preserved, what is truly remarkable is how much of the poetic corpus is in fact
preserved in writing and displayed graphically as verse. And the largely asymmetrical nature of
this "erratlcism" should not go unnoticed either. Xhat is, with the notable exception of certain
specific genres (esp. lists), there is little evidence that standard prose (non-verse) materials
are ever routinely formatted as verse (1.e., laid out stichographically with special spacing).
Even where the Masoretes sometimes appear (from our contemporary perspective) to mlsahgn
spacing and the verse line (e.g., Exodus 15),78 the underlying compositions are themselves

j unquestmnably always verse and not prose. In fact, if it is the Hellenistic period, or perhaps
even a little earlier at the end of the Persian period, that proves to be the period in which these
particular meta-scnpt conventions for formatting verse in Levantine scrlbal practice emerge,
the variation--"erratmisrn"--witnessed at Qumran, both in terms of the variety of formatting
schemes and of the alternations between their presence and absence with respect to the same
underlying poetic compositions, simply may reflect what otherwise might be expected at such
gÿg an originary moment--conventions, including writing conventions, evolve over time, take time
to set in, and older conventions always may continue, sometimes even tenaciously so.79
O. Even today in a climate of "mmimalism" when scholars are generally unwilling to accept at
"i
face value the Bÿble's self-assertions as to time and place of writing, many still thxnk that the
biblical poems preserved for the first time in writing in the Dead Sea scrolls mostly pre-date
that particular inscription in the Hellemstÿc period and can even imagine a sizable portion
Fig. 28. From Ahlqar (TAD C1.1, cols. 9-1o). [InscrtptlFact Text ISF_TXT ooo71,
of these poems originating in the period before the dissolution of the historic kingdoms of
InscliptxFact Digital Object ISF_DO_o5714]. Photograph by Bruce and Kenneth
Israel and Judah. ÿherefore, I close with a sketch of how I imagine verse and the nature of its
Zuckerman, West Semitlc Research. Courtesy Agyptlsches Museum, Berlin.
textuahty in the southern Levant (especially in Israel and Judah) during the Iron II period.
The speculative nature of this closing exercise should be patent. I do not pretend that I can
say anything with much specificity or in entire confidence, as we possess so little historical
documentation. Still, the meta-script conventions with regard to the layout of verse in evidence
at Qumran, when thought through in light of other relevant matters (e.g., orality, literacy, earlier
and later scribal practices), provide a potentially illuminating vantage point from which to look
back and imagine earlier practices.
To begin with, I presume that much (if not most) verse (esp. epics, love songs, hymns, dirges,
oracles, proverbs, and the like) circulated orally during the period. This follows chiefly from
the overriding orality of the ancient world and from what may be learned through comparative

Fig. 29: Example of a lined list from Elephantine (TAD C3.15, col 1). [InscrlptlFact Text
ISF_TXT_ooo74, InscnptÿFact Digital Object ISF DO_o58o6]. Photograph by Bruce and
I(enneth Zuckerman, West Semitic Research. Courtesy Agyptlsches Museum, Berhn.
77 M O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Stÿ ucture (Wmona Lake' Eÿsenbtauns, s98o) 29-3s
78 Toy (ScHbal Practtces [N 4]: ÿ66 and n 2ÿo) Hghtly notes that thÿs ÿs not a problem at Qumran
79 Smÿflarly, Toy writes. "The fact that for almost every occurrence of a stÿchographÿc arrangement there are otheÿ
scrolls &splaying the same composÿtmn m prose shows that the tra&tÿon of stlchographÿc writing was not fixed
oÿ that &fferent tÿa&tÿons were m vogue during dÿffeÿent peÿmds" (Scrÿbal Practices [N 4] 167) The expectatmns
of consistency or that one schema should necessarily prevail me only thinkable thÿs sÿde of Gutenberg (cf. Ong,
Orahty and Lÿteracy [N 33]' 117-ÿ38). Meta-scHpt conventions, lxke the writing systems of which they are a paÿt,
normally develop gradually over time And m manuscript cultures heterogeneity ÿs the norm on all fronts The
kmd of &vet sÿty found at Qumran--multtple for mats, verse compositions without formattmg--ts not untypical and
characterizes other tradltmns, especmlly m tÿansmonal periods, when new ptactmes (such as verse formattmg) are
first emerging (e g, Old Enghsh and Old French, see Huxsman, Written Poem [N 34]' 99-1-26, Medmval Latin, see
Parkes, Pause and Effect [N 34]' 97-ÿ4, even the Greek tra&tlon, as noted, exhibits some varlatmn early on, see
Hall, Compamon [N t7]. 8-ÿ3, Tmnet, Greek Papyt¢ [N ÿ7]' 63). There can be httle doubt that a running format (as
at Ugant and m AhNar) was an early, approprmte means foÿ writing down vmse composmons, which only becomes
problematic (open to formal confusion) once a suflicmnt amount ofwÿtten prose accumulates and reading becomes
mine wÿdespread (cf Kÿttay and Godzlch [N 76]. xn-xm)
52 F.W DOBBS-ALLSOPP
study of oral cultures and their literature more generally:° Indeed, even much of what eventually
gets written down in the Bible remains, as O'Connor perceptively observes, "comparably close
to the oral poetic situation;'81 Oral performance (and thus oral transmission) of verse was
the norm, even well after poems also started being copied or composed in writing (cf. Dent
31:28,31; 32:44-46; 2 Sam 1:17-18; Jeremiah 36). What is most extraordinary about the biblical
poetic corpus, then, is that it has preserved such a substantial amount of (once) oral verse--the
vast majority of oral literature produced throughout history, of course, has simply vanished.82
Saying as much is not to discount the possibility of early written forms of poetry. Writing is
known in the ancient Near East from the middle of the fourth millennium BCE, and alphabetic
writing from the beginning of the second millennium.83 So for the Iron Age polities of the
southern Levant, including Israel and Judah, there was never a time when writing was not
known, and thus the possibility of early written poems should always be kept open.84
The late ninth or early eighth through the seventh and sixth centuries BCÿ appear to be
the likeliest period during which poetic materials inside and outside of the Bible start being
collected and written downy The plaster texts in poetic register from Kuntillet Ajrud and
a0 The comparative and ethnographic hteiature on oiahty and liteiacy is immense For recent orientations to this
hteratuIe by blbhclsts, see esp. S. Niditch, 01aI World and Written Word Ancwntlsmehte Literature (Louisville. West-
minstel John Knox, 1996), Schnledewind, "Oi allty and Literacy in Ancient Israel" (N 2). 227-232, W Schniedewind,
How the Bible Became a Book (Cambridge Cambndge Univ., 2oo4), D M Can, WHtmg on the Tablet of the Hemp
Origins of Sctÿptme and Lstemture (OxfoId/New York Oxford Univ, 20o5); van deI Toorn, ScHbal Culture IN 53],
Sandels, The Inventzon ofHeblew (N 25)
81 M O'Connor, "Parallehsm" InNPEPP, 878; cf Nldltch, Oral Wotldand Written Word [n 8o]' esp lo, 78-88
a2 This is ] M Foley's observation about oral art foi ms In genei al (m How to Read an Oral Poem [Uibana/Chlcago
Unlv of Illinois, zooa]) and I assume at would apply to ancient Israel and Judah as well The slngulai copies of the
Baal Cycle and the epics of Klrta and Aqhat also piovlde us with a stunning ghmpse of tiadItional and piesumably
orally derived (esp. EM. Cross, Canaamte Myth and Hebrew Epic [Cambridge' Harvatd Unlve., 1972]. 112 and n. 3,
cf M S Smith, The Ugattttc Bail Cycle, Volume 1 [VTSup 55, Leiden. Brlll, 1994] 32-36) verse in West Semitic
That is, these texts were surely not circulated hterarfly and plesumably not even a pat t of a scIibal curriculum, if
they had any public reception at all it could have only been through oral performance (note the lntIlgulng exti a-
narrative instruction embedded in CTU 1 4.V42-43. 'ÿnd ietuin to the recitation [about]/when the lads are sent"
[M S Smith and W.T Pitald, The Ugatlttc Bail Cycle, Volume II (VTSup 114, Leiden' BIIll, 2oo9). 540, 574-576]).
Foi Israel and Judah the obvious example is epic verse, which surely existed even though none of it got wiltten down
(cf U. Cassuto, "The Israehte Epic;' in Blbhcal and Orwntal Studws [2 vols ; I Abrahams, trans, Jerusalem Magnes,
1975]' 2 69-lO9, Y Zakovltch, "Yes, There Was an Israelite Epic in the Biblical Period;' Internatmnal Folklore Revww 8
[1991] 18-25, F M Cioss, "Tladltlonal Narrative and the Reconstructmn of Early Israelite Institutions;' in FIom Epic
to Canon [Baltimore. Johns Hopkins Unlv, 1998]. 22-52)
s3 Esp Hamilton, West Semltlc Alphabet (N 41) and DaInell et al., Wa& el-Hdl (N 56)
s4 A. Ford ("From LetteIs to Llteiatuie' Reading the 'Song CultuIe' of Classmal Greece;' in WHtten Texts and
the Rise of Literate Culture m Ancwnt Greece [H. Yunms, ed, CambiIdge Cambridge Univ, 2oo3]. 2o), foi example,
presumes that some Gieek songs must have been wiltten down as eatly as theli earhest singers, otheiwIse it is hard
to lmagme how Hellenistic scholars had access to such an abundance of archaic Greek lyi lC. Further, writing need
not be only thought of as (primarily) sponsored by state bureaucracies For example, see S L Sanders's lntilguing
pi oposal for a cI aft tI adltlon of writing in tenth-centuI y IsI ael, which, as he notes, provocatively challenges "both the
somewhat ldeahzed reconstruction ofa bui eaucratized Sotomonic state and the somewhat preconceived dismissal of
complex culture in 1 oth-centul y Israel" ("Writing and Early Iron Age Israel' Before National Scripts, Beyond Nations
and States;' in Literate Culture and Tenth-Centm y Canaan. The Tel Zaylt Abecedary m Context [R Tappy, ed, Wlnona
Lake Elsenbrauns, 2oo8] lO4; cf R. Byrne, "The Refuge of Scrlballsm in hon I Palestlne;' BASOR 345 [2oo7]' 1-31).
85 Though many scholars still identify a core coIpus of presumed early bIbhcal poems (e g, Exodus 15, Judges 5,
Habakkuk 3, Psalm 29), ascm taming precisely when these poems may have been composed is a nettlesome pt oblem
and the extreme eatlydates (ca 12OO-lOOOBCE) once commonly posIted for them now seemmuch less reasonable
David A Robertson,s Lmgutsttc Ewdencefor Dating Early Hebtew Poetry (Mlssoula' SBL, 1972) is the classic study
of this material. Whatever may be decided about these poems' putative date(s) of composition, taking our cue from
Sanders' wotk (esp hÿventlon of Hebrew [N 25] ch 4), It appears unhkely that they would have been written down
in Hebrew prior to this peIiod, as the early bits of Hebrew that have survived appear not to have been designed to
convey this kind of cultural knowledge
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 53
Deir 'Allah date from this general period, and there are late ninth-century bullae that have
been recovered from Jerusalem,86 which indicate the existence of papyrus rolls, a medium that
certainly was used for writing literary works.87 It is only at this point, as Sanders has shown,
that writing in Israel and Judah "attests a constellation of tools for reproducing a standard
written Hebrew;' and thus the wherewithal for the copying and collecting of literary texts. So, for
example, at Kuntillet Ajrud there are practice texts (abecedarles, letters; Kuntillet Ajrud 19A-B),
a letter (Kuntillet Ajrud 18), a prayer (Kuntillet Ajrud ao), and even an apparent hymn (Kuntillet
Ajrud 15), and at Samarla (ca. 77OBCE) we have for the first time evidence for bureaucratic
record keeping. And It is throughout this general period that a substantial upsurge in writing
may be detected in the extra-biblical epigraphlc corpus88 and that most still date the written
prophecies of the likes of Hosea, Amos, Isaiah of Jerusalem, and Micah--arguably the earliest
writings from the Bible that can be dated with any confidence and much of which is in verse
(following R. Lowth).89 And the process of consohdating the great swath of narrative prose that
now comprises the Torah and Deuteronomlstic History (roughly Genesis through Kings) is
most often imagined to have begun during this same period of time (usually associated with
either Hezeldah or Joslah)--though the corpus as a whole would not have reached its final
shape until sometime in the sixth or fifth centuries BCE in response to the events surrounding
the 586 capture of Jerusalem.9° The latter, though largely prosaic and narrative in orientation,
contains, here and there, individual poems (e.g., Exodus 15; Judges 5; 1 Samuel ÿ) and many
smaller snippets of poems (e.g., Gen 4:23-ÿ4; Exod 15:21; Num ÿ1:27-3o; Josh lO:1ÿ-13; Judg
14:14, 18). A substantial portion of the biblical poetic corpus is preserved In collections or
sequences of poems that mostly post-date 586, including the three books formatted as verse by
86 See R Reich, E. Shukron, and O LeInau, "Recent Discoveries in the City of David, Jerusalem;' IF.] 57 (20o7)
153-169
87 Haran, "Book-Scrolls" (N 1). 161-173
88 j Naveh, 'Tk Paleographic Note on the Distribution of the Hebrew Script" HTR 61 (1968) 68-74; Niditch,
Oral World and Wtltten Wold [N 8o] esp 58-59, M Coogan, "Liteiacy and the Formation ofBlbhcal Liteiature," in
Reaha Dev Essays in Archaeology and Blbhcal Interpretation m Honoÿ of Edward F Campbell, It at His Retirement
(P Williams and T Hiebert, eds, Atlanta Scholais, 1999) 47-48; Schnledewlnd, How the Bible Became a Book [N 8o].
98-106; Sanders, "Writing and EaIly Iron Age Isiael" [N 84] lo6, cf Sanders, Invention of Hebrew [N 25]. esp. ch 4
89 So broadly, E L. Greenstein, "The Foimation of the Biblical Narrative Corpus" AJS Rev,ew 15/2 (199o)' 177,
Schniedewind, How the Bible Became a Book [N 8o]. 84-90, and esp van der Toorn, Sctlbal Culture IN 53] 173-
2o4 The Deir 'Alia plaster texts provide stunning evidence of an early extra-biblical collection ofplophetic oracles
from the Levant (M Weippert, "The Balaam Text from Dell 'Allfi and the Study of the Old Testament," in The
Balaam Text from Delr 'Allfi Re-Evaluated [J Hoflijzer and G van der Kooij, eds, Leiden Brlll, 1991] esp 177-
178, M Nlsslnen, "Spoken, Written, Quoted, and Invented. Oiahty and Writtenness in Ancient Near Eastern
Prophecy" in Wtltmgs and Speech in Israehte and Ancient Near Eastern P1ophecy [E Ben Zvi and M Floyd, eds,
Atlanta. SBL, 2ooo] 249-25o, van der Tomn, Scrlbal Culture [N 53]' 175-176) A point made well by Sandeis
(Inventmn of Hebrew [N 25] 164-165) is that the Deir 'Alia text (along with the notice in Lachish 3) provides
positive indication of the point at which writing and circulation of literary piophecy becomes possible in Hebrew
(cf Jeremiah 36). In fact, this display inscription mnrors the layout of a papyrus roll (cf. Millard, "Eplgraphic
Notes" [N 64] 25, A LemaiIe, "Manuscrlt, muI et rocher en 4plgraphie nord-ouest sOmitique" in Le texte et son
mscrlptmn [R. LaufeI, ed; Paris CNRS, 1989]' 38-39, ldem, "Les lnScilptlons sur plÿttre de Delr 'Alla et leur
signification historique et cultuIele" in The Balaam Text from Deÿr 'Alla Re-Evaluated [J Hofti/zer and G van
der Koolj, eds, Leiden. Brill, 1991] 43, Welppelt, "Balaam Text;' 176-177, the practice is known from early
Egyptian tomb inscriptions as well, see Cerny, Papeÿ and Books IN ÿ6]' 7). And the hteraiy leglster of its lan-
guage is basically that of what is found in these biblical prophetic texts as well (cf Kuntillet Ajrud ÿ5)--agaIn
another (positive) empuical in&cation of the general cultural horizon for this kind of discouIse For Assyiian
prophetic collections flom the time of Esarhaddon, see Nlssmen, "Spoken, Written, Quoted, and Invented;' 250-
254.
9o Esp Greenstein, "Formation" (N 89) ÿ51-178; cf Schniedewind, How the Bÿble Became a Book (N 80)' 64-.64,
van deI Toorn, Scrÿbal Culture (N 53)' ÿ43-ÿ72
54 F,W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
the Masoretes, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job,91 and also Lamentations and the Song of Songs.92 And
there are late prophetic collections, too (e.g., Jeremiah, Second Isaiah).
I assume that earlier poems or parts of poems pervade all of this material--the linguistic
evidence alone necessitates this assumptlon93--and that we must reckon throughout with a
complex mixture of originally oral and written verse, as well as verse that defies such neat
distinctions, that emerges out of the Interstitial interplay of literacy and orallty?4 And just as
surely, in addition to the existence of oral verse throughout the period and to the initial stage(s)
of the writing down of (some of the) verse that gets preserved in the Bible, other verse, not
preserved in the Bible, would also begin to be written down, either singularly (or even in
fragments) for display purposes (as with the Greek "Nestor's cup" or the Aramaic Carpentras
stele) or in collections25 The plaster wall inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud, if poetic, offers a good
example of such singular preservation26 And at least one such extra-biblical collection of poetry
from the period was well-known to blbhcal writers, the "book-scroll of Jashar" (Josh lo:13;
zSam 1:18; cf. 1Kgs 8:53 [LXX]), which presumably gathered together a number of poems
beyond those explicitly cited in the biblical text.97 Such collections, biblical or otherwise, as
Haran maintains,98 typically would have been written down in "single, unique" copies of papyrus
(or leather99) scrolls that were probably privately owned and not widely distributed.1°°
91 Psalms and Pioverbs on lnteinal cIlteIla alone exhibit signs of having evolved out of a complex sciibal piocess
of compilation (cf. van del Toorn, Scrtbal Culture [N 53] 15-16, 118-119), and thus It would not be surpllsmg to
find earlier psalms and proverbs Included in these collections (for the late linguistic aspects of some psalms, see
A. Hm ritz, The Ttansttton Pet rod In Btbhcal Hebrew A Study m Post-Exlhc Hebrew and Its Im[)hcattons for the Dating
ofPsalms [Jel usalem' Biahk, 1972] [Hebr ]) Though there is debate over the precise dating of Job, too, that at s a post-
sixth-century work is perhaps less controversial (see esp A. Hnivltz, "The Date of the Prose-Tale of Job Linguistically
Reconsidered" HTR 67 [1974]: 17-34)
92 See FW Dobbs-Allsopp, "Linguistic Evidence fol the Date of Lamentations;' lANES 26 (1998) 1-36, ldem,
"Late Linguistic Features in the Song of Songs;' in Perspectives on the Song ofSongs--Perspekttven det Hohehedausle-
gung (A C Hagedoln, ed ; BZAW; Belhn' W. de Giuyter, 2005)' 27-77
93 See esp. A. Hurvltz, "The Historical Quest for 3mclent Israel' and the Llngmstlc Evidence of the Hebrew Bible
Some Methodological Observations" VT 47 (1997). 3Ol-315
94 Cf R Thomas, Literacy and Orahty m Ancient Greece (Cambridge. Cambridge Univ, 1992)' 28
95 FoI an informative sutvey of the scribal practice of"compilation" and an m-depth look at Jeremiah as a biblical
example of an ancient collection of prophetic oiacles, see van der Toorn, ScttbaI Cultme [N 53]. 118-125,173-2o4
96 Sandeis (Inventmn of Hebrew [N 25] 142) captuIes well the potential historical slgmficance of this kind of
display inscription' "The genres of cosmic battle hymns and apocalyptic revelations known fi om the archaic lellglous
poetry of the Hebrew Bible find their fii st physical setting in public display on the walls of shl rues, locate on h on
Age pllgllmage routes:'
97 See O Elssfeldt, The Old Testament' An Introduction (P Ackroyd, tians, New York" Harpel & Row, 1965)' 132-
133; M Haran, "The Book of the Chronicles 'of the Kings of Judah' and 'of the Kings of Israel" What Sort of Books
were They'" VT 49 (1999) 159-16o, Schmedewmd, How the Bible Became a Book [N 8o]. 52-54 As Schmedewmd
suggests (53), Hebrew sOper hayydgÿr likely references the contents of the scroll, namely, songs (cf. 1 Kgs 8:53 [LXX];
Haxan, "The Book of Chromdesÿ' 159, n 5) The Den 'Alia piaster texts provide empirical evidence foI the existence
of early written collections and of the matea lallty of these collections, i e, wi ltten on papyl us scrolls (esp. Welppert,
"Balaam Text" [N 89] 177-178)--the cmpus of provenanced bullae from the Iron II period confilm the use of
papyrus scrolls (though obviously this says nothing about the content of these scrolls).
98 Esp. Haran "Book-Scrolls" (N 1)' 161-173 and Idem, "More Concernmg Book-Scrolls m Pre-Exlhc Times;' ]]S
35 (1984)' 84-85
99 Skins were known and used too (see R.L. Hicks, "Delet and Megtllah A Flesh Approach to Jeremiah XXXVI,"
VT 33 [1983]' 46-66), though Haran thinks mostly fol special texts, such as Deuteronomy (or at least its oilgmal
core) Skins and parchment do become used (more) commonly in the Second Temple period, see Haran, "Book-
Scrolls at the Beginning of the Second Temple Period" (N 49) 111-122.
10o It may be recalled that no kind of book trade is evidenced in the ancient world (with the notable exception
of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, see Cerny, Paper & Books [N 16]. 27) until the Hellenistic peIlod (e.g., van der
Tooin, Scrtbal Culture [N 53]. 9-26) Again Delr 'Alla (fig 26) offels a stunning snapshot of just the kind ofpapylus
scroll Hal an has in mind. Although fiom a much earlier period (the Late Bronze Age) and lnvolvmg a much different
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 55
As for the layout of these poems, whether in display inscriptions or as a part of a poetic
collection, I think it most likely that they would have been formatted as a running text with word
dividers.1°1 This follows, on the one hand, fi'om the example of our two currently outstanding
collections of Levantine poetry (the Ugaritic mythological texts and the proverbs of Ahlqar
fi'om Elephantine, and also in Delr 'Allah and (presumably) Kuntillet Ajrud 15; see also the later
Aramaic text in Demotic script, Amherst papyrus 63, ca. third c. BCE) and from the ubiquitous
use of word dividers in the Iron II eplgraphical Hebrew corpus, and, on the other hand, from the
usual Egyptian practice of writing papyrus roils (whether verse or prose) in a running format.
Though empirical evidence is currently lacking, the possiblhty that some poetic texts from the
period may have received additional special formatting (as occasionally in Egyptian and also
Ugaritic practice) cannot be ruled out.ÿ°2 Any such putative formatting, however, would surely
arise out of or otherwise show (some) continuity with known scribal practices of the time.
Therefore, for example, given what we know about the commonality of couplets in bibhcal
Hebrew poetry and the typical lengths of both verse and columnar lines and what may be
inferred about practice from the later Carpentras stele and the display of several of the proverbs
fi'om Ahiqar collection, one might well imagine the columnar line being used to frame a parallel
couplet.1°3 Recall that practical scribal knowledge of the "line" is longstanding in the Levant and
eventually is exploited for just this purpose.TM What seems distinctly less likely to me would
be the use of any internal spacing, which on present evidence appears to be a meta-script
convention that evolved during or just before the Hellenistic period, out of specifically (later)
Aramaic scribal practices. That is, the use of spacing--white space--that so typifies the layout of
biblical verse both at Qumran and in later Masoretic practice should not be projected back into
the early Iron II period. This last bit is worth underscoring. There is simply nothing given or
inevitable about the use or shape of such meta-script conventions, whatever their nature. On all
kind ofwiitlng medium (clay tablets), the single copies of the Bail Cycle and the Klita and Aqhat epics found in the
"House of the High Priest" at ancient Ugarit, nonetheless, well exemplifies the general cncumstances ofwrmng that
likely pievafled in the southern Levant until late in the first millennium
101 So also most iecently M Coogan (7he Old Testament A Very Short Introduction [Oxfotd Oxford Umv, zoo@
loo), who states. "But to conselve writing materials such as papyrus and parchment, in ancient manuscIlpts poetry
and prose were wi ltten the same way, in contumons lines"
m2 Ceitalnly experimentation with foImattmg can be expected to have taken place, especially once scribes ale
copying out both poetic and plose texts. See the dlumlnatmg discussmn on this topic as it applies to Anglo-Saxon
and Middle English poetic texts in M C Amodlo, Wrltmg the Oral Tra&tton. Oral Poetics and Literate Cultme m
Medieval England (Notle Dame. Umv of Notre Dame, zoo4) esp 79-93.
i03 This seems to be close to Toy's position, when he writes, "the stlchogiaphic layout of the wilting was piobably
embedded in the earliest blbhcal sciolls" (Scrtbal Practices [N 4]' 173, but cf. 166) Here is where I think it is
crucial to distinguish two sepalate phenomena, namely' the "veise line" (which has an underlying and always
Informing audltmy reality, cf Brogan, "Line" IN 21] 696, "Verse and Prose" in NPEPP, 1348) and the technology
for iepresenting the veise line in wntmg (which, once in place, may also be exploited prosodlcally) It as the latter
that is in focus here, 1 e, how veise was written down initially, whethei it involved any special layout schemes; and
if so, what was the natme of the schemesÿ That blbhcal verse is not stlchlc in the ancient Greek sense (1 e., one hue
of verse immediately following upon anothei), and indeed, not even always made up of parallehstlc couplets, may
explain why a hne-by-hne format never consistently prevails
104 Intelestangly, M L. West (East Face ofHehcon [N 29] 26), noting the Babyloman piactlce of spreading out
each poetic verse to fill a hne of a tablet (see He&m, Eptk [N 69]. lO1-141), suImises that there must have existed
slmdarly hneated Aramaic oI Phoenician poetic manuscripts, now perished, that "may have mediated the one-verse-
pei-1ine foi mat to the elghth-centuly Greeks" Perhaps But as West concedes, so far no such eailyhneated Alamaic or
Phoenician poetic manuscripts exist, nor is it at all obvious that Mesopotamia should be posited as the originating
souIce of (putative) southern Levantine scrlbal practices more geneially Further, whatevel is finally determined
about the genealogy of this pal tlculal Gleek scribal convention, the "one-verse-per-hue fmmat;' as noted, appears
especially well suited (aesthetically, economically) to the metrical structuIe of Gieek stlchIc verse
56 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
current evidence, poetic texts (verse), like their prosaic counterparts, were written normatively
in a running format--that Egyptian practice was the principal model for writing on papyrus
and leather at this time and in this region cannot be overemphasized. And therefore that large
portions of the poetic materials from the period--especially the poems (or parts of poems) that
eventually get embedded in the Former Prophets or amassed in the various collections of the
Latter Prophets--should continue to be found in this format is perhaps unremarkable,a°2 Even
at Qumran not only are there versions of biblical verse in running format but non-biblical verse
is copied only in a running format (e.g., 4QHa-f; 4QShirShabba f). Running format unto this time
(at least) simply was normal practice.
The addition of spatial and graphic cues, such as the special layout schemes in evidence for
poetic texts from the Judean Desert, surely assists readers in decoding by providing additional
interpretive information.1°6 But just as surely written poetic texts are readable as "verse" even in
the absence of such spatial cues. What is required in these cases is a different kind of readerly
contribution, one which involves bringing a great deal of predictive knowledge and expertise
to the reading process.1°7 So ancient readers (mostly scribes) of biblical poems, who still would
have been profoundly shaped by a predominantly oral world and thus their reading practices
mediated (to a large extent) by voice)°* would not have come to these texts de novo, but would
have encountered them within a context of expectations, knowing, for example, the (general)
subject matter and relevant poetic conventions,1°9 and thus the presence ofparallehsm, a relative
terseness or concision of phrasing, uniformity and slmphcity of clause structure, and other
(non-graphic) indicators of biblical verse,110 hke the presence of rhyme in some Medieval Latin
102 Tov's suggestmn that it is the mixed nature of these composltmns, containing both pÿ ose and verse mateÿ mls,
that might account fm why a tladltmn of vmse formatting nevel developed with ÿespect to this material (Scrtbal
Ptacttces [N 4] 166) is worth consldmlng seriously Slmflmly, m Gleek papyrus rolls with mixed composmons
standmd fmmattmg conventmns often wele &scarded (cf Hall, Companton [N 17]' 8-13)--m the early Dervenl
papylus (ca foulth c UCE), fm example, very wide columns ate used m order to accommodate typical hexameter
hnes that me mL, ced in with the prose commentary Gwen that written prose "is subsequent to the appearance of
writing" (Klttay and Godzlch [N 76]. Xl-Xll) and the early ewdence for the writing down of verse m a running
format in the Levant, it is tempting to think that written prose eventually borrows its format from written verse. But
it might just be that this is simply how one wrote down language in the Levant regardless of its nature In any case,
the conception of the runmng for mat as a &stlnctwely pl ose format, on present evidence, has no historical wm rant,
L e, biblical Hebl ew poems could always be wl ltten m a ÿ unnlng fm mat
106 Cf O'Bnen O'Keeffe, Vtstble Song (N 1) X
107 Cf. Kenyon, Books and Readers (N 17)' 68-69, Gleen, "Cuneiform Writing System" (N 22) 359-36o, O'Btmn
O'Keeffe, Vlstble Song (N 1)' x-x1, 21; Parkes, Pause andEffect (N 34) lo-11, Pmklnson and Qmrke, Papyrus (N 16)
46, Saenger, Spaces Between Words (N 4o). ÿ-5ÿ Pmkes's examples of how readers of Latin negotmted the bare
scrÿptÿo continua of wlÿtten texts aÿe most Illuminating for ÿmagmg analogous ways m whmh readms of ancmnt
Hebrew verse might have gone about analyzmg and mtmpretlng unformatted manuscripts Fred ("From Letters to
Lÿteÿatme" IN 84] ÿ*), noting the ÿmpoveHshed natme of how early Greek songs were written down, obsmves,
'Altogether, a lyric song text of the archmc period was faMy useless to anyone who had not aheady herod the
song"--that is, leaders needed to bnng an abundance of non-textual knowledge to beaÿ on the reading of these
texts
10s Esp Slrat, Hebrew Manusct ÿpts (N ÿ7)' ÿ47-ÿ48. D Boyarm ("Placing Reading in Ancmnt Isÿ ael and Medieval
Europe;' m Sparks of the Logos [Leiden. Brfil, 2oo3] 59-88) well captures the overndmg orahty of ancient Israehte and
Judahÿte ÿeadmg practices, though even on hÿs own analysÿs (e g., p 65) these practices wine hkely not as monollthÿc
as he sometimes makes out
109 Cf. O'Brlen O'Keeffe, Vÿstble Song (N ÿ) 4o, Hulsman, WHtten Poem (N 34) ÿo So, for example, 4QLam%
which ÿs formatted as a ÿ unnmg text and makes no wsual accommodation whatsoever to the acrostic that constrains
the lmtml word in the first hne of each Slx-hne (three-couplet) stanza, presumes a prtorÿ knowledge of the acromc
on the part of any who would read thÿs manuscript and perform (in whatever manner) the poem it contains most
fehcltously
110 For my own brief charactelÿzatxon ofbÿbhcal Heblew poetry, see F W Dobbs-Allsopp, "Poetÿ y, Hebrew" m New
Interpreter's Dÿcttonaty of the Btble Vol 4--Me-R (Nashwlle' Abmgton, aoo9) 550-558
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 57
lyrics written in a running format, would have been sufficient "to arouse a reader's expectations
of a poetic text"'111
One of Lowth's great accomplishments was to show how even a much belated (and literate)
reader of prophetic literature, for example, if attentive (to the sorts of characteristics just
enumerated), can in fact discern the presence of "verse" even in the absence of any kind
of special layout or aids for reading. There are only a handful of places where manuscript
evidence has emerged since Lowth in which the logic and sense of his judgment may be gauged
graphically. A small bit of Third Isaiah (Isa 61:1o-62:9) in xQIsaa, a manuscript that otherwise
is formatted as a running text, IS provided with extra spacing that displays the poetry's line
structure (fig. 30).112 This, in fact, is quite the stunning example. The spacing in this small
portion of 1QIsaa broadly reflects the accentuation in MT, and in 62:5 it mirrors exactly the
hneation displayed in Lowth's Praelectiones,a13 which he arranges one verse line per manuscript
line in the following manner:
nba ÿv lÿn valuta
Tnbÿ "1'by wÿ,
Here, then, the special layout of this part of 1QIsaa mirrors the verse layout generated by Lowth's
logic of analogy, that is, by his reasoning that "whatever plain signs or indications there yet
remain of metre, or rhythm, or whatever else it was, that constituted Hebrew Verse''114 in the
so-called poetic books (Psalms, Proverbs, Job)1'5 similarly should be construed as signs of verse
in other parts of the Hebrew canon.11ÿ
The functions that written versions of poetic texts served in antiquity would have directly
impacted the nature of their formats. As van der Toorn well emphasizes, writing in ancient Israel
and Judah "was mostly used to support an oral performance"117 This holds for documentary
(e.g., letters) and literary (e.g., prophetic texts) works alike. Jeremiah 36 is paradigmatic. Baruch
transcribes Jeremiah's prophesies as Jeremiah dictates them (mippÿ "from the mouth" v. 4)
in order to perform them in public (esp. w. 5-6). A poetic version of the same ideology is
encapsulated in abbreviated form in a couplet from Habaldmk: "Write down the vision and
make it plain on tablets/so that a herald (lit., "a crier" might run with it (and proclaim it)" (a:z;
cf. Deut 32:44-46; 2 Sam 1:17-18). The other major function performed by writing in antiquity
was preservation. The royal display inscriptions from the southern Levant give eloquent voice to
this end in their habitual worry over erasure of their Inscriptions and the like (e.g., KA1 24.13-
16; zoz B.16-ÿ8). Preservation of the words (Deut 31:3o; 3z:46) of a work was also integral
111 Parkes, Pause andEffect (N 34) 99
112 Toy, ScttbalPtacttces (N 4). ÿ36.
113 Lowth, Praelecttones (N 1ÿ)' 30*-30ÿ One of the &stlnctlve features of Lowth's three Latin e&tmns of the
Praelecttones (ÿ753, ÿ763, ÿ775) is the inclusion m them of the (hneated) Hebrew text of the bÿbllcal passages he
cÿtes throughout, and, crucmlly, the Hebrew, perhaps on Lowth's own example in the New Ttanslatton, ÿs left out of
Gregoly's (and all successive edltmns pre&cate on hÿm) Enghsh tÿanslatmn of the Lectures, and thus this aspect of
Lowth's work has been undmapprecmted
114 R. Lowth, Isaiah A New Tmnslatton. wtth a Prehmmary Dtssertatton (London. J. Nichols, ÿ 778, repr. in Robert
Lowtb (ÿ7ÿo-ÿ787) 77ÿe Major Works [London' Routledge, ÿ995])' w
112 Ibld, X1, cf n
16 Lowth's undmstandlng of the underlying verse structure of the larger passage, whmh hke MT agrees broadly
wÿth the spacing m xQIsaa, maybe referred flora his own Enghsh tÿanslatmn m Isamh ([N ÿ4]. ÿ6J--163), as R, too,
s hneated
117 Van der Toorn, Scttbal Culture (N 53)' ÿ
58 F,W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 59

Fig 3i' Enuma Ehsh, III 47-io57 (ANoo32878i_ooi jpg;

© Trustees of the Brmsh Museum; BM 93017).

to oral performance, especially for works regularly (e.g., as a part of the cult) performed."*
But whether as an aid to oral performance or as a means of preservation the running formats
with word dividers so common in written versions of poetic works from the southern Levant
would have been very serviceable, especially gwen that the users of such texts would have been
educated (literate) and knowledgeable of the content. Meta-script conventions evolve primarily
as cues for reading, especially for readers who are less informed generally.
Surely some poetic texts were written for literal "readers" The bibhcal acrostics (e.g., Psalms
11-112; Lamentations ÿ-4) are exemplary, as the acrostic is itself a visual trope modeled after
the abecedary, a scribal exercise text (i.e., a product of writing).1ÿ9 But even here the range

Fig. 30: 1QIs# (Isa 61.4-63:4) (PAM 43.783, Courtesy Israel Museum).
118 el. John Herlngton, Poetry into Drama Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tÿadttton (Berkeley. Unw of
Callforma, x985)' 45
119 See FW Dobbs-Allsopp, 'ÿcmStlC;' m The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (H -J Klauck et al., eds,
Berhn de Gruyter, 2oo9)

60 F.W. DOBBS-ALLSOPP
I I
Ftg. 32: EMil. Vogl. VIII 309, col XI.G. Bastlamm and C Gallazzl,
eds, Post&ppo dt Pella Eptgrarnmt (P.Mil. VogU VlI13o9) (Mllano
LED, 2ooÿ): 2, Tav V (&gltal images included on 2 CDs).
v
SPACE, LINE, AND THE WRITTEN BIBLICAL POEM IN TEXTS FROM THE JUDEAN DESERT 61
of imagined readers had to be severely circumscribed--limited to the scrlbal elite. It would
have been extremely difficult for the uninitiated reader to discern the presence of the acrostic
in the running format of 4QLama, for example, qlae role of writing in the composition of
non-documentary works is more difficult to tease out.ÿ2° I. Herington, for example, presumes
the use of writing in the composition of lyric poetry from archaic and classical Greece to be
minimal at best, "with the act of writing down occurring toward the end" of the composition
process or even after the composing itself was finished,m With respect to biblical poetry,
interestingly, Hezekiah's lament (Isa 38:ÿo-ÿo) is labeled specifically a "writing of Hezekmh:
(mzktab l£h. izqzyyihi, v. 9) and in Psalm 45 one of the metaphors used of the poems composition
is that of the "pen of an expert scribe" (v. ÿ). And for some of the denser, more complex
forms of verse in the Bible, such as Lamentations, it becomes harder to assume a process of
composition unaided by writing. But still even in such cases it is not apparent that a running
format would not have sufficed, especially in light of the fact that the positive evidence for
special poetic formatting in the southern Levant currently available dates to the late Persian or
early Hellenistic periods at the earhest. In other words, the functions to which most written
versions of biblical poems were routinely put in antiquity would have been well served by a
runmng format, qherefore, the perception on the part of contemporary scholars that so much
blbhcal poetry being found in a running format is a problem is in reality a misperceptlon (likely
born of the West's own acculturated literate biases).
In the end, to say more, to achieve a thicker, richer accounting of the materlallty of poetic
texts from the southern Levant during the early Iron Age, including whatever of the biblical
poetic corpus that may have originated from this period, will reqmre the recovery of actual
poetic texts from the period. The picture just painted is admittedly broad and vague in many
respects; it is also patently imaginative and reconstructive in nature. Such reconstructive
imaginings are a crucial aspect of historical research, qqaey enable us to think more concretely
about a permd, or, as here, a practice. They are always heuristic, fallibihstm, and thus need to
be held lightly, ready to be emended, augmented, changed when new considerations provide
warrant for doing so. But they are absolutely necessary. In this case, in our mind's eye, when
viewed and refracted through known scrlbal practices in the southern Levant (and their later,
cultural hmrs), we can watch one genealogical strain of (white) "space" and the accompanying
"verse line" that it situates emerge into the light of history. And at the same time, because it is
only one strain, one specifically located means for graphically &splaying verse in writing among
many others, and because even in terms of this one strain verse both preceded its inception and
subsisted afterwards even m its absence, verse qua verse (in this particular instance) cannot
be parsed simply according to the presence or absence of special formatting conventions,
however "erratic;' however informative, and even though the nature of a poems medium and
any accompanying materiality always ultimately matter. With respect to the biblical verse that
has been the focus of this discussion throughout (necessarily thought through always in light
of the larger history of Levantine verse))= it is not that these meta-scrlpt conventions for
formatting verse which I have attempted to fix culturally, historically, and materially are finally
"useless;' as O'Connor observes, "but rather that they only provide a rough starting point for
consideration"123
20 ,line wÿ ltten composition of documentary texts (e,g, hsts) ÿs cm tamly attested (Nÿ&tch, Oÿal Woÿ ld and Wrttten
Wind [N 8@ 94)
2ÿ HeHngton (N ÿ18) 47
22 O'Connor, Hebtew Verse Sit uctute (N 77)' 25
I23 Ibid., 30 Lowth's Praelecttoms (N ÿ) well exemplifies the kind of "consÿderatlon" O'Connm had an mind, see
also T Lmafelt and EW Dobbs-Allsopp, "Poetm Line Structure in Qoheleth 3.ÿ" VT 6o 2 (2oÿo) 249-259