In Praise of Ancient Scribes

Abstract

Every activity concerned with Old Testament study, owes its existence entirely to generations of Jewish scribes, who copied and recopied the books of the Old Testament for more than 1,500 years. Until recently only the products of the last third of that time were available, The most extensive example is the Aleppo Codex. This manuscript represents at its fullest the meticulous concern of the scribes for the accurate transmission of the sacred text. Their activity in copying the text followed long-established patterns, eventually codified in tractates appended to the Babylonian Talmud (Soferim, Masseketh Torah). The question of how old these practices, or the attitudes they embody, might be has received only limited attention, partly because of the lack of early material, Respect for small details of the text characterized the teaching of Rabbi Akiba (died ca. A.D. 133) and Aquila's even earlier Greek rendering of the Old Testament, Care for the precise wording of the biblical text is attested Alan R. Millard is professor of Hebrew, Akkadian and Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. He has worked on numerous excavation projects in the Near East and currently is epigraphist with the British Archaeological Expedition at Tell Nebi Mend (Qadesh on the Orentes) in Syria. 33