Abstract

The earliest written copies of biblical poems currently extant come fromthe Judean Desert. This chapter consists of a series of observations about the special formatting that does not so much argue a position as elaborate an ever richer description of practice. It 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 use of space and the notion of tlinet in evidence in the varieties of special manuscript layouts for poetic texts-verse-at Qumran is both one of our earliest graphic representation of line structure in the WS (Levantine) poetic tradition and is an outgrowth of well-known Levantine (alphabetic) scribal practices and conventions. The chapter closes, in a heuristic vein, with some thoughts on the material nature of Hebrew poetry in Iron II Judah and Israel. Keywords: biblical poem; Judean Desert; Levantine scribal practices; line; poetic tradition; Qumran; space; texts

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