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Re: orion Autograph vs. copy:



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It strikes me that Michelle has broached an interesting topic on the
question of indications as to whether the DSS are, whether all or in part,
products of dictation. It´s an issue that has been touched on before in the
history of the textual criticism of the OT, but it requires more
sophisticated analysis than one usually imagines. For example, if it´s the
case that readers usually read texts aloud in ancient Judah, then a scribe
copying a text will have heard no difference between lw (to him) and lw´
(not), and his oral rendition may have influenced even his copying of a
correctly-spelled Vorlage. As I say, as a problem, it´s a can of worms.
My own impression is that the DSS scribes in many cases simply mindlessly
copied what lay before them, whether they could make sense of it or not,
and many of their mistakes reflect confusions of symbols, rather than
sounds (r for d or the reverse, y for w or ditto, and the like). But I
would be interested in evidence of dictation, if anyone could devise an
adequate methodology for detecting it.

Fred Cryer