REL_09a.GIF Leviticus (1363 X 221, 16 shades of gray)
Leviticus
Va-Yikrah
PaleoLev
Late 2nd century - early 1st century BCE
10.9 x 100.2 centimeters
This scroll was discovered in 1956 when a group of Ta`amireh bedouin happened on Cave 11. It was first unrolled 14 years later, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
A single scribe penned the text in an inconsistent hand, at times patient with his task, at times careless. Both vertical and horizontal lines were drawn in the scroll. The vertical lines align the columns and margins; the horizontal lines served as guidelines from which the scribe suspended his letters. Dots served as word-spacers. The scroll is written on the grain side of the skin of a kid.
Inscribed in this scroll are parts of the final chapters of Leviticus - Chapters 22-27. It is the lowermost portion (approximately one-fifth of the original height) of the final six columns of the original manuscript. Eighteen small fragments also belong to this scroll. The additional fragments of this manuscript are from preceding chapters: Lev. 4, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18-22.
The text is similar to the Masoretic text - the traditional text of the Hebrew Bible, and proves that little change occurred over the centuries.
The text is inscribed in the paleo-Hebrew script which seems to be but one manifestation of conservative traits that survived through generations and surfaced in the Hasmonean era. Hasmonean coinage of the first century BCE bears very similar script.
This Leviticus text is dated on paleographic grounds to mid-Hasmonean times - the early first century BCE.
Noteworthy in the scroll is the habit often observed in paleo-Hebrew script of breaking off words at the end of lines. Also characteristic is the placement of the waw in open spaces between paragraphs, when the new paragraph should have commenced with that letter. PG
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