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Searching for words that use the Palaeo-Hebrew script in the Dead Sea Scrolls


mlanglois

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I see that the DSSB module uses another font when a word (e.g. the tetragrammaton) is written in the so-called Palaeo-Hebrew script (see for instance 1Q11 frag. 2-5 l. 3).

This means that the text is somehow tagged as Palaeo-Hebrew script, and I would like to search for this feature.

I've looked in Accordance help and in DSSB readme, but I couldn't find anything.

Is there a way to search for it? Is the Palaeo-Hebrew tagging exhaustive?

Thanks!! :-)

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I am pretty sure Accordance only displays the divine name in the "paleo-Hebrew" script. As far as I know, the other places the script is used among the DSS are complete fragments, not individual scattered words. These fragments have "paleo" in their titles:

 

http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/explore-the-archive/search#q=script_type:Paleo-Hebrew

 

You will note that they are rendered in square script in Accordance.

 

Pete

 

EDIT: whoops, fixed the link

Edited by Peter Bekins
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Sorry, but there is no way to search for Paleo characters as distinct from Yehudit.

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  • 2 years later...

Hi Helen, has there been any change since 3 years ago?

I really think it would be great to be able to search for Paleo-Hebrew characters in DSS (not only DSSB but also the QUMRAN module).

Thanks!  

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No, I do not think that this has been implemented. They come up in the regular search for yhwh.

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My first thought would be that this is a great idea, but then I realized that only YHWH was transcribed in Paleo Hebraic (the same as is found in the transcriptions in the DJD series). The transcriptions are quite very helpful for those who do not read the Paleo Hebraic script fluently and the transcription include the notation for uncertain letters. Additionally, anything that might matter by looking at the actual script would require looking at the photographs because questions about letter transcriptions or other orthographic features cannot be answered in any transcription of the text.

 

That being said, It would be nice to have a search that would identify Paleo Hebraic text (even if it wasn't displayed), but I am not sure that anything other than YHWH is in the current database, so it is likely that only hits for YHWH would be found anyway. And as noted above, any significant work that required the evaluation of the Script should involve the photographic copies and not a transcription.

 

The following is from 4Q22 (4Q Paleo Exodus) in photograph and from Accordance.

 

 

post-35053-0-58933600-1558017319_thumb.jpg

 

 

post-35053-0-84273100-1558017326_thumb.jpg

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