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as a source of authoritative literature.^722 It would seem that these texts adhered least rig-
idly to the ‘standard copy par excellence’ held in the Temple archives. Such texts were
conceivably copied by scribes who were of less ability, or were perhaps incompletely
trained, compared to those scribes who were able produce texts of either of the first two
levels of exactitude.


According to Tov scroll types at Qumran are delineable into what he terms ‘de luxe’
scrolls and non-luxury editions. ‘De luxe’ scrolls are carefully produced documents that
reflect a high level of exactitude in replication and execution. Thus, Tov’s term ‘de luxe’
may be used somewhat synonymously with Lieberman’s term ήκριβωμένα, though it will
become apparent as this analysis progresses that a clear delineation between ήκριβωμένα
and κοινά type texts, and between κοινά and φαυλότερα type texts, is far from straight
forward. In fact, the nature of the individual texts often demands a more nuanced descrip-
tion than this three tiered system of categorisation allows. Nevertheless, a consistent ter-
minology is important for the overall clarity of our investigation, and so Lieberman’s
terms will be adopted here.


Using Tov’s system of categorisation, ήκριβωμένα scrolls can be recognised chiefly by
the use of large upper and lower margins (ca. +3cm), and secondarily by the high number
of lines per column (at least more than ca. 20 lines per column, but often over 30 lines),


722

See the example from T.B. Pesaḥim 112a, cited in S. Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine, 26.
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