In order to reconstruct the formative period of the scriptures, most scholars are required
to hypothesise various stages of progress towards a fixed text. Talmon, for example, sees
four phases in the development of the biblical texts from their inception to Origen’s
Hexapla. These range from an oral phase, through an oral to written transition period, to
purely written transmission, and finally to a fixed form of the text selected by, among
other things, historical accident and sectarian prejudice.^28 Importantly, Talmon asserts
that the processes behind many of the variants that appear through transmission are simi-
lar throughout the entire period that the text is transmitted in an unfixed form. That is,
during the first three phases of the development of the biblical text, scribes used the same
combined methods of textual and stylistic variation and expansion to invert, reiterate, and
draw parallels in the texts they transmitted.^29
(^) their derivation (see R.B. McKerrow, Prolegomena, 8, esp. n. 1). This perceived dichotomy is perhaps due
to the nature of the fields of inquiry concerned – Tov of course deals extensively with biblical evidence of a
fragmentary nature, while McKerrow was commenting on a method to establish an authoritative Shake-
speare. 28
See S. Talmon, "Old Testament Text," 164-68. For a recent model that combines processes of oral and
written textual transmission via the acquisition and reproduction of primarily memorised texts see D.M.
Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature (New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2005) 3-14, and the full discussion in this model in the Conclusion. 29
S. Talmon, "The Textual Study of the Bible - A New Outlook," Qumran and the History of the Biblical
Text (eds F.M. Cross and S. Talmon; Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1975) 368. In support of
this we can draw attention to the study of the annals of Ashurbanipal in M. Cogan, "Some Text-Critical
Issues,", which identifies persistent processes of creative and editorial activity on the part of copyists,
sometimes only months after a text’s inception. Cogan’s study will be the subject of further discussion be-
low.