Dead Sea media : orality, textuality, and memory in the scrolls from the Judean desert

342 Pages·2019·2.988 MB·English

by  Miller, Shem

Dead Sea Media
Studies on the Texts of the
Desert of Judah
Edited by
George J. Brooke
Associate Editors
Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar
Jonathan Ben-Dov
Alison Schofield
volume 129
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stdj
Dead Sea Media
Orality, Textuality, and Memory in the Scrolls
from the Judean Desert
By
Shem Miller
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Miller, Shem, 1974– author.
Title: Dead Sea media : orality, textuality and memory in the scrolls from
 the Judean desert / by Shem Miller.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2019] | Series: Studies on the texts
 of the desert of Judah, 0169-9962 ; volume 129 | Includes
 bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019023147 (print) | LCCN 2019023148 (ebook) |
 ISBN 9789004407718 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004408203 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Dead Sea scrolls. | Bible. Old Testament—Criticism,
 interpretation, etc. | Tradition (Judaism) | Collective memory—Israel.
 | Judaism—History—Post-exilic period, 586 BC–210 AD |
 Jews—History—586 BC–70 AD
Classification: LCC BM487 .M525 2019 (print) | LCC BM487 (ebook) |
 DDC 296.1/55—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023147
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019023148
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0169-9962
isbn 978-90-04-40771-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-40820-3 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
To dad,
my most influential professor.
…
In memoriam
Matthew William Sandler
1975–1999
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements xi
List of Tables xiii
List of Figures xv
Abbreviations xviii
Introduction 1
1 Textual Criticism 5
2 Media Criticism 8
3 Media Studies 11
3.1 Comparative Study of Oral Tradition 12
3.2 Scrolls as an Oral Medium 17
3.3 Scrolls as a Written Medium 21
3.4 Scrolls as a Medium for Memory 29
4 Summary 37
1 Oral Performance 39
1 Oral Performance of Members 43
1.1 Local Chapter Meetings 45
1.2 Nightly Study Session 48
1.3 General Membership Meeting 53
1.4 Covenant Renewal Ceremony 55
1.5 Admission Procedures 57
1.6 Meeting of Israel in the Last Days 59
2 Oral Performance of Leaders 62
2.1 Maskil 63
2.2 Mebaqqer 66
2.3 Paqid 70
2.4 Priests and Judges 73
3 Conclusion 74
2 Oral Tradition and Oral Authority 77
1 Oral Tradition 80
2 Oral-Traditional Texts 84
2.1 Written Oral Poems 86
2.2 Voiced Texts 86
2.3 Voices from the Past 87
2.4 Oral Performance 93
viii Contents
3 Oral Law and Oral Authority 98
4 Oral Transmission 106
4.1 Smooth Words 107
4.2 Hold Fast 110
5 Conclusion 114
3 Oral-Written Textuality 116
1 Stichometry and Colometry 118
1.1 Corpus of Stichographic Texts 120
1.2 Systems of Stichography 122
2 Literary Functions of Stichography 124
2.1 Graphically Represent Cola 128
2.2 Graphically Represent Parallelism 132
2.3 Graphically Represent Interpretation 137
3 Oral Functions of Stichography 140
3.1 Visible Song of Scribal Performance 143
4 Sociolinguistic Setting of Stichography 148
5 Conclusion 151
4 Oral-Written Register 154
1 Special Layouts 157
1.1 Song of the Sea 158
1.2 Song of Moses 161
2 Spacing Techniques 166
2.1 Performance Cues 168
2.2 Pedagogical Cues 178
3 Special Codes 182
3.1 Scribal Markings 182
3.2 Cryptic Scripts 184
3.3 Divine Codenames 185
4 Conclusion 187
5 Cultural Memory 188
1 Performance Criticism 191
2 Sociolinguistic Context of the Hodayot 193
2.1 Public Praise and Worship 196
3 Cultural Memory of Membership 200
3.1 We Are What We Remember 202
3.2 We Are What We Belong To 204
3.3 We Remember What We Are through Cultural Texts 206
Contents ix
4 Performance Role of the Maskil 207
4.1 The Maskil’s Fictional Character 208
4.2 The Maskil’s Oaths of Office 212
5 Cultural Memory of Leadership 215
5.1 Oral-Written Performance 216
5.2 Answer of the Tongue 221
6 Conclusion 224
6 Scribal Memory 226
1 Scribal Memory and Scribal Performance 230
2 Long-Term Memory 233
3 Episodic Memory 235
3.1 Spacing Techniques 235
3.2 Versions 239
3.3 Memory as a Multi-Stem Tree 245
4 Short-Term Memory 249
4.1 Gist Memory 251
4.2 Memory Variants 252
4.3 Memory Multiforms 254
5 The Hodayot 256
6 The Community Rule 259
7 Conclusion 265
Conclusion 267
1 An Ancient Media Criticism 270
2 Dead Sea Media 273
Bibliography 281
Index of Ancient Sources 305
Index of Subjects 317