Guide
The Production and Treatment of Sacred Texts in Jewish Antiquity
3rd Century BCE–6th Century CE
Restricted
By Carol Bakhos
In keeping with the general principle that the more sacred a thing is, the more ritual legislation there is surrounding it, ancient Jewish authors spent considerable time discussing the production and preservation of sacred texts and of Torah scrolls in particular.
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Storing Scrolls in Earthenware Jars
Therefore, I shall speak plainly to you. The years of my life have come to an end and, in the presence of the entire community, I am going to sleep with my fathers. But [you] take this writing so…
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Genesis Apocryphon Scroll
This scroll, found in Cave 1 at Qumran, contains the text of the Genesis Apocryphon, an Aramaic retelling of narratives from Genesis. The genre of rewritten Bible was popular among Jewish authors in…
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Rescuing Sacred Writings
All sacred writings may be saved from a fire, whether we read from them or not [on the Sabbath]. And even if they are written in any language, they must be stored…
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Who May Serve as a Scribe
And that which is taught [in a baraita, which said that] it should be interred, is [the opinion] of this tanna, as [R. Hamnuna,] son of [Rava] of Pashronya, taught…
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Dividing, Combining, and Binding Scrolls
Abaye said to R. Joseph: That [statement] of R. Judah is [actually the opinion] of Samuel, [his teacher,] as we learned [in the Mishnah]: But [in the case of] sacred writings, [i.e., a scroll of any…
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Incomplete and Separate Scrolls
The people of the Galilee sent [a question] to R. Ḥelbo: What is [the halakhah with regard] to reading from ḥumashim, [i.e., scrolls containing only one of the five books of the Torah,] in the…