Open Readings
Places where a manuscript’s letters are in dispute: where our transcription differs from a published edition, or where the image leaves a letter open. Each item shows the disputed detail enlarged, our reading beside the comparison, and one question. Readers with the palaeography to judge are invited to answer, with their credentials, published on the page or sent to the author alone.
The Damascus Document, Cairo Genizah copies
Is the mark above the second word a cancellation stroke, or a blemish?
Is the horizontal stroke through the letter-group a deletion by the scribe?
Fourth letter: ד (squared head, foot at the right) or ר (rounded shoulder)?
Do the traces after בו read והוא יודע?
Third letter of the last word: א or נ?
Is there a ו between ד and ר?
A stroke stands above the word between א and ה: a supralinear ו, or a stray mark?
The last sign of מצותי: a final ו, or the scribe's colon-shaped section mark?
Is there a י between ת and ו in the last word, and are the smeared letters before להתות a cancelled והתוי?
The blot before משפט: a ה, or ink without a letter?
Where does line 32 end: are the four traces after אל letters, and does ויעזבם begin line 33?
Are there cancelled letters (יור) before מורה, so that the scribe corrected יורה to מורה, or is יורה the reading?
Is there a cancelled מיום at the head of the line before מורה?
Is the first letter of the word before ארבעים a כ?
After the colon at the left end: ישיבו (ש, ב) or יעזבו (ע, ז)?