USE OF BLANK SPACES IN THE DSS (part 2)
by Chanan B. Tigay, with Mark P. Berman (5 May 1995)


THE PESHARIM:

   The use of blanks in the Pesharim is very deliberate. 
Several patterns are evident after giving the material only a 
cursory glance and a number of others become visible upon looking 
at the texts more carefully. There are seven basic categories 
into which the placement of the blanks within the Pesharim can be 
divided. A blank can appear at the beginning of a line; at the 
end of a line (when an entire line was left blak I counted it as 
both a blank at the beginning and the end of a line); at the end 
of a column; after a period (and occasionally after a question 
mark or an exclamation point); before a quotation from the 
bible; before some form of the phrase "Its interpretation"; or 
in a seemingly random location. There is a great deal of 
overlap between the blanks in each of these categories and 
often times it is impossible to determine which category a 
particular blank belongs in because of the fragmentary nature 
of the material. In cases where Garcia Martinez has added 
words where the text has been destroyed, we have trusted his 
judgment. 

   In all, eighty-one blanks appear in the Pesharim material. 
The sheer numbers of blanks in most of the above-mentioned 
categories make it clear that the scribes writing these texts 
had reasons for inserting blanks where they did and that they did 
so purposefully under some type of system. Fifty blanks 
appear after periods; 3 appear after question marks; and one 
appears after an exclamation point. This would indicate that 
in many cases a blank left by the author could denote some sort 
of end or closure for a sentence. This might have been important 
since no punctuation actually appears in the texts; it is simply 
a modern addition by the translator to make the material more 
understandable. Perhaps a blank space was left to indicate that a 
particular sentence had ended. 

   The Pesharim are commentaries on books of the bible. After a 
biblical verse is quoted the author indicates that he is 
beginning his commentary by writing "Its interpretation," "The 
interpretation," or "Interpretation," and then continuing with 
his explanation of the verse. Thirty-nine blanks appear before 
the "interpretation formula." Clearly the authors wanted to be 
certain that their readers would know where the biblical 
quotation ended and the commentary began. So they not only used 
the "interpretation formula," but added a blank prior to the 
commentary to create a physical barrier between verse and 
extrapolation. 

   Twenty-six blanks appear prior to a quotation from the 
bible. The reason for this may be similar to the use of the blank 
before the "interpretation formula." It seems possible that the 
authors of these texts wanted to make absolutely certain to 
differentiate between commentary and quotation and therefore used 
the blank as a method of physically separating the two. 

   A blank appears at the beginning of a line eleven times; 
these blanks, however, generally overlap with the blanks 
appearing before biblical quotations and the "interpretation 
formula." 

   Blanks appear at the end of a column four times and occur at 
random locations in verses a number more times. 

THE MANUAL OF DISCIPLINE:

   The use of blanks in the Manual of Discipline is often 
deliberate, although it is far more random than in the Pesharim. 
The categories here are in large part the same as in the 
Pesharim; they are: blanks found after a period (or question 
mark); blanks found at the beginning of a column; blanks found 
at the end of a column; blanks found at the beginning of a line; 
blanks found at the end of a line; blanks occurring when the 
subject of the text changes; and random occurrences of blanks. 
Once again there is a great deal of overlap and the text was too 
fragmentary in some instances to put certain blanks into 
categories. 

   Forty-two blanks appear in the most complete copy of the 
Manual of Discipline (1QS). Of these, 18 appear after a period 
and one appears after a question mark; one appears at the 
beginning of a column and two appear at the end of a column; 
fifteen blanks occur at the beginning of a line and 17 appear at 
the end of a line; a number of blanks occur at a subject change 
in the text, or prior to some sort of wrap-up or summation of 
the text that precedes it; and a number more seem to be at 
random spots in the text. Following are examples of blanks which 
fit in to these last two categories: 

   1QS, column III, begins by discussing sin and how a sinner 
can atone for his transgressions. It does so up until line 12, 
where a blank appears at the line's end; another blank occurs at 
the beginning of line 13. At this point the topic changes from 
the cleansing of sins to instructions for the wise man on 
teaching the sons of light about the history of the sons of 
man. It seems that the scribe wished to indicate a topic change 
here and used a blank after the first topic and another before 
the second to denote this change. 

   In 1QS, column X, line 4, a blank occurs right in the middle 
of a sentence. "It is a great day for the holy of holies, and an 
omen________of the opening of his everlasting mercies for the 
beginnings of the constellations in every future age." This blank 
seems to be located in a completely random spot and I can think 
of no explanation for its presence here. 

   It is interesting to note that the most common word 
appearing after a blank in the Manual of Discipline is "And." 
This word often denotes a change of subject but not exclusively. 
Sometimes a blank simply appears before an instance of the word 
"And" which denotes no subject change, as in 1QS, column VII, 
line 13 (I will begin quoting in line 12): "And the same 
applies to whoever leaves the session of the many 13 without 
cause, or falls asleep up to three times during a session shall 
be punished ten days; however, if..._____14 and he withdraws, 
he shall be punished for thirty days." 

   It is also interesting to note that twice in the Manual a 
blank occurs after the phrase "Amen, Amen" (1QS, col. I, line 20; 
1QS, col. II, line 18). 

   Nine blanks occur throughout all of the smaller fragments of 
the Manual of Discipline. Of these nine only two are duplicated 
in 1QS. This would seem to indicate that the placement of blanks 
in the Manual is based on the decisions of the particular scribe. 
This hypothesis is further strengthened by comparing the number 
of blanks in specific sections of 1QS to the number of blanks in 
the equivalent portions of the Manual's fragments. Fragment 1, 
column I of 4Q258 is equivalent to 1QS column V, lines 1-20. In 
the 1QS portion, two blanks occur. In the 4Q258 fragment only one 
blank occurs. Fragment 2, column I of 4Q258 is equivalent to 1QS 
column VIII, lines 6-17. In the 1QS portion, three blanks occur. 
In the 4Q258 fragment only one blank occurs. Fragment 2, column 
II of 4Q258 is equivalent to 1QS column VII, line 24 through 
column IX, line ten. The 1QS portion contains nine blanks. In the 
4Q258 section only three blanks occur. Fragment 2, column III of 
4Q258 is equivalent to 1QS column IX, line 15 through column X, 
line 3. The 1QS portion contains three blanks. The 4Q258 section 
has only one blank. We cannot think of these numbers as 
conclusive proof for the theory stated above since the 
fragments are by definition extremely fragmentary; however this 
evidence seems to be indicative of the fact that the placement 
of blanks was not canonical, but rather, was the choice of the 
particular scribe. 

THE APOCRYPHAL PSALMS:

   The Apocryphal Psalms are far more fragmentary than either 
of the documents previously discussed and many less blanks are to 
be found in whichever copies we do have. It would therefore be 
quite difficult, perhaps even unwise, to attempt to make any 
hypotheses regarding blanks in these psalms. We have too little 
information to make any attempt at a comprehensive conclusion. 
Although though the information on blanks in the Apocryphal 
Psalms is inconclusive, it is interesting to look at nonetheless. 
It is therefore included below. 

   There are eighteen total blanks in the Apocryphal Psalms. 
Eight blanks occur at the beginning of a line; eight appear at 
the end of a line; two blanks occur at the beginning of a column; 
three appear at the end of a column; four blanks occur after 
periods; and one blank appears after an exclamation point. 

   It is interesting to note the similar use of the blank on a 
number of different occasions within the Apocryphal Psalms. In 
4Q380, column I, lines 7-8, a blank is followed by: "Hymn of 
Obadiah." In 4Q381, fragment 33, lines 7-8, a blank is followed 
by: "Prayer of Mannasseh." In 4QPs11f, column XXVII, lines 12-13 
a blank is followed by: "Beginning of David's exploit." The 
similar uses of the blank between these lines indicate some sort 
of formula the author had for using blanks; perhaps he chose to 
place a blank before particular possessive statements. 

CONCLUSION:

   It is evident that the placement of the blanks is most often 
deliberate because of the many observable patterns in the texts. 
However, blanks are often absent where they would have seemed 
appropriate had the patterns been followed throughout the 
document. Conversely, there are several blanks which seem 
altogether extraneous based on any discernible pattern. 

   The fragments which have been discovered of more complete 
documents tend to be paraphrases of the larger texts. It seems 
then, and I think the research detailed in this paper strengthens 
this hypothesis, that if the words themselves are not canonical, 
that is, they can be changed by different scribes, then certainly 
the blanks aren't either. 

 
APPENDIX OF PASSAGES (handwritten list)

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