Emanuel Tov, "Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert, Revised Second Edition" (Brill, 2025) - New Books Network

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[00:01]
A
Welcome to the New Books Network.
[00:05]
B
Professor Tov, thank you very much for joining us today to Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade, Serbia. It is a great honor to speak with you, especially after Scholar GPS has awarded you the status of highly ranked scholar and ranked you number one worldwide in Biblical studies for your lifetime scholarly contributions. Professor Emanuel Tov, welcome.
[00:42]
C
Thank you very much. Good morning, Bokotov.
[00:48]
B
Professor Tov, what are you working on those days and what is the main focus of your research at the moment?
[00:59]
C
Well, I'm working on textual criticism. I've been working on textual criticism. I don't want to say how long, but it's probably six years. My last book was published half a year ago. That was on the scribes of Qumran, 700 pages, but I'm not working on that anymore. I'm now writing a new book. I don't know yet what it will be called, but it is on the textual history of the Pentateuch, the Torah. I'm trying to find out what the textual origins of this book is. Not really the original text, but something like it, the earliest text that we can reach at with the aid of all the texts that we have at our disposal. And so it's an archeological search and it makes me very happy. And it's. So it's a combination of everything I've done so far on the Torah, a study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, study of the Septuagint, of the Samaritan, Pentateuch, and much theoretical thinking. And I'm in the middle of it.
[02:43]
B
Very nice. In 2025, you published the revised second edition of your book Scribal Practice and Approaches Reflected in the Text Found in the Judean Desert. Judean Desert. What are the most important new ideas or discoveries that you included in this new edition compared to the first edition?
[03:16]
C
Well, that book was more or less a handbook. It's a handbook for anyone dealing with the small details of the scrolls. And it deals with all the technical details. What is a scroll and what its scribes do? I try to enter into the mind of a scribe. What does a scribe do when he faces the text that he has to copy? Now, I had written the first edition in 2004 and so much has happened since that time. And for one thing, I had made quite a few mistakes in many details. And many things have changed. I changed my ideas on the material. I don't call it leather anymore. And now it's more general skins or skin based material. I stabilized my views on what I call the Kumban Scribal practice. And even in that small area, there have come the criticisms. Yes, but many, there have come many welcome supports, even from things that I would never dream about. But even from AI Research, the project in the Netherlands, someone working within that project found that eight scrolls written by one and the same scribe, they, I think seven of them wrote with the same type of spelling. And that's my, my scribal practice, the so called Qumran scribal practice. So that was a welcome thing. Things, ideas like these, which. On which I changed my, my mind that have come into this book. Yes. And then also I have a clearer idea what the different scrolls are that were found at Qumran. What types of scrolls were found at Qumran.
[06:10]
B
Okay, I understand. Very, very nice. In your recent study, holy and unholy text of Hebrew Scripture, you discuss the different status of biblical text and antiquity. Could you explain this idea to our viewers and why it is important for understanding the Hebrew Bible?
[06:40]
C
Well, you point out a. A recent paper and it's interesting that sometimes your. My thinking advances through invitations to scholarly meetings. So there I was at that meeting and I was invited to think about holy and unholy in the transmission of the text. And then I continue to think about the aspects of the transmission in the areas in which I'm an expert. Basically it deals with the Masoretic text. The Masoretic text is the central text. What we conceive of as the central text of the Hebrew Bible. It was not always the central text. Now we open the Hebrew Bible. It's this Bible. This is the Masoretic text. Oh, I should open the Hebrew tithe. And you have the same in your office? Yes, it's born and. Yes, yes. And this is our central text. And it was the central text of the Jewish people from. From when? Definitely from the first century of the Common Era. Also already earlier. From the first century before the Common era. Now what, what I wrote in this paper, what was the great innovation of this text? Because at Qumran we find all kinds of texts. Not, not the Masoretic text. Pure. What is the Masoretic text? The Masoretic text is the text that we have in the Middle Ages. The text, the same text as we have in the Middle Ages was found among the Judean Desert text, but not at Qumran, in other sites in the Judean Desert, in Vadimorabat, Nachalchever and on top of the Masada. These were different kinds of Jews. If I say very religious Jews, a very hard word, a difficult word, because Also, the ones at Qumran were very religious, but they were religious in a different way. They the ones at Masada, they only had one text, the Masoretic text or we now call it Proto Masoretic text and the same text also in Murabad, et cetera. So we see in Qumran many texts, but not the Masoretic text. The other places in Judean Desert, only the Proto Masoretic text. Now I think about the whole transmission of the biblical text and I think about the great innovation of this Masoretic text. What's the difference between the Masoretic tradition and all the other texts? The difference is that the Masoretic text started a new principle. The new principle was not to insert any change. Any change from what? From the text of a previous generation and from the generation there before that. And before that, it was a holy text. It was a holy text for everyone but for the people who created and preserved the Masoretic text. That was their principle. The Masoretic text was not always so precise but from a certain point onwards, it was very, very precise. And now I focus on the Torah. And there they preserve certain ancient features. They even preserve the little dots. And this was like a revolution. That's the holy aspect of the Masoretic text. And this I understood in the recent years more than I understood this later. Now, in retrospect, it was only one text in ancient Israel among many texts. But later on it became the main text. But that's only a historical coincidence because all the other texts were not sponsored by any group in Israel anymore. The Qumran people were dead. The Samaritans had their texts, but they were not Jewish anymore. And the texts that were behind the Septuagint were also not Jewish anymore. They came to the Christian corner. So only what this Masoretic textured for that became the main text and it was adapted by the rabbis. So this is what happened in Judaism. And we see everything in the wrong light. We think this was the main text from the very beginning. It was not the main text from the beginning.
[12:47]
B
I understand. Thank you. In another recent study, scribal habits of the Aramaic Qumran text you examine the habits of the scribes who coped the Aramaic scrolls. What can those scribal habits tell us about the people who produced the manuscripts?
[13:14]
C
Yes. What's your remark or question?
[13:18]
B
My question is, after research in scribal habits of the Aramaic Qumran text this is the research work from 2012, your research work from 2025. What you do you do you find something, something new, something new idea or something?
[13:46]
C
Well, at Qumran, most of the texts, most of the Semitic texts are Hebrew and they have many scribal systems. But these systems are more or less in common and these were the systems of the period. The Aramaic systems were also the systems of the period. And I spoke about a few small details that stood out and had some things in common. Small details that had some details in common with the Qumran scribal system. Very interesting. Doesn't change the overall picture. It's a small detail.
[14:42]
A
Right now get up to 15% off select storage solutions put heavy duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid impact resistant design prevents cracking and the clear base insides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find select shelving and tote storage up to 15% off at the Home Depot. To organize every room in your home from your garage to your attic, visit homedepot.com how doers get more done.
[15:16]
B
After so many years of studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, which question do you think are still waiting for convincing answers, for writing for convincing answers, what in the future researchers will need to answer to us? Something that, that you not find, for example.
[15:55]
C
Yes. Well, now if you follow the news, this is world news. You probably also read about a new research project in the Netherlands by. Led by Mladen Popovich.
[16:12]
B
Oh yes, from. I think from Croatia, from Balkan.
[16:17]
C
Yes, this is a very important project and it's not related to his previous project which dealt with the analysis of the handwriting. But this is a technical nature, scientific investigation of the materials of. I don't know the details, but definitely of the material on which the scrolls were written. I don't know whether they also do ink analysis, but chemical analysis. Yes. And so in independent analysis they hope to find out where the scrolls were written. I'm of course I'm interested in some very specific details, whether the scrolls that I ascribe to the Qumran scribal system, whether they in some way are different from other scrolls. So this is one question, namely, with the aid of the natural sciences, can we come closer to answering some questions? We need a database in a yet unpublished article in a face Rift for a small article by myself, I say we need such a database with all those data on technical data on each scroll. We don't have those data. This is very much needed because we are guessing there are many things that we can can know about links between scribes and doubts about whether this fragment belongs to this scroll or that scroll we hope to find out. These technical issues I think should be tackled in the future about content matters, I can't put my finger right now on any. I think, yeah, I think linguistic study. Linguistic study of the scrolls being being performed right now by a colleague at the Hebrew University. Linguistic studies will give us some answers indeed. And I think continue studies on the background of the scrolls compared with the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and other pieces of literature, intertestamental literature will find more parallels between the scrolls and intertestamental literature. Another colleague writes much about the scrolls and the New Testament. This should continue. I think all these things together show that the research on the scrolls is still flourishing and we haven't delved into the end of the research.
[20:19]
B
Yes. Understand many of our viewers are university professors, researchers and PhDs students. As a member of the editorial board of the European Hebrew Journal published by Sinter and Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature in in Belgrade, Serbia, what message would you like to give to scholars who are thinking about submitting their work to the journal?
[20:59]
C
Well, I would say in general, as much as possible, base your work on the original languages. That's the only thing I can say on the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek rather than translations.
[21:16]
B
Thank you. And in for the end of our, our interview, I will, I want to ask you, if you were starting your academic career today, what would you do differently?
[21:38]
C
That's a very interesting question that I had not thought about. And the fact of the matter is that I've always been in luck. That's to say our career is the career of what we call publish or perish. You know that phrase, if you don't publish, you don't succeed. So a young colleague at the time told me, you have to publish before you're 30. So I started publishing before I'm 30. It all happened. My one of my teachers helped me and my first publications were in French on Qumran, I think, and on textual criticism in fact. And then I, I've written a lot. I'm now, I, I, I think close to 20 books and I'm now approaching almost 400 research papers. And I've always been in luck at the Hebrew University, really an excellent university, where we have been allowed to teach topics of our expertise. So I was always able to develop papers together with my research interests and to develop a paper or more than a paper together with my teaching. So in the beginning I was writing one paper and then another one, in later years two at the same times. And in the last so many Years, five or six at the same time. And when I write a paper, I make a draft and I put it aside, and after a month I come back to the draft and I read it again, rewrite it, et cetera. And when I give a. I don't like to give the same lecture twice. And when I give a lecture, I usually publish my lecture. So, coming back to your question, basically, I'm afraid I have to say maybe I have to think hard, but there's nothing that I can think of right now that I would do differently from what I did in order. And I've been in luck all the stages of promotion. Of course, I. I've been editor in chief of a large project of publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls. I've made friends, but I've made also several enemies. I've had troubles with these enemies and there were difficult things. So, yes, I've not always been diplomatic. I've been diplomatic, but I've not always been diplomatic. So in, In. In. In. In certain situations I would have imp. I think yes, in certain situations, without giving details, I would have. Yeah, I would have changed in my next life. I would have made different decisions and I would have taken upon myself a certain research project, even if I didn't like it, and changed the research. The line of the research project. So I would have taken it because of. Because that would be. Would have been the best thing to do and after. And rather than declining it as I did. So, yes, I would have done the same in my career, but in certain details I would have done it differently. It's a little vague answer.
[25:45]
B
Yeah. But before this interview, I think about your name and your surname because I'm small researcher in biblical onomastics and if your name is Emmanuel and that's meaning the God is with us, and if your surname is Tov, that means good. It was very easy to you to be the best in the world in Dead Sea Scrolls because. Just because your name and surname.
[26:35]
C
Oh, thank you very much.
[26:37]
B
Yes. Okay. Professor Emanuel Tov. Thank you to Donna Bars for this very, very nice interview. And I hope in future when you will publish new book, we. We can make another interview if you will be interested.
[27:08]
D
Effy, thank you for listening to this episode of the New Books Network. We are an academic podcast network with the mission of public education. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate us on your preferred podcast platform. You can browse all of our episodes on our website newbooks network.com connect with us on Instagram and bluesky with the handle ew booksnetwork and subscribe to our weekly substack newsletter@newbooksnetwork.substack.com to get episode recommendations straight to your inbox.

Summary6 min read

New Books Network: Emanuel Tov on "Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert" (Revised Second Edition)

Episode Date: July 20, 2026
Host: New Books
Guest: Professor Emanuel Tov
Focus: The updated edition of Professor Tov’s seminal work on scribal practices in the Judean Desert texts, and wide-ranging reflections on the transmission, status, and study of ancient Hebrew manuscripts.

Overview

This episode features a rich, deeply thoughtful conversation with Professor Emanuel Tov, internationally recognized as the world’s leading biblical studies scholar. The discussion explores his newly revised second edition of Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert, providing insights into technical, textual, and theoretical updates. Professor Tov also reflects on broader themes of the status and evolution of the Hebrew Bible, current and future directions in Dead Sea Scrolls research, and offers advice to early-career scholars.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Current Research Focus

Tov's Main Interests: Currently concentrated on the textual history of the Pentateuch. Rather than seeking "the original text," his research explores the earliest textual forms accessible through comparative study—including the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint, Samaritan Pentateuch, and theoretical models. (01:00)
- "I'm trying to find out what the textual origins of this book is. Not really the original text, but something like it, the earliest text that we can reach..." (01:08, Tov)

2. Revised Edition: New Ideas and Discoveries

Nature of the Book: Serves as a technical handbook for dealing with small details of the scrolls, deeply invested in understanding scribal actions and intentions.
Substantial Updates:
- Shift in terminology from "leather" to "skin-based material."
- Refined his view of "Qumran Scribal practice" and observed both constructive criticism and validation from unexpected fields, notably AI research corroborating his ideas about scribal consistency.
- Further clarified the categorization of scroll types found at Qumran.
- Openness to correction; correction of mistakes from the 2004 edition and incorporation of fresh scholarly perspectives and findings. (03:15)
  - "Things, ideas like these...on which I changed my mind that have come into this book. Yes. And then also I have a clearer idea what the different scrolls are that were found at Qumran." (05:39, Tov)
  - Memorable moment: Tov cites an AI research project that confirmed his earlier hypothesis through computational methods. (Approx. 05:00)

3. "Holy and Unholy" Statuses of Texts

Masoretic Text vs. Qumran Manuscripts:
- The Masoretic Text (MT)—the authoritative medieval Hebrew Bible text—is not the original or sole ancient version; it evolved to prominence due to historical contingencies.
- At Qumran, many text types existed; elsewhere in the Judean Desert, only proto-Masoretic copies appear.
- The key innovation of the MT was the principle of fixedness: scribes refraining from altering text, preserving inherited tradition with extraordinary precision, even conserving ancient features like little dots.
  - "The new principle was not to insert any change. Any change from what? From the text of a previous generation..." (09:28, Tov)
- The MT became central only because other textual traditions died out or shifted to non-Jewish religious groups.
  - "It was only one text in ancient Israel among many texts. But later on it became the main text. But that's only a historical coincidence..." (11:57, Tov)

4. Scribal Habits and the Aramaic Qumran Texts

Findings on Aramaic Scrolls:
- Hebrew texts at Qumran exhibited several intersecting scribal systems; Aramaic practices, though specific, shared commonalities with the period’s broader trends.
- Some minor distinctive features, but nothing that upends the established picture.
  - "Small details that had some details in common with the Qumran scribal system. Very interesting. Doesn't change the overall picture." (14:26, Tov)

5. Open Questions and Future Research Directions

Role of Science:
- Cutting-edge projects (notably led by Mladen Popović in the Netherlands) now employ technical and chemical analyses of scroll materials to address provenance and scribal questions.
- Need for a comprehensive database of technical information on all scrolls to advance the field—linking fragments, identifying scribes, and verifying attributions.
  - "With the aid of the natural sciences, can we come closer to answering some questions? We need a database...We don't have those data. This is very much needed because we are guessing..." (17:05, Tov)
Linguistic and Comparative Studies:
- Calls for continued linguistic work and comparative research between the scrolls, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Second-Temple Jewish literature.
  - "Linguistic studies will give us some answers indeed. And I think continued studies on the background of the scrolls compared with the Hebrew Bible..." (18:36, Tov)

6. Advice to Early-Career Scholars & Journal Submitters

Original Language Mastery:
- Urges all researchers to base their work not on translations but on the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
  - "Base your work on the original languages. That's the only thing I can say..." (21:00, Tov)

7. Career Reflections: Wisdom and Regret

Publish and Persevere:
- Credits his success to early and industrious publishing, institutional fortune, and the freedom to follow personal research interests.
- Admits to a few missteps, mostly concerning interpersonal and project choices, and hints he’d make more pragmatic decisions if given another chance.
  - "I've not always been diplomatic...in certain situations...I would have taken upon myself a certain research project, even if I didn't like it..." (24:56, Tov)
- Otherwise, stands by the path he charted: persistence, adaptability, and scholarly integrity.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On scholarly humility and change:
- "I had written the first edition in 2004 and so much has happened since that time. And for one thing, I had made quite a few mistakes in many details. And many things have changed. I changed my ideas..." (03:33, Tov)
On the illusion of textual centrality:
- "We think this [the Masoretic Text] was the main text from the very beginning. It was not the main text from the beginning." (12:30, Tov)
On the luck and challenge of an academic life:
- "The fact of the matter is that I've always been in luck. That's to say, our career is the career of what we call publish or perish." (21:40, Tov)
On his name’s auspiciousness:
- Host jokes: "It was very easy to you to be the best in the world in Dead Sea Scrolls just because your name and surname." ("Emanuel"= "God is with us", "Tov"= "Good") (25:44, Host B)
- "Oh, thank you very much." (26:34, Tov)

Timestamps for Important Segments

Introduction & Scholarly Achievements — 00:05–00:42
Current Research Focus — 00:48–02:42
New Edition: Key Insights and Corrections — 02:42–06:09
"Holy and Unholy" Status of Texts Explained — 06:09–12:46
Scribal Habits: Aramaic Qumran Texts — 12:46–14:42
Future Questions—Science and Scholarship — 15:16–20:19
Advice to Scholars — 20:19–21:16
Career Reflection and Regrets — 21:16–26:36

Conclusion

Professor Emanuel Tov offers both technical depth and thoughtful perspective on the ongoing study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible’s transmission. His humility, candor, and ongoing openness to interdisciplinary advances underscore why he remains the field’s leading voice. The episode is a treasure trove for researchers, students, and general listeners alike—whether you’re interested in scribal minutiae, big-picture historical change, or personal advice from a deeply experienced scholar.

Loading summary

Transcript26 lines

[00:01]
A
Welcome to the New Books Network.
[00:05]
B
Professor Tov, thank you very much for joining us today to Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature, Belgrade, Serbia. It is a great honor to speak with you, especially after Scholar GPS has awarded you the status of highly ranked scholar and ranked you number one worldwide in Biblical studies for your lifetime scholarly contributions. Professor Emanuel Tov, welcome.
[00:42]
C
Thank you very much. Good morning, Bokotov.
[00:48]
B
Professor Tov, what are you working on those days and what is the main focus of your research at the moment?
[00:59]
C
Well, I'm working on textual criticism. I've been working on textual criticism. I don't want to say how long, but it's probably six years. My last book was published half a year ago. That was on the scribes of Qumran, 700 pages, but I'm not working on that anymore. I'm now writing a new book. I don't know yet what it will be called, but it is on the textual history of the Pentateuch, the Torah. I'm trying to find out what the textual origins of this book is. Not really the original text, but something like it, the earliest text that we can reach at with the aid of all the texts that we have at our disposal. And so it's an archeological search and it makes me very happy. And it's. So it's a combination of everything I've done so far on the Torah, a study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, study of the Septuagint, of the Samaritan, Pentateuch, and much theoretical thinking. And I'm in the middle of it.
[02:43]
B
Very nice. In 2025, you published the revised second edition of your book Scribal Practice and Approaches Reflected in the Text Found in the Judean Desert. Judean Desert. What are the most important new ideas or discoveries that you included in this new edition compared to the first edition?
[03:16]
C
Well, that book was more or less a handbook. It's a handbook for anyone dealing with the small details of the scrolls. And it deals with all the technical details. What is a scroll and what its scribes do? I try to enter into the mind of a scribe. What does a scribe do when he faces the text that he has to copy? Now, I had written the first edition in 2004 and so much has happened since that time. And for one thing, I had made quite a few mistakes in many details. And many things have changed. I changed my ideas on the material. I don't call it leather anymore. And now it's more general skins or skin based material. I stabilized my views on what I call the Kumban Scribal practice. And even in that small area, there have come the criticisms. Yes, but many, there have come many welcome supports, even from things that I would never dream about. But even from AI Research, the project in the Netherlands, someone working within that project found that eight scrolls written by one and the same scribe, they, I think seven of them wrote with the same type of spelling. And that's my, my scribal practice, the so called Qumran scribal practice. So that was a welcome thing. Things, ideas like these, which. On which I changed my, my mind that have come into this book. Yes. And then also I have a clearer idea what the different scrolls are that were found at Qumran. What types of scrolls were found at Qumran.
[06:10]
B
Okay, I understand. Very, very nice. In your recent study, holy and unholy text of Hebrew Scripture, you discuss the different status of biblical text and antiquity. Could you explain this idea to our viewers and why it is important for understanding the Hebrew Bible?
[06:40]
C
Well, you point out a. A recent paper and it's interesting that sometimes your. My thinking advances through invitations to scholarly meetings. So there I was at that meeting and I was invited to think about holy and unholy in the transmission of the text. And then I continue to think about the aspects of the transmission in the areas in which I'm an expert. Basically it deals with the Masoretic text. The Masoretic text is the central text. What we conceive of as the central text of the Hebrew Bible. It was not always the central text. Now we open the Hebrew Bible. It's this Bible. This is the Masoretic text. Oh, I should open the Hebrew tithe. And you have the same in your office? Yes, it's born and. Yes, yes. And this is our central text. And it was the central text of the Jewish people from. From when? Definitely from the first century of the Common Era. Also already earlier. From the first century before the Common era. Now what, what I wrote in this paper, what was the great innovation of this text? Because at Qumran we find all kinds of texts. Not, not the Masoretic text. Pure. What is the Masoretic text? The Masoretic text is the text that we have in the Middle Ages. The text, the same text as we have in the Middle Ages was found among the Judean Desert text, but not at Qumran, in other sites in the Judean Desert, in Vadimorabat, Nachalchever and on top of the Masada. These were different kinds of Jews. If I say very religious Jews, a very hard word, a difficult word, because Also, the ones at Qumran were very religious, but they were religious in a different way. They the ones at Masada, they only had one text, the Masoretic text or we now call it Proto Masoretic text and the same text also in Murabad, et cetera. So we see in Qumran many texts, but not the Masoretic text. The other places in Judean Desert, only the Proto Masoretic text. Now I think about the whole transmission of the biblical text and I think about the great innovation of this Masoretic text. What's the difference between the Masoretic tradition and all the other texts? The difference is that the Masoretic text started a new principle. The new principle was not to insert any change. Any change from what? From the text of a previous generation and from the generation there before that. And before that, it was a holy text. It was a holy text for everyone but for the people who created and preserved the Masoretic text. That was their principle. The Masoretic text was not always so precise but from a certain point onwards, it was very, very precise. And now I focus on the Torah. And there they preserve certain ancient features. They even preserve the little dots. And this was like a revolution. That's the holy aspect of the Masoretic text. And this I understood in the recent years more than I understood this later. Now, in retrospect, it was only one text in ancient Israel among many texts. But later on it became the main text. But that's only a historical coincidence because all the other texts were not sponsored by any group in Israel anymore. The Qumran people were dead. The Samaritans had their texts, but they were not Jewish anymore. And the texts that were behind the Septuagint were also not Jewish anymore. They came to the Christian corner. So only what this Masoretic textured for that became the main text and it was adapted by the rabbis. So this is what happened in Judaism. And we see everything in the wrong light. We think this was the main text from the very beginning. It was not the main text from the beginning.
[12:47]
B
I understand. Thank you. In another recent study, scribal habits of the Aramaic Qumran text you examine the habits of the scribes who coped the Aramaic scrolls. What can those scribal habits tell us about the people who produced the manuscripts?
[13:14]
C
Yes. What's your remark or question?
[13:18]
B
My question is, after research in scribal habits of the Aramaic Qumran text this is the research work from 2012, your research work from 2025. What you do you do you find something, something new, something new idea or something?
[13:46]
C
Well, at Qumran, most of the texts, most of the Semitic texts are Hebrew and they have many scribal systems. But these systems are more or less in common and these were the systems of the period. The Aramaic systems were also the systems of the period. And I spoke about a few small details that stood out and had some things in common. Small details that had some details in common with the Qumran scribal system. Very interesting. Doesn't change the overall picture. It's a small detail.
[14:42]
A
Right now get up to 15% off select storage solutions put heavy duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid impact resistant design prevents cracking and the clear base insides make items easy to find even when the totes are stacked. Find select shelving and tote storage up to 15% off at the Home Depot. To organize every room in your home from your garage to your attic, visit homedepot.com how doers get more done.
[15:16]
B
After so many years of studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, which question do you think are still waiting for convincing answers, for writing for convincing answers, what in the future researchers will need to answer to us? Something that, that you not find, for example.
[15:55]
C
Yes. Well, now if you follow the news, this is world news. You probably also read about a new research project in the Netherlands by. Led by Mladen Popovich.
[16:12]
B
Oh yes, from. I think from Croatia, from Balkan.
[16:17]
C
Yes, this is a very important project and it's not related to his previous project which dealt with the analysis of the handwriting. But this is a technical nature, scientific investigation of the materials of. I don't know the details, but definitely of the material on which the scrolls were written. I don't know whether they also do ink analysis, but chemical analysis. Yes. And so in independent analysis they hope to find out where the scrolls were written. I'm of course I'm interested in some very specific details, whether the scrolls that I ascribe to the Qumran scribal system, whether they in some way are different from other scrolls. So this is one question, namely, with the aid of the natural sciences, can we come closer to answering some questions? We need a database in a yet unpublished article in a face Rift for a small article by myself, I say we need such a database with all those data on technical data on each scroll. We don't have those data. This is very much needed because we are guessing there are many things that we can can know about links between scribes and doubts about whether this fragment belongs to this scroll or that scroll we hope to find out. These technical issues I think should be tackled in the future about content matters, I can't put my finger right now on any. I think, yeah, I think linguistic study. Linguistic study of the scrolls being being performed right now by a colleague at the Hebrew University. Linguistic studies will give us some answers indeed. And I think continue studies on the background of the scrolls compared with the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and other pieces of literature, intertestamental literature will find more parallels between the scrolls and intertestamental literature. Another colleague writes much about the scrolls and the New Testament. This should continue. I think all these things together show that the research on the scrolls is still flourishing and we haven't delved into the end of the research.
[20:19]
B
Yes. Understand many of our viewers are university professors, researchers and PhDs students. As a member of the editorial board of the European Hebrew Journal published by Sinter and Institute for Hebrew Language and Literature in in Belgrade, Serbia, what message would you like to give to scholars who are thinking about submitting their work to the journal?
[20:59]
C
Well, I would say in general, as much as possible, base your work on the original languages. That's the only thing I can say on the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek rather than translations.
[21:16]
B
Thank you. And in for the end of our, our interview, I will, I want to ask you, if you were starting your academic career today, what would you do differently?
[21:38]
C
That's a very interesting question that I had not thought about. And the fact of the matter is that I've always been in luck. That's to say our career is the career of what we call publish or perish. You know that phrase, if you don't publish, you don't succeed. So a young colleague at the time told me, you have to publish before you're 30. So I started publishing before I'm 30. It all happened. My one of my teachers helped me and my first publications were in French on Qumran, I think, and on textual criticism in fact. And then I, I've written a lot. I'm now, I, I, I think close to 20 books and I'm now approaching almost 400 research papers. And I've always been in luck at the Hebrew University, really an excellent university, where we have been allowed to teach topics of our expertise. So I was always able to develop papers together with my research interests and to develop a paper or more than a paper together with my teaching. So in the beginning I was writing one paper and then another one, in later years two at the same times. And in the last so many Years, five or six at the same time. And when I write a paper, I make a draft and I put it aside, and after a month I come back to the draft and I read it again, rewrite it, et cetera. And when I give a. I don't like to give the same lecture twice. And when I give a lecture, I usually publish my lecture. So, coming back to your question, basically, I'm afraid I have to say maybe I have to think hard, but there's nothing that I can think of right now that I would do differently from what I did in order. And I've been in luck all the stages of promotion. Of course, I. I've been editor in chief of a large project of publishing the Dead Sea Scrolls. I've made friends, but I've made also several enemies. I've had troubles with these enemies and there were difficult things. So, yes, I've not always been diplomatic. I've been diplomatic, but I've not always been diplomatic. So in, In. In. In. In certain situations I would have imp. I think yes, in certain situations, without giving details, I would have. Yeah, I would have changed in my next life. I would have made different decisions and I would have taken upon myself a certain research project, even if I didn't like it, and changed the research. The line of the research project. So I would have taken it because of. Because that would be. Would have been the best thing to do and after. And rather than declining it as I did. So, yes, I would have done the same in my career, but in certain details I would have done it differently. It's a little vague answer.
[25:45]
B
Yeah. But before this interview, I think about your name and your surname because I'm small researcher in biblical onomastics and if your name is Emmanuel and that's meaning the God is with us, and if your surname is Tov, that means good. It was very easy to you to be the best in the world in Dead Sea Scrolls because. Just because your name and surname.
[26:35]
C
Oh, thank you very much.
[26:37]
B
Yes. Okay. Professor Emanuel Tov. Thank you to Donna Bars for this very, very nice interview. And I hope in future when you will publish new book, we. We can make another interview if you will be interested.
[27:08]
D
Effy, thank you for listening to this episode of the New Books Network. We are an academic podcast network with the mission of public education. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate us on your preferred podcast platform. You can browse all of our episodes on our website newbooks network.com connect with us on Instagram and bluesky with the handle ew booksnetwork and subscribe to our weekly substack newsletter@newbooksnetwork.substack.com to get episode recommendations straight to your inbox.