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# The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tiberian Reading Tradition

**Authors:** [Aaron D. Hornkohl](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/aaron-d-hornkohl/) · **Year:** 2020 · **Venue:** Dead Sea Discoveries 27(3), 410–425 **Link:** [doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10012](https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10012) · **Licence:** CC BY (per OpenAlex/publisher)

[**40** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W3094122136) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[Dead Sea Discoveries](https://openalex.org/S21974725)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10012)
- [PDF](https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/dsd/27/3/article-p410_6.pdf)
- [DOI 10.1163/15685179-bja10012](https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10012)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3094122136)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Aaron D. Hornkohl](https://openalex.org/A5046509143) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3526-3818) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/102722197) · h 10 · 316 citations · 95 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex-snapshot (2026-10-14); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The full text is not in the library; this card rests on the abstract (via OpenAlex), so the ideas are provisional. Hornkohl takes the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially texts composed in Hellenistic and Roman times, as the best witness of Second Temple Hebrew. On some salient points this Hebrew agrees with the Tiberian vocalisation against the consonantal text of classical biblical books. He reads these agreements three ways: both traditions are relatively late on those points; the Tiberian reading tradition took shape in the Second Temple period rather than in Byzantine or medieval times; and since such joint departures are a small minority, the reading tradition otherwise preserves authentic Iron Age features.

## Ideas

- I1. Keep two layers apart in the Torah data: the consonantal text (ketiv, spelling) and the vocalised reading (qere, vowels). Where a form's spelling and pointing point to different stages (e.g. a short consonantal form read with a longer vowelled ending), flag it in MISC so the manual can count such "reading vs writing" mismatches.
- I2. In chapter 3 (reading traditions) and chapter 12 (stages), state the dating of the Tiberian tradition as argued here: crystallised in the Second Temple period, mostly conservative, with a minority of late features shared with the Scrolls.

## For Mova

I1 is a FEATS/MISC point for `tools/macula` and [1. Script and pointing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/01-script/) (ketiv/qere); it needs the paper's list of features before it can be implemented. I2 is a paragraph for `03-phonology.md` (reading traditions) and `12-biblical-mishnaic-modern.md` (the dating debate).

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.1163/15685179-bja10012](https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10012)

```
@inproceedings{hornkohl2020hebrew,
  title = {{The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Tiberian Reading Tradition}},
  author = {Hornkohl, Aaron D.},
  booktitle = {Dead Sea Discoveries},
  year = {2020},
  doi = {10.1163/15685179-bja10012},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1163/15685179-bja10012}
}
```

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