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word spacing
I have a question that members of this list could probably answer. I
know that the scribal practice in antiquity among copyists of Greek and
Latin mss was to write in a continuing script, that is, without any
spacing between words or sentences. I know this because there are many
examples of this in the Greek and Latin mss themselves, and there are
plenty of explicit references to the careful art of properly reading
scripta continua texts, such as Augustine's _de Doctrina Christiana_.
Now and then I am told that ancient semitic, specifically
biblical, texts were also inscribed without spacing between words and
sentences. But the DSS seem to feature spacing between words, and, if
memory serves, the Elephantine papyri also show space between words.
I recognize that an ostracon here and there appears to be in scripta
continua format, but can any one tell me of ancient Hebrew mss inscribed
as script continua? Sometimes textual variants such as in Amos 6:12 are
linked to the phenomenon of continuous script, but I'm asking for actual
mss evidence. Is there any example?
Cheers,
William Yarchin
Azusa Pacific University