‘Verified Exact Copy’: Literacy, Scribes, and Copying in Papyri from the Judaean Desert (First to Second Century CE)

In this paper, the author focuses on the papyri of Nahal Hever as a source of information on the unprofessional scribes of the Judaean area in the 1st-2nd centuries AD, elaborating on the identity and skills of these local scribes who produced the majority of the documents presently known, and the significance that the process of copying had for their work. Unlike the scribes mentioned at different times in the New Testament and in rabbinic literature, who belonged to well-organized social and/or religious groups, it appears that the scribes of the Judaean Desert documents were simply ‘professionals of writing’ who varied in status, depending on their working environment.