© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi � �. ��63/97890043557 �9_0�7 chapter 15 The Textual Base of the Biblical Quotations in Second Temple Compositions* Emanuel Tov In the pre-Christian centuries, we witness different approaches to the text of Scripture. Most scribes took the liberty to change the text, while some trans- mitted the text before them without making changes. The first part of this study refers to the different branches of the biblical texts themselves, while the second part focuses on the Second Temple compositions based on them. Most of these compositions rewrite the biblical text, such as Jubilees, the Temple Scroll and the so-called Apocrypha of Moses, Joshua and Jeremiah from Qumran, while others quote from the biblical text or allude to it. It is well known that the textual base of these compositions differs from case to case. Some contain non-Masoretic readings, especially from the LXX and the SP group, some are based on Qumran texts, while the textual base of others is not known from anyone text with which we are familiar. It remains an open question whether MT served at all as the base for any compositions written in antiquity, except for rabbinic literature. Just as we witness textual variety in the biblical sources, we are faced with textual variety at the base of the Second Temple compositions. In the study of the Second Temple compositions most of the evidence per- tains to the Torah, but some significant data pertain to the other books, and in any event, in each biblical book we meet different textual patterns. As far as I know, the questions analyzed in this study have not been asked with regard to the combined compositions written in the Second Temple period,1 and there- fore the results are tentative. * This paper is dedicated to Moshe Bernstein, a scholar of great erudition and a dear friend. An earlier form of the paper was read at the symposium “Writing and Textuality” held at the Humboldt University in Berlin, August 25–26, 2014. The author is grateful to its host, Berndt Schipper, as well as to Andrew Teeter of Harvard University for his judicious and penetrating critique at the meeting. 1  This claim was also raised by Armin Lange, “From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Masoretic Text: The Hebrew Biblical Texts between Textual Plurality and Uniformity” (forthcoming). 280-302_Goldstein et al_16-Tov.indd 280 10/08/2017 2:07:37 PM