From Chaos to Coherence and Back: Some Thoughts on the Phenomenon of Harmonization in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Harmonization is a well known phenomenon in the textual criticism of the Hebrew bible, both from a higher and lower criticism point of view. And as an aside I may add that, as far as I know, it is a phenomenon to be found only in the textual criticism of the Hebrew bible, as it is unheard-of for other textual traditions, even if on this point I do hope to be corrected. Since the key to good textual work is finally common sense, as A.E. Housman put it, I’d like to offer no more than a few observations on this point. Emanuel Tov defines the phenomenon of harmonization as follows: "scribes adapted many elements in the text to other details in the same verse, in the immediate context or in a similar one, in the same book and in parallel sections elsewhere in the Bible."