42 lines of Torah
42
Scribal tradition of 42 lines per column in a Torah scroll. Soferim 2:11. Common modern layout.
ManuscriptChester Beatty LibraryPUBLIC DOMAIN
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A Torah scroll is parchment, ruling, column, and copy. Many columns are ruled at forty-two lines. Tractate Soferim discusses line counts, including 42. Surviving medieval Sephardic scrolls are often physically ruled that way. The number sits in the technology of reading.
What it supports
Soferim 2:11 as an early source. Manuscript practice also used 60, 72, 98. Modern layouts commonly use 42. Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible is a different object. A traditional link to 42 wilderness stations is interpretation, not the ruling.
What it does not
Not every historical scroll. Not identity with Numbers 33. Not Gutenberg.
ExactnessCount
Form42
Unitlines
Strengthattested