After a careful review of the PAM image of 4Q448, I have decided that what I thought was a trace of a third arm of a shin was actually a shadow, and that the letter is indeed an ayin. It doesn not immediately follow that 4Q488 is antagonistic toward Jonathan, but I want to study the issue further (in light of Ken Penner's article among others).
My apologies to Greg Doudna for mentioning research-in-progress that was superseded by conclusions from his inspection of the text in the Rockerfeller Museum. Had I read his discussion of this text in _4Q Pesher Nahum_ more closely I would have spotted his reading of an ayin at p. 735, which would have alerted me that he had done further research on the subject since our last communication.
Best regards,
Russell Gmirkin
Please note that I am greatly indebted to the very detailed study of 4Q448 of a couple years ago by G. Doudna (private communication) for most of the observations above, which are not original to me, but which I have verified by examining the PAM image. I haven't spoken with Doudna about 4Q448 recently and do not know his current views on this text, but his keen textual observations have been very helpful in shaping my understanding of 4Q448.
