Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible

by Karel Van der Toorn

Overview

The scribes of ancient Israel are indeed the main figures behind the Hebrew Bible, and this book tells their story for the first time. Drawing comparisons with the scribal practices of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, van der Toorn details the methods, assumptions, and material means that gave rise to biblical texts. Traditionally seen as the copycats of antiquity, the scribes emerge here as the literate elite who held the key to the production and the transmission of texts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674044586
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	498 KB

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations introduction 1. Books that are not books: Writing in the World of the Bible 2. Authorship in Antiquity: Practice and Perception 3. In search of the Scribes, I: Comparative Evidence 4. In search of the Scribes, II: The Biblical Evidence 5. Making books: Scribal Modes of Text Production 6. The teaching of Moses: Scribal Culture in the Mirror of Deuteronomy 7. Manufacturing the Prophets: The Book of Jeremiah as Scribal Artifact 8. Inventing Revelation: The Scribal Construct of Holy Writ 9. Constructing the Canon: The Closure of the Hebrew Bible Notes Selected Bibliography Index