Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible

»¡Ë¹éÒ
Harvard University Press, 15 àÁ.Â. 2009 - 401 ˹éÒ

We think of the Hebrew Bible as the Book--and yet it was produced by a largely nonliterate culture in which writing, editing, copying, interpretation, and public reading were the work of a professional elite. The scribes of ancient Israel are indeed the main figures behind the Hebrew Bible, and in this book Karel van der Toorn tells their story for the first time. His book considers the Bible in very specific historical terms, as the output of the scribal workshop of the Second Temple active in the period 500-200 BCE. Drawing comparisons with the scribal practices of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, van der Toorn clearly details the methods, the assumptions, and the material means of production that gave rise to biblical texts; then he brings his observations to bear on two important texts, Deuteronomy and Jeremiah.

Traditionally seen as the copycats of antiquity, the scribes emerge here as the literate elite who held the key to the production as well as the transmission of texts. Van der Toorn's account of scribal culture opens a new perspective on the origins of the Hebrew Bible, revealing how the individual books of the Bible and the authors associated with them were products of the social and intellectual world of the scribes. By taking us inside that world, this book yields a new and arresting appreciation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

 

à¹×éÍËÒ

introduction
1
Writing in the World of the Bible
9
Practice and Perception
27
Comparative Evidence
51
The Biblical Evidence
75
Scribal Modes of Text Production
109
Scribal Culture in the Mirror of Deuteronomy
143
The Book of Jeremiah as Scribal Artifact
173
The Scribal Construct of Holy Writ
205
The Closure of the Hebrew Bible
233
Notes
267
Selected Bibliography
367
Index
393
ÅÔ¢ÊÔ·¸Ôì

©ºÑºÍ×è¹æ - ´Ù·Ñé§ËÁ´

¤ÓáÅÐÇÅÕ·Õ辺ºèÍÂ

à¡ÕèÂǡѺ¼Ùéáµè§ (2009)

Karel van der Toorn is President of the University of Amsterdam. Karel van der Toorn is President of the University of Amsterdam.

ºÃóҹءÃÁ