Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes
Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2024. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover with Dust Jacket.
FROM INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS TO COMMUNITIES OF SCRIBES.
A Challenge to the familiar search for individual biblical authors, arguing instead that much of the Hebrew Bible emerged from communities of scribes working within the social and professional world of ancient Israel and Judah.
Drawing upon biblical texts, ancient inscriptions, archaeology, and anthropology, Schniedewind reconstructs how scribes were trained through apprenticeship, how their communities preserved and reshaped traditions, and how this collaborative culture influenced the formation of biblical literature.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: A MODERN SCHOLARLY STUDY OF BIBLICAL AUTHORSHIP.
Hardcover in illustrated dust jacket. 9.5 inches tall. xi, 337 pages with index, Illustrated.
CONDITION: NEW. No flaws or blemishes. Unread and gift quality.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: RETHINKING WHO ‘WROTE’ THE HEBREW BIBLE—THE SCRIBE REPLACES THE AUTHOR.
Schniedewind approaches biblical origins through the working world of ancient scribes. His central argument is that applying the modern concept of individual authorship to much of the Hebrew Bible is anachronistic. Biblical texts instead developed within scribal communities in which composition, transmission, editing, and preservation were interconnected activities.
The study places these communities within the political and social history of ancient Israel and Judah, examining scribal apprenticeship, royal administration, refugees from Samaria, Jerusalem and its periphery, women in professional settings, and the beginnings of biblical literature.
A SCHOLAR WRITING FOR A BROADER AUDIENCE.
Schniedewind is professor of biblical studies and director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA. His earlier books include How the Bible Became a Book, A Social History of Hebrew, and The Finger of the Scribe. Contemporary reviews particularly noted his ability to make the evidence for ancient scribal culture accessible beyond a specialist readership.
SUBJECTS: Hebrew Bible, Biblical Authorship, Scribes, Scribal Culture, Ancient Israel, Ancient Judah, Biblical Literature, Hebrew, Biblical Archaeology, Old Testament, Jewish History, Literacy, Writing, Textual Transmission, Ancient History,
Item #22461
ISBN: 9780691233178
Price: $24.00
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