Details

Subject(s)

• Bible—Authorship [Browse]
• Scribes [Browse]
• Written communication—Mediterranean Region—History [Browse]
• Oral tradition—Mediterranean Region—History [Browse]

Editor

• Römer, Thomas, 1955- [Browse]
• Davies, Philip R. [Browse]

Series

• Bible world (London, England) [More in this series]
• BibleWorld

Summary note

For many years it has been recognized that the key to explaining the production of the Bible lies in understanding the profession, the practice and the mentality of scribes in the ancient Near East, classical Greece and the Greco-Roman world. In many ways, however, the production of the Jewish literary canon, while reflecting wider practice, constitutes an exception because of its religious function as the written 'word of God', leading in turn to the veneration of scrolls as sacred and even cultic objects in themselves. Writing the Bible brings together the wide-ranging study of all major aspects of ancient writing and writers. The essays cover the dissemination of texts, book and canon formation, and the social and political effects of writing and of textual knowledge. Central issues discussed include the status of the scribe, the nature of 'authorship', the relationship between copying and redacting, and the relative status of oral and written knowledge. The writers examined include Ilimilku of Ugarit, the scribes of ancient Greece, Ben Sira, Galen, Origen and the author of Pseudo-Clement.

Notes

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Language note

English

Contents

• Ilimilku of Ugarit : copyist or creator? / Adrian Curtis
• Memory, writing, authority : the place of the scribe in Greek polytheistic practice (sixth to fourth centuries BCE) / Dominique Jaillard
• The dissemination of written texts / Philip R. Davies
• Genesis : a composition for construing a homeland of the imagination for elite scribal circles or for educating the illiterate? / Diana V. Edelman
• The "Prophets" as scriptural collection and scriptural prophecy during the Second Temple period / Christophe Nihan
• From prophet to scribe : Jeremiah, Huldah and the invention of the book / Thomas Römer
• Instituting through writing : the letters of Mordecai in Esther 9:20-28 / Jean-Daniel Macchi
• The scribe and his class : Ben Sira on rich and poor / Walter J. Houston
• Some scribal features of the thematic commentaries from Qumran / George J. Brooke
• Efficacious writing : the inscription of the rosette on the High Priest's forehead and the Egyptian reception of Exodus 28 / Charlotte Touati
• The prose writer ([syngrapheus]) and the cultures of author and scribes : the examples of Galen and the anonymous author of Luke-Acts / Claire Clivaz
• Peter and his secretary in Pseudo-Clement / Frédéric Amsler
• On the danger of writing according to Origen / Eric Junod.

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ISBN

• 1-315-48720-9
• 1-138-66104-X
• 1-315-48721-7
• 1-315-48719-5
• 1-84465-732-9

OCLC

951975669

Doi

• 10.4324/9781315487212

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