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Contextualizing Israel's Sacred Writings Ancient CONTEXTUALIZING ISRAEL’S SACRED WRITINGS ANCIENT LITERACY, ORALITY, AND LITERARY PRODUCTION Press SBL Ancient Israel and Its Literature Thomas C. Römer, General Editor Editorial Board Suzanne Boorer Marc Brettler Victor H. Matthews Benjamin D. Sommer Gale Yee Press Number 22 Contextualizing Israel’s Sacred Writings: AncientSBL Literacy, Orality, and Literary Production CONTEXTUALIZING ISRAEL’S SACRED WRITINGS ANCIENT LITERACY, ORALITY, AND LITERARY PRODUCTION edited by Brian B. Schmidt Press SBL Press SBLAtlanta, Georgia CONTEXTUALIZING ISRAEL’S SACRED WRITINGS ANCIENT LITERACY, ORALITY, AND LITERARY PRODUCTION Copyright 2015 by SBL Press All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or trans- mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copy- right Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Contextualizing Israel's sacred writings : ancient literacy, orality, and literary produc- tion / edited by Brian Schmidt. pages cm. — (Society of biblical literature : ancient Israel and its literature ; volume 22) "The present volume has its origins in the International Conference on Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World ... held in Ann Arbor in the Summer of 2012"—Intro- duction Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-62837-118-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-62837-119-2 (ebook) — ISBN 978-1-62837-120-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Literacy—Religious aspects—Judaism—Congresses. 2. Oral tradition—Congresses. 3. Bible. Old Testa- ment—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—Congresses. I. Schmidt, Brian B., editor. BM538.L58C66 2015 Press 221.6—dc23 2015019542 Printed on acid-free, recycled paper conforming to ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994 standards for paper permanence. SBL CONTENTS Abbreviations vii Introduction Brian B. Schmidt 1 1. EPIGRAPHIC INDICATIONS OF LITERACY AND ORALITY IN ANCIENT ISRAELITE SOCIETY Levantine Literacy ca. 1000–750 BCE André Lemaire 11 Literacy in the Negev of the Late Monarchical Period Nadav Na’aman 47 Scribal Curriculum during the First Temple Period: Epigraphic Hebrew and Biblical Evidence Christopher A. Rollston 71 Memorializing Conflict: owardT an Iron Age “Shadow” History of Israel’s Earliest Literature Brian B. Schmidt 103 Let the Stones Speak! Document Production by Iron Age West Semitic Scribal Institutions and the Question of Biblical Sources Jessica Whisenant 133 2. THE INTERFACE OF ORALITY AND LPressITERACY IN THE HEBREW BIBLE Orality, Textuality and Memory: The State of Biblical Studies David M. Carr 161 The Performance of Oral Tradition in Ancient Israel Robert D. Miller II 175 SBL v vi CONTENTS Text Criticism as a Lens for Understanding the Transmission of Ancient Texts in Their Oral Environments Raymond F. Person Jr. 197 Oral Substratum, Language Usage, and Thematic Flow in the Abraham- Jacob Narrative Frank H. Polak 217 Royal Letters and Torah Scrolls: The Place of Ezra-Nehemiah in Scholarly Narratives of Scripturalization Elsie Stern 239 3. ASPECTS OF ORALITY AND LITERACY IN ANCIENT ISRAEL IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE The “Literarization” of the Biblical Prophecy of Doom James M. Bos 263 What if There Aren’t Any Empirical Models for Pentateuchal Criticism? Seth L. Sanders 281 Scripturalization in Ancient Judah William M. Schniedewind 305 Hebrew Culture at the “Interface between the Written and the Oral” Joachim Schaper 323 Subject Index 341 Ancient Sources Index 368 Press SBL ABBREVIATIONS ÄAT Ägypt und Alten Testament ABS Archaeology and Biblical Studies ADAJ Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan ADPV Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AIL Ancient Israel and Its Literature AJA American Journal of Archaeology AJP American Journal of Papyrology AMD Ancient Magic and Divination ANEM Ancient Near East Monographs AOAT Alter Orient und Alten Testament AoF Altorientalische Forschungen ArelG Archiv für Religionsgeschichte ASA Annales du service des antiquties ASOR American Schools of Oriental Research ATANT Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testa- ments AuOr Aula Orientalis BA Biblical Archaeologist BAAL HS Bulletin d’Archéologie et d’Architecture Libanaises, Hors- Série BAR Biblical Archaeology Review BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research BAAL HS Bulletin d’Archéologie Presset d’Architecture Libanaises, Hors- Série BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research BEATAJ Beiträge zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und des antiken Judentum BEStud Brown Egyptological Studies BibInt Biblical Interpretation BibOr SBLBiblica et Orientalia vii viii ABBREVIATIONS BN Biblische Notizen BO Bibliothetica Orientalis BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies BWANT Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Altestamentliche Wissen- schaft CHANE Culture and History Ancient Near East CIPOA Cahiers de l’Institut du Proche-Orient ancien du Collège de France CM Cuneiform Monographs DMOA Documenta et Monumenta Orientis Antiqui EBR Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception ErIsr Eretz Israel FAT Forschungen zum Alten Testament Gibson, TSSI John C. L. Gibson, Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions. 4 volumes. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971–2009 HAHE Handbuch der althebräischen Epigraphik HBAI Hebrew Bible Ancient ISrael HEO Hautes études orientales HKAT Handkommentar zum Alten Testament HO Handbuch der Orientalistik HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs HSS Harvard Semitic Studies HTR Harvard Theological Review HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual IAA Israel Antiquities Authority IDB The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible IEJ Israel Exploration Journal IES Israel Exploration Society IOS Israel Oriental Studies JAJSup Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements JANER Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions JANES Journal of Ancient NearPress Eastern Studies JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies JNES Journal of Near Eastern studies JPOS SBLJournal of the Palestine Oriental Society ABBREVIATIONS ix JR Journal of Religion JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JSOTS Journal for the study of the Old Testament Supplements KAI Kanaanaeische und aramaeische Inschriften. Herbert Donner and Wolfgang Röllig. 2nd ed. Wiesbaden: Harras- sowitz, 1966–1969 KTAH Key Themes in Ancient History LAI Library of Ancient Israel LAPO Litteratures anciennes du Proche Orient LHBOTS Library of Hebrew Bible Old Testament Studies MUSJ Melanges de l’Universite Saint-Joseph NEA Near Eastern Archaeology NEAEHL The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations of the Holy Land. Edited by Ephraim Stern. 4 vols. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society & Carta; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993 OEBA The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology (Oxford Encyclopedias of the Bible). Edited by Danial M. Master. 2 volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 OHBS Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies. Edited by J. W. Rog- erson and Judith M. Lieu. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008 OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis OHBS Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies OLA Orientalia lovaniensia analecta Or Orientalia (NS) OTS Old Testament Studies PEFQS Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly RA Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale RB Revue biblique REJ Revue des etudes juives RelSRev Religious Studies Review RSF Rivista di studi fenici Press SAAS State Archives of Assyria Studies SEL Studi epigraphici e linguistici SHAJ Studies in the History and Archeology of Jordan SHCANE Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East SJLA Studies in Judaism in Late Antiquty ST SBLStudia theologica x ABBREVIATIONS TA Tel Aviv ThTo Theology Today ThZ Theologisches Zeitschrift UF Ugarit-Forschungen VT Vetus Testamentum VTSup Vetus Testamentum Supplements WAW Writings from the Ancient World WSS Avigad, Nahman and Benjamin Sass, Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals. Jerusalem: Israel Academy, IES, Insti- tute of Archaeology, 1997 WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie ZABR Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtgeschichte ZAS Zeitschrift für aegyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ZDPV Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins Press SBL INTRODUCTION BRIAN B. SCHMIDT ROM A CONTEMPORARY WESTERN PERSPECTIVE, IT IS AT THE SAME TIME both Fobvious and profound that literacy in the ancient Near Eastern and Medi- terranean theaters emerged in a predominantly oral world. The implications of that reality, however, have made only sporadic and gradual inroads into the modern study of early Israelite society, the Hebrew Bible and the relevance of orality and literacy for the actual historical composition of biblical literature. Nonetheless, a run of volumes in recent years resulting from conferences, col- loquia and symposia, various edited and authored books and articles, along with a variety of publications in dictionaries and encyclopedias,
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