Scribes and Scribalism: (The Hebrew Bible in Social Perspective)

This volume is a concentrated examination of the varied roles of scribes and scribal practices in ancient Israel and Judah, shedding light on the social world of the Hebrew Bible. Divided into discussion of three key aspects, the book begins by assessing praxis and materiality, looking at the tools and materials used by scribes, where they came from and how they worked in specific contexts. The contributors then move to observe the power and status of scribal cultures, and how scribes functioned within their broader social world. Finally, the volume offers perspectives that examine ideological issues at play in both antiquity and the modern context(s) of biblical scholarship. Taken together, these essays demonstrate that no text is produced in a void, and no writer functions without a network of resources.

Table of Contents:
Series Editor Preface – Francesca Stavrakopoulou, University of Exeter, UK Preface Abbreviations 1. Introduction: The Scholarly Context for the Study of Scribes and Scribalism – Mark Leuchter, Temple University, USA Part I: Praxis and Materiality 2. Influential Inscriptions: Resituating Scribal Activity During the Iron I-IIA Transition -- Sarah Malena, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, USA 3. The Media and Materiality of Southern Levantine Inscriptions: Production and Reception Contexts -- Madadh Richey, University of Chicago, USA 4. Scribes and Scribalism in Archaic Crete -- Anselm Hagedorn, University of Osnabrück, Germany Part II: Power and Status 5. Scribes, Schools, and Ideological Conflict in Ancient Israel and Judah -- Brian Rainey, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA 6. Ecclesiastes and the Problem of Transmission in Biblical Literature -- Jacqueline Vayntrub, Yale Divinity School, USA 7. Textualization and the Transformation of Biblical Prophecy -- Heath D. Dewrell, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA 8. Reorientation in Responsibility of Levites Taking care for the Ark: The Levites’ Role in Samuel—Kings in Relation to Deuteronomistic Expressions Concerning Interpretation of the Law -- Antje Labahn, Wuppertal Hochschule, Germany Part III: Between Ideology and Authority 9. Writing in Three Dimensions: Scribal Activity and Spaces in Jewish Antiquity -- Laura Carlson Hasler, Indiana University, USA 10. Rejecting 'Patriarchy': Reflections on Feminism, Biblical Scholarship, and Social Perspective -- Shawna Dolansky, Carleton University, Canada Bibliography Indexes

About the Author :
Mark Leuchter is director of Jewish studies and professor of religion at Temple University, USA.

Review :
[E]ach of these essays contributes important insights on the ways that ancient scribes created their identity through the practice of their art. The volume will be useful to readers interested in philosophical, postmodern, and social-historical perspectives on the status and social environments of scribes in ancient Israel. With this volume, Mark Leuchter has assembled an excellent group of scholars. Together, they exhibit a diverse array of approaches to scribalism in the ancient Levant. The essays presented here situate the scribal praxes that initiated and shaped the biblical texts within their larger ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean contexts; they provide new and compelling models for understanding the formation and generic conventions of these texts; and they reflect on various receptions these texts have experienced over the course of their transmission. These essays invite the reader to contemplate the enduring legacy of Israelite scribal location and practice, and to ruminate on the assorted and pluriform modes of expression with which those ancient scribes imbued their writings. This collection of essays should not be missed. This collection of ten essays brings together a variety of different voices on a topic of recent interest in the field of biblical studies: the scribal background of the Hebrew Bible. The various authors utilize a range of methods and evidence incorporating epigraphy and material culture, comparative data, philology and exegesis in order to reconstruct ancient scribal culture. Alongside this, contributors are attentive to the dynamics of social and cultural criticisms that are often neglected in the reconstruction of ancient scribalism. As such, this is a particularly timely, innovative and substantive contribution to an important area of developing research. This brilliant volume encourages Biblical scholars to move some of the attention away from the quest for “original text” and also consider the hands who copied the texts. By taking into consideration different historical eras, social contexts, locations, and approaches to the texts, and by addressing materials, medias, status of scribes, their training, transmission processes, and relationship between oral and written texts, the authors of this volume offer a new and complete understanding of the production of the Biblical texts. Scribes and Scribalism is a nicely edited collection of essays … that contributes advances the increasingly trendy research about ancient scribes and scribalism.