How the Bible Became a Book
The Textualization of Ancient Israel

Dates the writing of biblical literature to the late-Iron Age, challenging previous theories of literacy.

William M. Schniedewind (Author)

9780521829465, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 May 2004

272 pages
23.5 x 16.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.506 kg

'… lucid and helpful … His overall argument makes a significant contribution to current scholarly debates, even … I have enjoyed reading the book, as it sparked off interesting thoughts.' Anvil

For the past two hundred years biblical scholars have increasingly assumed that the Hebrew Bible was largely written and edited in the Persian and Hellenistic periods. As a result, the written Bible has dwelled in an historical vacuum. Recent archaeological evidence and insights from linguistic anthropology, however, point to the earlier era of the late-Iron Age as the formative period for the writing of biblical literature. How the Bible Became a Book combines these recent archaeological discoveries in the Middle East with insights culled from the history of writing to address how the Bible first came to be written down and then became sacred Scripture. This book provides rich insight into why these texts came to have authority as Scripture and explores why Ancient Israel, an oral culture, began to write literature, challenging the assertion that widespread literacy first arose in Greece during the fifth century BCE.

1. How the Bible became a book
2. The numinous power of writing
3. Writing and the state
4. Writing in the early Israelite State
5. Hezekiah and the spread of writing
6. Josiah and the text revolution
7. How the Torah became a text
8. Writing in exile
9. Scripture in the shadow of the temple
10. Epilogue
11. Further reading.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], Biblical studies & exegesis [HRCG]