The Finger of the Scribe: The Beginnings of Scribal Education and How It Shaped the Hebrew Bible

249 Pages·2019·20.062 MB·English

by  William M. Schniedewind

The Finger of the Scribe

The Finger of the Scribe
How Scribes Learned to Write the Bible
WILLIAM M. SCHNIEDEWIND
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Contents
Preface vii
List of Abbreviations ix
1. The Emergence of Scribal Education in Ancient Israel 1
2. Scribal Curriculum at Kuntillet ʿAjrud 23
3. Alphabets and Acrostics 49
4. From Lists to Literature 70
5. Letters, Paragraphs, and Prophets 95
6. Proverbial Sayings 120
7. Advanced Education 141
Epilogue 165
Notes 171
Bibliography 209
Index of Citations of Primary Texts 227
Index Term List 233

Preface
According to the writer of Exodus, God gave Moses “two tablets of the cove-
nant, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” It is a glorious anthropo-
morphic image of divine inspiration. In contrast, I write about the finger of the
scribe, which depended on education. Scribes depended on teachers and curric-
ulum to learn how to write. Throughout the Bible, a variety of figures— scribes,
prophets, priests, kings, and even a young boy—w rite various things, including
both mundane and profound texts. The Hebrew Bible contains lists and letters
but also liturgies and stories, all written by scribes. This book explores how the
early alphabetic scribes began to learn how to write and, eventually, how they
learned to write the Bible. In this book, I am particularly interested in scribal
education— or, more specifically, scribal curriculum. What were scribes’ text-
books? What did they practice? What did they memorize? And, how did this
shape the Bible? I believe that I found the key to unlocking these questions in
the scribal scribbles at Kuntillet ʿAjrud as well as in the cuneiform school texts
used in Canaan at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
The project was many years in the making and was helped along the way by
innumerable people. First of all, I want to thank my colleagues and students at
UCLA, from whom I believe I learned and received more than I taught and gave.
In particular, I wish to acknowledge Aaron Burke, Bob Cargill, Elizabeth Carter,
Kara Cooney, Jacco Dieleman, Brian Donnelly-L ewis, Elizabeth VanDyke,
Robert Englund, Tim Hogue, Moise Isaac, Alice Mandell, Roger Nam, Jason
Price, Rahim Shayegan, Jeremy Smoak, Matt Suriano, Stephen Ward, and
Jonathan Winnerman. I have a special appreciation for Elizabeth VanDyke,
whose critical eye working as my Graduate Research Assistant improved this
book immeasurably. I also received a great deal of support, encouragement,
and critique along this journey from a variety of fellow travelers, including
Susan Ackerman, Erhard Blum, David Carr, Aaron Demsky, Dan Fleming,
Ron Hendel, Jan Joosten, Anat Mendel-Geberovich, Anson Rainey (z”l), Gary
Rendsburg, Seth Sanders, Joachim Schaper, Mark Smith, Jeff Stackert, Steve
Tinney, David Vanderhooft, Jackie Vayntrub, and Ed Wright. I have presented
this material to a variety of audiences who have all shaped my thinking in a va-
riety of ways. It began with the invitation by Gabrielle Boccacini to a conference
on early Jewish education in Naples. There, I especially benefited from extended
conversations with Steve Tinney about Mesopotamian education. I also wish
to thank the Near Eastern Studies Department at Johns Hopkins University for
the invitation to give the Samuel Iwry Lecture. I also presented parts of this
viii Preface
book to the Biblical Colloquium and its members in the seminar organized by
David Vanderhooft. Their interaction and comments were particularly stimu-
lating. Finally, I need thank UCLA, which has given me the resources and sup-
port for this research. I appreciate the many people and places at UCLA that
made this book possible, including Dean of Humanities David Schaberg, the
Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for the Study of Religion and its director
Carol Bakhos, and finally our Department chair Kara Cooney. Support for this
research was also provided by the Reuben and Norma Kershaw Term Chair in
Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies. Last but not least, I thank my family—
my wife, Jeanne, and my daughters, Tori and Mikaela—a nd, a special shout-o ut
for Tori, who discussed many things Egyptological with me and spurred my
decipherment of the Lachish jar inscription. Nothing was here accomplished
alone, but I take credit for all its shortcomings.
Abbreviations
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary
AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
BA Biblical Archaeologist
BAR Biblical Archaeology Review
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
COS K. Lawson Younger and William W. Hallo, eds., The Context of
Scripture, 3 volumes (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
EA El- Amarna letters. See Anson F.  Rainey, The El- Amarna
Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the
Site of El-A marna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets, ed.
William Schniedewind, vol. 1 (HdO 110; Leiden: Brill, 2015).
GKC Gensenius- Kautzsch- Cowley, Gensenius’ Hebrew Grammar,
Wilhelm Gesenius, Emil Kautzsch, and Arthur Ernest Cowley
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1910).
HALOT Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Ludwig Kohler
and Walter Baumgartner, 4 volumes (Leiden: Brill, 1994–2 000).
HS Hebrew Studies
HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
JANES Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSOTSS Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies
KAI Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften (2nd edition), Herbert
Donner and Wolfgang Röllig (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002).
KTU Dietrich Manfried, Oswald Loretz, and Joaquín Sanmartín,
eds., The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani
and Other Places: From Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places
(Münster: Ugarit- Verlag, 1995).
NEA Near Eastern Archaeology