Status Updates From How the Bible Became a Book...

“The control of writing resides among the temple and political elites. Those who had a vested interest in the shift of authority from the oral tradition to the written text were also those who controlled the means of production of the written word.”

“In the Persian and early Hellenistic periods, the writing of biblical literature comes to an end.”

“There is a strong Jewish tradition that prophecy ended with the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE.

“They also omit what seems irrelevant or does not advance their interests.”

“Chronicles makes additions in a few places as it suits the purposes of the Jerusalem priesthood of the Persian period.”

“Biblical literature and Jewish literature has historical gaps. The biggest gap is from the 6th-2nd century BCE….After Babylonian exile things get sketchy.”

“By the third century BCE, the Hebrew Bible began to be translated into Greek by the Jewish community in Alexandria- Septuagint

“Until the mid-third century BCE practically no evidence exists of writing in Hebrew (apart from the Bible).

Script is often ideologically and theologically loaded.”

“When inscriptions in the Hebrew language do begin to appear in numbers during the Hasmonean and Roman periods (2nd century BCE) it is usually the Hebrew language written with Aramaic letters.”

“An abundance of writing in Hebrew during the late Judean monarchy has been uncovered in archeological excavations.

“One favorite solution of the past generations, namely, to push much of Biblical literature into the Hasmonean period (167-63 BCE) is no longer an option.”

“As a book, the Bible actually awaits the technological innovation of the codex, which gave it the physical form of a book.”

“The Persian period brings an end to royalist-centered biblical literature. The Davidic kings vanish from the scene and the leadership of the Jewish community passes to the priests.”

“According to the Book of Chronicles (Persian period text), the plan of the Temple was allegedly given to David by the spirit which indicates the divine origin of the plans.”

“The scroll of the covenant is central to the Josianic religious reforms, the formation of the Pentateuch as we know it must have begun in the late seventh century BCE.”

“Th revelation of the Covenant Code in the Book of Exodus was originally decided as an oral revelation…When Exodus and Sinai traditions were incorporated into the Pentateuch and connected with Deuteronomistic History, an account of the book of the covenant was introduced..”

“…part of the editorial framework of the Book of Deuteronomy that ties it with the Book of Joshua and into a larger narrative that scholars have called the Deuteronomistic History. This editing of the Bible is probably taking place in the late Persian or Hellenistic period.”

“Historical layering of a text: a later scribe interprets something that is thought to be obscure or difficult by adding an explanatory clause.”

“Before the notion of the text as sacred and unchangeable had developed, editors or commentators would simply insert annotations into the text itself.”

“The themes of God’s writing of the stone tablets first appears after the covenant ceremony is completed in Exodus 24.”

“Writing has no role in the revelation at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19.

“Literature of the Persian or Hellenistic periods were mostly written by priests.