Insights into Editing in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East: What Does Documented Evidence Tell Us about the Transmission of Authoritative Texts?

Documented evidence has shown that the Hebrew Bible was edited by

successive scribes for centuries, and the impact of editing on the

resulting text has proven to be crucial. A better understanding of any

issue in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel requires a deep

understanding of the editorial processes. As a consequence, the

editorial processes of the Hebrew Bible have come to the fore in the

most recent scholarly debates. Nevertheless, editorial processes in

the Hebrew Bible are still poorly understood and a methodological

overview is lacking. It is apparent that collaboration between scholars

of different fields is needed, and a methodological discussion that

takes into account all the editorial techniques witnessed by documented

evidence in the Hebrew scriptures and the rest of the ancient Near East

is required. This book is a step in this direction. Contributions in

this volume by leading scholars approach the issue from various

perspectives, including methodology, textual criticism, redaction

criticism, Dead Sea Scrolls, Assyriology, and Egyptology.