Microsoft Word - Revised dissertation2.docx

The link between the fixity of long-duration ritual texts in Mesopotamia in the first mil-
lennium B.C.E., and the ritualisation of the biblical text that arguably led to its relatively
fixed form in the late Second Temple period, supports this terminology. Early indications
are that ritual instructions and law codes were noticeably more stable than other text-
types in the first millennium B.C.E., but it would be up to a much broader investigation to
determine if this is born out by the data. Certainly a more comprehensive study that takes
into account a greater array of texts, from a wider selection of genres and stemming from
different scribal centres, is called for on the basis of the evidence presented here.