Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

scribes passed on the traditions, faithfully retaining the earlier message, and

at times creatively adapting them to address newer concerns that affected

the successive communities. Textual critics detected further minor develop-

ments within the major stages of the compositions, noting additions to,

losses from, and errors in the text of each book after it had been composed

and as it continued to be recited or copied from generation to generation.

Thus the Scriptures were seen to be composed over the course of approxi-

mately a millennium, from source materials in the premonarchic and mo-

narchic periods to within a generation or so of the fall of the Second Temple

in 70c.e.

No manuscript evidence survives from the early centuries to provide

clear details for a reconstruction of the history of Israel’s religious and cul-

tural literature. The scholarship described above was theoretical, based not

on manuscripts but on literary and historical clues embedded within the

works themselves. But the general results of that vast modern library of

theoretical scholarship have now been solidly confirmed by abundant doc-

umentary evidence provided by the scriptural manuscripts from Qumran.

Thus there are two distinct periods in the history of the biblical text: a

formative period of developmental growth and pluriformity until the time

of the Jewish revolts against Rome, eclipsed by the period of a uniform text

tradition since the second centuryc.e.The dynamics of these two periods

account for the character of the textual witnesses preserved and the trans-

mission history of these books.

The Texts in the Early Second Temple Period

As the liberated Judean exiles returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and en-

virons, they gradually rebuilt the Temple, the walls, and the city. Religious

leaders also assumed the responsibility of reconstituting the literary heri-

tage from the monarchic culture as well as producing new religious works

that attempted to help the people refocus their understanding of their rela-

tionship with God after the disaster.

The literary heritage from the monarchic era — which would have

been primarily transmitted orally, even if priests or scribes possessed writ-

ten copies — was rich and diverse. Early Israel in all likelihood had some

kind of oral accounts of its formation as a people; it seems inconceivable

that they lacked any traditional accounts of their origins. Martin Noth

posited five themes of oral traditions that were eventually woven together

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eugene ulrich

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:57 PM