I’ve been going through an excellent course on the Hebrew Bible offered by Coursera that is taught by Professor Jacob L. Wright of Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. The course deals with the where, when, who, what, and why of the Biblical texts. Professor Wright is a proponent of the Supplementary Hypothesis in Biblical Studies, which, like the earlier Documentary Hypothesis seeks to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), and make sense of all the contradictions, doublets, anachronisms, etc. that we find in the text.
In Week 6 of the course, Professor Wright shares with us what in his view are three distinct qualities of the Biblical text that are not found in other ANE cultures, which, ultimately helped in its transmission and survival to this day.
These qualities are as follows:
- Medium: unlike other ANE cultures who recorded their accounts on materials such as stone, tablets, and stelae, the Biblical authors/writers/redactors/compilers, regardless of how the stories actually began to circulate, decided to ultimately rely on scrolls made of parchment or papyrus. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but, when you consider that scrolls made of parchment or papyrus were clearly more portable than other materials being used in the area, it all makes sense that the exiled communities of Israel and Judah would have been able to carry these texts with them not only into exile but also bring them back upon their return. Another important feature of these materials is that it made it easier for subsequent redactors to edit and expand on the text, given that they were literally not written in stone. In addition, monuments made out of stone, like tablets and stelae, would be considered statecraft and would be a target for destruction by subsequent conquerors of the land in which they were found.
- Anonymous Narration: many inscriptions found throughout the ANE begin with the narrator, or storyteller, identifying themselves. Not so with the Biblical narrative. In the biblical texts, the stories are told from an anonymous perspective, not from the perspective of a king or ruler. This anonymity allowed for a diversity of perspectives to be included when the texts were ultimately edited or expanded on. It included the “vox populi” (voice of the majority) of the people, in some sense, since there wasn’t one single voice controlling the telling of the story.
- Confronts Defeat: other ANE cultures, when recording their accounts, would ultimately conclude or focus solely on great victories and triumphs. They may have included stories of battles lost, but only for the purpose of eventually recounting the war that was won or their return to glory. The Biblical writers began with and included stories of great victories and golden ages as well, such as those of David and Solomon, but did not shy away from making defeat a central theme. Including this material allowed the people to reinterpret those events, and led them to reconsider how they understood their relationship to their deity. So instead of hiding the political decline of their kingdoms, the biblical texts directly confront this reality and make it a big part of their story, inviting the people to reflect on their situation, which, ultimately opens up the opportunity for further narrative and theological development when they go through an editorial process that seeks to expand on them.
