LECTURE 4: Scribes as the Bible’s First Writers
Who was responsible for beginning the process of writing down the texts that would become the Bible? In this lecture, we will consider the influence that the establishment of a monarchy in ancient Israel would have on writing and literacy. And we will explore the crucial role that royal scribes would play—and where they might have been taking their cues from—in “writing” the Bible.
Here is Psalm 25 showing the Hebrew letters that begin each stanza in alphabetical order. Note, in this psalm, one letter of the Hebrew alphabet that sometimes functions as a vowel is not included. Thus, it represents 21 letters instead of the now standard 22 letters.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of select passages of the Song of Songs and some examples of ancient Egyptian love poetry.
I mentioned the code of Hammurabi, which you can learn more about here.
Stele of Hammurabi, Louvre Museum, Wikimedia Commons
You can read more about influences on the book of Proverbs here.
The name of David’s scribe is given as Seriah in 2 Sam 8:17 and Sheva in 2 Sam 20:25. But one scholar, Aelred Cody, has noticed that Sheva looks like a corruption of the Egyptian title for scribe. He proposes that Seriah is the proper name and Sheva is the title.
Compare the following verses from Proverbs with selections from the Instruction of Amenemope, a sixth century B.C.E. Egyptian text.
Papyrus from the Instruction of Amenemopet
© The Trustees of the British Museum