Bibliography
| Title: Jewish Scribes in the Second-Temple Period Secondary Title: JSOT.S 291 Type: Generic Year: 1998 Abstract: "BJGS 24: Includes evidence from Josephus, Philo, LXX, Theodotion, inscriptions, papyri and Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. // Murphy Roland E. in: OTA 22,3 (1999) 520-521:This Oxford DPhil thesis (M. Goodman director) studies the status and functions of the ancient Jewish scribes. A Forschungsbericht reveals the inadequacies of previous hypotheses on the subject. The evidence is complex, and S. adopts an ""exclusive approach,"" i.e., making use solely of evidence that gives ""explicit proof that the individuals or groups referred to are scribes"" (p. 12). This examination constitutes the bulk of her book, covering the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, roughly 539 b.c.e. to 200 c.e., and includes a consideration of embarrassing silences such as that of Josephus, concerning scribes. Chap. 3 examines some thirty factors in the social, cultural and economic history of the period that have made the investigation of the scribal role so complex and uncertain. S/s final chapter admits that uncertainty still remains, but it proposes a ""possible"" model for the status and function of the scribes during the 600-year period under review. This model breaks down into varied pictures for the historical periods: Persian (see summary on p. 312; e.g., Ezra, important in official administration), Hellenistic (summary, pp. 320-21; e.g., Ben Sira as scribe/sage), and Roman (summary, p. 327)." Keywords: Cultural and Religious History of Ancient Judaism |