Reader Checked|OA 30/09/2013
Transforming Literature into Scripture examines how the early textual traditions of ancient Israel – stories, laws, and rituals – were transformed into sacred writings. By comparing evidence from two key collections from antiquity – the royal library at Nineveh and the biblical manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls – the book traces the stabilisation of textual traditions in the ancient Near East towards fixed literary prototypes.
|The study presents a new methodology which enables the quantification, categorisation and statistical analysis of texts from different languages, writing systems, and media. The methodology is tested on a wide range of text genres from the cuneiform and biblical traditions in order to determine which texts tend towards stabilised forms.
|Transforming Literature into Scripture reveals how authoritative literary collections metamorphosed into fixed ritualised texts and will be of interest to scholars across biblical, Judaic and literary studies.