Transforming Literature into Scripture: Texts as Cult Objects at Nineveh and Qumran

"Certain ancient Near Eastern texts develop over time towards a reasonably stable state of transmission. However, the development towards a single ‘stabilised’ transmitted form that marks the biblical manuscripts between the second century B.C.E. and second century C.E. is often considered to permit the Hebrew bible a unique position in the ancient Near Eastern textual corpus. The degree to which the wider body of ancient Near Eastern texts actually support or undermine this position is the topic of this book. The study begins by formulating a methodology for comparing the accuracy with which ancient texts of varying genres and languages were transmitted. Exemplars from the first millennium B.C.E. cuneiform evidence are selected for analysis on the basis of genre. Texts that are preserved in more than one ancient copy are compared to determine how much variation occurs between manuscripts of the same text. The study begins with representative texts from the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and Late Babylonian periods that range in date from the late eighth century B.C.E. to the third century B.C.E. The study then turns to the Torah scrolls from the Dead Sea area that range in date from the third century B.C.E. to the second century C.E. The accuracy with which the cuneiform texts were transmitted is then compared with the biblical evidence. The study finds that the most stable texts surveyed are those containing ritual instructions. The mechanisms that may have led to the exact transmission of the Torah in the late Second Temple period are discussed in the conclusion."