7. Who Wrote the Hebrew Bible?
The Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures in Five Minutes - Philippe Guillaume
Diana V. Edelman [+ ]
University of Oslo
Diana V. Edelman is Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo. Her own research focuses on the history, archaeology, and literature of the southern Levant, the development of early forms of Judaisms, and ancient Near Eastern literature viewed from the perspective of social memory. She has thirteen seasons of excavation experience in Israel. While her research tends to focus on the Iron Age and Persian period, she is interested in earlier and later periods and a wide range of topics. Current interests include local responses to imperialism, royal ideology, the development of technology and agriculture, everyday life, issues involving religion and ritual, burial and afterlife beliefs, diaspora studies, migration studies, frontier studies, social memory, ancient economies, and ancient political organization. Her numerous publications include 17 authored or edited books, 44 chapters in edited volumes, 14 articles in refereed journals, 58 dictionary and encyclopedia articles, and 128 book reviews (as of 2/2015).
Description
The anonymous biblical books were written by master scribes. How these scribes were educated remains unknown, but analogies with surrounding cultures provide hints. Master scribes drew on oral traditions, palace and temple archives, which they combined to create the first edition of the books we have today. Further additions and changes were made subsequently to keep them current.