Rewritten Bible: A Terminological Reassessment

Abstract

Geza Vermes introduced the designation Rewritten Bible fifty years ago to denote a small number of Jewish texts composed between the second century BCE and eleventh century CE. This chapter presents a preliminary re-examination of Rewritten Bible by asking whether the name is best retained, amended, or abandoned in scholarly discourse. This is not merely terminological hair-splitting, for, the more accurate and nuanced the nomenclature, the more accurate and nuanced it is to be hoped that the grasp of the underlying literary and historical realia will be. The chapter considers whether the amended Rewritten Scripture can usefully replace Rewritten Bible. It examines that Rewritten Bible/Rewritten Scripture is best viewed as the designation for a textual process. Most significantly, the chapter shows that the circumscribed textual process found in so-called Rewritten Bible/Rewritten Scripture works is also evident within a wider range of late Second Temple literature than is normally acknowledged. Keywords: Geza Vermes; Jewish texts; rewritten Bible; rewritten scripture; second temple literature; terminological reassessment