Scribal Tradition Research Articles

Scribal Revelations in Ancient Judaism

Revelations, visions and their interpretations create in themselves authority. In early Jewish Aramaic tradition, however, this is increased by the role of writing. Enoch receives revelations of the secrets of heaven from heavenly tablets by the Holy Watchers. The Fallen Watchers teach the earthly women magic and sorcery from tablets stolen from the heaven. Scribalism in Second Temple period Judaism and Enoch is becoming more and more researched. As is known, Enoch has a Mesopotamian scholarly tradition behind it, which saw the movement of the celestial bodies as a heavenly writing, the transmission of the will of the gods. Enochic scribes had a good familiarity with the Mesopotamian scribal tradition that took place in the sanctuaries from the Persian period onwards and whose purpose was to record astronomical observations, write diaries, prepare astronomical tables and produce almanacs recording events. Scholarly texts were considered as “secret” or “exclusive” knowledge. The omen list Enūma Anu Enlil, based on a 360-day calendar, was the pinnacle of the scribal tradition and the basis of Mesopotamian astral magic. The Mesopotamian revelatory form in Enoch serves to assert the authority of a calendrical system of its own, the 364-day year and the Holy Watchers and other angelic beings who govern it. The scribal form of revelation is known in Daniel 7 (also in Aramaic), in which the books opened in heaven contain a revelation about the fate of the fourth empire. The book-revelation of cyclic and linear time is present together in the book of Jubilees, whose chronology is based on the 364-day year, and in which Enoch keeps a record of earthly events on heavenly tablets.

Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve Edited by Jutta Krispenz

Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve Edited by Jutta Krispenz

The Development of the Hijazi Orthography

Abstract This paper examines the main orthographic innovations of the early Islamic orthography in comparison to the Nabataean orthography and traces through new epigraphic evidence when and where these innovations came to be used. It is shown that a number of them clearly develop already in the pre-Islamic period. Besides this, the paper looks at the complexities of Arabic orthography and morphophonological spelling as it is reflected in the Quranic orthography as well as pre-Islamic inscriptions and argues that the early Islamic orthography represents the continuation of a developed Hijazi scribal tradition.

Reading the materiality of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri: non-invasive analyses to reveal scribal choices

This paper presents the first ever material characterisation of inks used in 23 documentary papyri excavated in Oxyrhynchus, about 160 km south-east of Cairo. These papyri date to between the fourth and seventh centuries CE, and are nowadays preserved at the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library in Oxford. The material analyses were carried out with in situ analytical methods, namely infrared reflectography (IRR) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Moreover, the data obtained with XRF on the papyrus support were further explored with principal component analysis (PCA). To our knowledge, this study represents the first instance in which PCA was applied to a dataset obtained from ancient papyri with portable, non-invasive analytical equipment. The differences in the material composition highlighted suggest the papyrus used for these documents proceeded from different sources. Furthermore, the investigation of the writing inks confirmed a trend we highlighted during previous material studies of manuscripts from the Byzantine period: carbon-based ink is predominantly used for documentary texts, while iron-gall ink is for literary texts. Finally, the peculiar case of a document bearing the proceedings from the court of Alexandria suggests the existence, in this area, of specific technical and scribal traditions that have not been pointed out before.

Nominal Case in Christian Arabic Translations of the Gospels (9th-15th Centuries CE)

Abstract Middle Arabic is conventionally defined as existing on a spectrum between colloquial Arabic on the low end and Classical Arabic on the high end. Differences between Middle Arabic and Classical Arabic that are not attested in a modern dialect are typically treated, historically at least, as due to pseudo-correction. This is especially true of non-Classical manifestations of nominal case. In this paper, I tag all instances of alif al-tanwīn – which in Qurʾānic and Classical Arabic marks the accusative on triptotic nouns that do not end in tāʾ marbūṭa – from representative portions of the manuscripts, both vocalized and unvocalized, of 15 Christian translations of the gospels into Arabic dating from the 9th to 15th centuries CE. The data demonstrate, contrary to previous descriptions, that the majority of case inflection is written in line with Classical Arabic norms. Further, the syntactic contexts in which non-Classical case markings occur follow regular patterns, which recur with remarkable consistency across time and manuscript. Instead of originating in pseudo-corrections, I propose the differences from Classical Arabic originated in attempts by Christian scribes to represent a variety of Arabic in which a vowel merger before tanwīn resulting in a single morpheme erased the vocalic distinctions between case vowels. These syntactic contexts include nominative, genitive, and accusative ones. Since Christian Arabic differed from the varieties for which the Arabic script and subsequent vocalizations were developed to write, scribes originally varied in the degree to which they adhered to the writing conventions, with some closely adhering and others taking greater liberties in order to represent the underlying variety with greater nuance. Over time, this led to several scribal traditions for writing tanwīn in Christian manuscripts, each of which is attested among the vocalized manuscripts included in this study and discussed in detail.

The Beginnings and Ends of Sacrifice: A Shared Reimagining of the Cultic Past in the Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document

Abstract: The Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document are two works of Jewish literature from the Hellenistic period that recount events from the lives of Israel’s ancestral heroes. These two compositions are rarely analyzed in relation to each other, despite their many striking similarities. In this article, we offer a sustained comparison of some of their shared features and themes, with a special emphasis on their retrojection of Israel’s sacrificial regulations into the pre-Sinaitic past. These points of contact in vocabulary, phraseology, and topical foci are so compelling as to suggest that these two compositions have a direct literary relationship and were almost certainly authored within a common social setting. In our view, the Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document are part and parcel of a much broader Hellenistic-era Jewish Aramaic scribal tradition, representing the literary output of highly educated priests associated with the Jerusalem temple.

Pamela Barmash, The Laws of Hammurabi. At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions

Pamela Barmash, The Laws of Hammurabi. At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions

Review of Luwian Hieroglyphic Texts in Late Bronze Age Scribal Tradition


 
 
 Luwian Hieroglyphic Texts in Late Bronze Age Scribal Tradition. By Fred C. Woudhuizen. Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie, vol. 53. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2021. Pp. 343, illus. €84 (paper).
 
 

Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law by Sara J. Milstein

Reviewed by: Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law by Sara J. Milstein Jessie DeGrado Sara J. Milstein. Making a Case: The Practical Roots of Biblical Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 216 pp. Sara Milstein’s new book provides a stimulating challenge to the hypothesis that the non-Priestly laws of Exodus and Deuteronomy were directly inspired by Mesopotamian law collections such as the Laws of Hammurabi (LH). Milstein argues instead that the laws preserved in Exodus 21–22 and Deuteronomy 12–23 reflect a complex process of adapting and expanding materials produced for scribal education in Israel and Judah during the Iron II–III periods (roughly 850–586 BCE). The introduction surveys Mesopotamian law collections and legal pedagogical texts from the third and second millennia BCE. Over the past fifty years, scholars have increasingly recognized that law collections, once referred to as law codes, neither record specific verdicts nor provide binding precedent. Rather, they both express an idealized form of justice that might indirectly inform decisions and, equally significant, function as political propaganda for the king who promulgated them. In addition to the scholarship cited by Milstein (6–12), interested readers can consult Pamela Barmash’s recently released monograph, The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions (Oxford: OUP, 2020). Chapter 1 further sketches the contents of the Mesopotamian scribal curriculum in the Old Babylonian period. This includes legal phrasebooks containing lists of contractual clauses, which students copied to gain facility with common legal phraseology, and model contracts. Also included in school curricula were fictional court cases (sometimes called model cases), which Milstein argues were used to teach legal formulations and phraseology in a livelier and more playful form. Finally, scribes in training often copied lists of casuistic laws, which were often excerpted from longer law collections but could also be innovated around a specific topic, such as rented oxen. The bulk of the work is devoted to identifying pentateuchal texts that embed pedagogical genres like those found in the Old Babylonian scribal curriculum. In chapter 2, Milstein identifies several clusters of laws in Exodus and Deuteronomy that exhibit features like the Mesopotamian fictional cases. Special attention is given to what Milstein terms the “slandered bride cluster” (Deut 22:13–19), the “manslaughter cluster” (Deut 19:4–13), and the “illicit intercourse cluster” (Deut 22:23–29). Each example embeds a longer base case featuring an innocent party, followed by several more laconic casuistic laws that cover guilty verdicts. Milstein terms the base cases Hebrew legal fictions (HLFs), which she considers an “analogous group to the Mesopotamian fictional cases” (72). These longer laws would have been independently drawn from scribal exercises and supplemented with short laws exploring guilty outcomes. Milstein identifies several potential indicators of an original pedagogical function for the base cases, including the use of dialogue, [End Page 176] colorful scenarios, and contract language. The latter point is fleshed out in more detail in chapter 3, which compares language from the HLFs to phrases attested in contracts from the Late Bronze Age city of Emar. Chapter 4 presents an ambitious reappraisal of the relationship (or lack thereof) between the legal material in Exodus 21:18–22:16 and Mesopotamian law collections. Milstein advances two separate lines of argument in this chapter. First, she observes that the compilation of laws in Exodus is both shorter than Mesopotamian law collections and covers a more restricted set of topics. In this respect, Exodus 21:18–22:16 resembles the extracts or lists of laws used in Mesopotamian scribal training more than the lengthier compositions we refer to as law collections. This leads Milstein to a second argument, which is that discontinuities and errors constitute further evidence of dependence on scribal pedagogical texts. These include a case concerning self-defense and home burglary that interrupts a law concerning stolen animals (Exod 21:37–22:3) and the placement of general talionic principles immediately after the law of accidental miscarriage (Exod 21:22–25). Overall, Milstein’s book provides an important critique of atomistic comparison between Exodus 21:1–23:5 and the Laws of Hammurabi. Namely, even if one postulates that Judean scribes accessed...

Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve ed. by Jutta Krispenz

Reviewed by: Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve ed. by Jutta Krispenz Elena Di Pede jutta krispenz (ed.), Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 496; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021). Pp. viii + 300. $114.99. The articles in this volume focus on the intertextual relationships between the Book of the Twelve and the biblical wisdom literature. From a historical point of view the question is certainly important, although it is probably difficult to give a definitive answer. The book takes up the question of intertextual relationships by initiating a change of perspective in relation to earlier studies. In the past, this issue was explored in terms of the influence of one movement on the other, most often, moreover, in the sense of the influence of wisdom texts on prophetic texts without necessarily asking the opposite and complementary question of the influence of prophetic texts on wisdom texts. This collection, therefore, does not attempt to assess influence but "confluence" (see M. Sneed's article, p. 17: "places where the sapiential and prophetic traditions merge") between these two currents. The question of possible intertextual links between prophetism and wisdom is thus positively renewed. It may have a bearing on the understanding of the formation of the Hebrew Bible itself in the context of the scholarly circles and schools in which these traditions were transmitted. The volume opens with an introduction in which Krispenz lays the methodological [End Page 525] foundations of the whole. She thus seeks first to define whether there is a "school" of wisdom and a category of texts—biblical in particular—that can be defined as "wisdom." Indeed, she writes, "[O]ur perception of and our view on wisdom in the Hebrew Bible has changed dramatically. It has changed in such a way that all the traditional assumptions pertaining to this part of the Bible need to be scrutinized" (p. 5). The change of perspective also applies to prophecy, which is addressed in the second part of the introduction. Today, indeed, the prophetic books, including the Twelve, are considered literature, and the truth of these texts is no longer sought only in their oldest parts. Moreover, the extrabiblical information shows how complex and multifaceted the phenomenon of prophecy is. This double change of approach and perspective forces "a fresh look at the relationship between wisdom texts and prophetic texts" (p. 6). This requires an understanding of scribal activity and the role of tradition (oral and written) in the composition of the Bible. The overall perspective of the whole is to understand how the wisdom texts relate to prophetic thinking. In the background, a culture or a scribal perspective emerges that the twelve contributions that make up the volume seek to illustrate. Mark Sneed ("Inspired Sages: Massa' and the Confluence of Wisdom and Prophecy") examines the question of the "confluence" between prophetic and wisdom thinking from the term maśśāʾ in Proverbs (esp. chaps. 30 and 31) and its use in the prophetic books. Helmut Utzschneider ("Die Mündlichkeit der biblischen Schriftprophetie: Versuch einer Bestandsaufnahme") investigates the link between orality and writing in Joel 1 and 2. He shows that the prophetic texts can be understood as dramatic settings whose "naturally" oral form influenced the rhetoric and aesthetics of their written form. As the title of his contribution indicates ("Amos and Wisdom"), Rainer Kessler studies the parallels between Amos and the wisdom texts. These parallels indicate a very important social change in the eighth century, which provoked the harsh criticism of the prophets and the wise men against the powerful. Amos and Proverbs are interested in similar questions but do not provide the same answers. Krispenz ("Hosea – the Wise Prophet?") takes as her starting point the fact that the first of the Twelve is both "prophetic" (Hos 1:1) and "sapiential" (Hos 14:10). She then examines the typical markers of wisdom present in this prophetic book. Thomas Krüger ("Prophetie, Weisheit und religiöse Dichtung im Buch Habakuk") shows the variety of traditions that meet in Habakkuk. This confluence outlines a theodicy in line with the...

Cameron B. R. Howard. The Old Testament for a Complex World: How the Bible’s Dynamic Testimony Points to New Life for the Church

While some have seen critical biblical scholarship as a death knell to the Bible’s capacity to inspire Christian faith and worship, Howard shows that this need not be the case. With a vibrant style of writing, she unlocks the possibility of rich theological reflection in critical contexts. I expect her book will be well received in mainline seminaries and among well-educated laypeople in mainline congregations. She offers a well-reasoned articulation of how critical theories of composition can lead to theologically shaped praxis today. Her aim is to “propose three modes of innovation that can be gleaned from the Old Testament: adapting popular culture, rethinking theological assumptions, and developing a new genre” (p. 3).Howard’s introduction and first chapter do for progressive Christians what John Walton and Brent Sandy’s Lost World of Scripture does for conservative evangelicals—it expands the layperson’s vision of how texts were produced and what that means for how to read them well. Howard problematizes the idea of authorial intent, affirming the complexity of oral and scribal traditions. She rejects the idea that there is “one correct meaning or interpretation for any given biblical text” (p. 27). Still, she affirms the Spirit’s role in energizing biblical interpretation, helping readers discern how to read creatively for their contexts.In ch. 2, Howard explores the Bible’s adaptation of other cultures. She uses Proverbs and the flood story as her first examples of the Bible’s literary dependence on other ANE texts. For Howard, the biblical flood account is both similar and different from these accounts, which gives this composite text its own theological appeal. Her second example is court tales, the “deeply entertaining” accounts of Joseph, Esther, and Daniel, which she calls “largely fictional” but which foster consideration of the relationship between the community of faith and worldly power (45, 54).Chapter 3 facilitates a revision of theological assumptions by highlighting distinct voices that interpret history differently. After surveying Zion theology in the OT, she concludes that it predates Ezekiel (p. 73), who offers a stunningly innovative view of God’s presence as portable and available to the exiles. Deuteronomy is her other example in this chapter. Howard accepts a late date for Deuteronomy—an invention during Josiah’s reign. However, she refrains from calling it propaganda, since we cannot discern what motivated its production (p. 65).In ch. 4, Howard considers the emergence of new genres. She explains that apocalypses are written from below, by marginalized peoples, as a way of reframing political tyrants as limited and under God’s ultimate control. For this reason, she cautions against the use of these texts by those in power. Howard notes the specificity and generality of this genre to provide explanatory power to the first generation of listeners as well as productive imagination for subsequent generations. For Howard, the Daniel apocalypses were written after-the-fact to “predict” the past and make sense of suffering. She compares the Bible’s apocalyptic literature with efforts of minority communities today to reframe their experiences of suffering.Howard closes her book with “biblical principles for creative change” drawn from the preceding chapters (pp. 113–21), encouraging readers to use creative storytelling to reimagine each community’s identity, to “recognize and celebrate” the diversity of perspectives in Scripture, center new voices, and “embrace uncertainty” in biblical interpretation and in the life of faith.Conservative readers who do not share Howard’s posture toward critical biblical scholarship may find this book frustrating or simply less helpful for their contexts. In my view, Howard is too pessimistic about human ability to discern literary design (p. 26) and too flippant in her claims that the Bible is dependent on other texts (p. 34). For example, she argues that the biblical flood story is dependent on Mesopotamian accounts simply because surviving Mesopotamian flood texts are much older than surviving biblical manuscripts. Howard fails to acknowledge the possible oral prehistory of the biblical text that complicates attempts to discern the direction of influence. No doubt, if this were a different sort of book, Howard could make a fuller case for her claim. Still, her conclusion is unsatisfying. If a devastating flood really happened (whether local or global), then it is no surprise that multiple cultures would preserve memories of the event. Many conservative readers could accept the possibility that the biblical account is told over against the Mesopotamian version, offering a different rationale, but they may struggle with her presumption of literary dependence on it.However, even those whose starting point differs can benefit from the ways that Howard highlights “creativity amid crisis” in the Bible (p. 83). Her method could fruitfully inform other interpretive communities as well, encouraging us to take a step back and consider how the larger scene of textual production and canon formation in its historical context might lend insights for the role of the church in response to this cultural moment.

Jutta Krispenz, ed. Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve

Jutta Krispenz, ed. <i>Scribes as Sages and Prophets: Scribal Traditions in Biblical Wisdom Literature and in the Book of the Twelve</i>

A Palaeographical Reconsideration of the ‘Hand D’ Corpus

This article explores those manuscripts with glosses and additions attributed to 'Hand D', a key figure in the history of English Caroline minuscule and often ascribed to St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. It provides a thorough examination of those additions, corrections, and glosses attributed to Hand D to establish a revised corpus of manuscripts containing Hand D's writing, before providing a comprehensive assessment of the development of this scribe's activity. The evidence presented suggests that the 'Hand D' corpus comprises a single scribe previously trained in the Insular scribal tradition who incorporates Caroline minuscule letterforms over a period of time. This palaeographical assessment yields significant implications for the development of English Caroline minuscule in mid-tenth century England, which raises intriguing questions about the true identity of this intriguing scribe.

The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions by Pamela Bartash

Reviewed by: The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions by Pamela Bartash Ben Dewar (bio) The Laws of Hammurabi: At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions Pamela Bartash Oxford University Press, 2020. x + 320 pp. $99 hardcover. The monograph under discussion is an "histoire totale" (3) of the Laws of Hammurabi and the stele bearing it, investigating the ideological messages present in the text and image, the scribal culture that influenced the text's composition, and the reception of the Laws in later periods. Bartash's core argument is that Mesopotamian law collections were written by taking a series of stock legal situations and improvising a series of statutes based on them that expressed the scribe's own notions of what was fair and just. The Laws merged this tradition with that of royal inscriptions to create an innovative new expression of royal power. In chapter one, Bartash argues that the image on the stele alters the standard investiture scene in several ways to present Hammurabi as closer in status to the god Shamash. Furthermore, pairing this image with an unusually long text in an archaiz generalization ing, top-to-bottom script creates an original and eye-catching monument. Chapter two focuses on three textual traditions relating to justice that were pre-existent when the Laws was written: acts of equity described in royal hymns and inscriptions, social reform edicts, and law collections. Bartash analyses the content and rhetoric of these three types of text, arguing that they all demonstrate the role of justice in royal legitimation, but do so in different ways. Chapters three and four explore how the Laws' author combined the traditions discussed in chapter two into a new expression of royal justice. Chapter three analyses the Laws as a royal inscription, analysing how the author engaged with the discourse practices of Mesopotamian commemorative inscriptions. Chapter four compares the Laws with other law collections to argue that it is more complexly structured than its earlier counterparts. Bartash argues that, like the authors of earlier law codes, the Laws' scribe [End Page 209] improvised a series of example statutes based on his knowledge of legal texts and terminology internalised during scribal education. However, the Laws' scribe innovatively structured their improvised statutes, demonstrating a more complex conceptualisation and systematisation of law and implying a number of legal principles. The Laws therefore marks an important step, Bartash argues, towards the generalization and abstraction of law. Bartash demonstrates the conceptualization and systematization present in the Laws in chapter five, which uses the adoption statutes from the Laws as a case study for the concepts discussed in chapter four. Chapter four ends with an excursus on scribes and their education. The placement of this section is slightly confusing. The excursus outlines scribes' internalisation of the discourse practices and streams of tradition engaged in chapter four. One would therefore expect it to be placed earlier in the book. This is, however, a minor criticism, and the reader does not feel lost for not having read the excursus before chapter four. Chapter six tackles the important question of the legal authority of the Laws. Previous scholarship has often debated whether the Laws represents the law as it was practiced in Mesopotamia by identifying legal cases in royal letters or archival records that mirror circumstances described in the Laws. Bartash argues that this methodology applies modern conceptions of legal precedent to a culture whose legal system did not operate on precedent, and emphasizes the consistency of law while ignoring the need for discretion in the adjudication of individual legal cases. Bartash instead focuses on the flexibility of Mesopotamian law; the Laws is not a written record of the code actually enforced, but one scribe's expression of their own ideas—formed through intensive engagement with pre-existing legal literature—on what is fair and just. This novel approach to the Laws resolves many of the problems surrounding the nature of the Laws, and greatly improves our understanding of Mesopotamian law. Chapter seven explores the reception of the Laws in later periods. First, Bartash considers instances of scribal improvization in later law collections. She argues that the exportation of the...

Men of Letters in the Syriac Scribal Tradition: Dawid bar Pawlos, Rabban Rāmišoʿ, and the Family of Beṯ Rabban

Abstract Dawid bar Pawlos’ Letter on Dots is an eighth-century text that purportedly describes the introduction of some of the dots used in Syriac writing. It also sheds light on the life of a certain Rāmišoʿ of Beṯ Rabban, apparently the same man as the master of pointing named in MS BL Add. 12138. However, most studies of Syriac dots either neglect or completely discount this letter as a reliable source, since it suggests that Miaphysite scribes had a direct influence on East Syriac reading traditions. This article provides a more critical analysis of the letter, first examining the problematic state of its extant manuscripts, and then evaluating the text to determine its historical plausibility in the context of seventh-century northern Mesopotamia.

The Literary History of 2 Sam 8:1b–14 and the Old Sabaic Royal Summary Inscription RES 3945/3946

Abstract In this essay, I explore the literary background of 2 Sam 8:1b–14. The Old Sabaic royal summary inscription RES 3945/3946 exhibits significant structural and compositional parallels to the summary account of David’s achievements. I argue that the quantity and quality of such similarities firmly locates the writing practices underlying the literary history of 2 Sam 8:1b–14 within a scribal tradition of narrating royal accomplishments shared in Israel and Ancient South Arabia. Based on this historical approximation, it is possible to revisit the problem of the passage’s literary shape and position within the book of Samuel.

Scribal and Commentary Traditions at the Dawn of Print: The Manuscripts of the Near Eastern School of Theology as an Archive of the Early Nahḍa

Abstract This article focuses on the Arabic manuscript collection of the Near Eastern School of Theology (NEST). The NEST library contains several manuscripts that were donated, copied, or read by important Christian-born intellectuals of the nahḍa. Given these men’s role in the emergence of modern publishing in the Middle East, I examine the intersections between their scribal and printing activities. I also discuss works of grammar, logic, and rhetoric in the NEST’s collection. Most of these are by late medieval and early modern authors and contain extensive commentaries and glosses. This commentary culture was a key site of learning throughout the early modern Ottoman Empire and endured among Christian as well as Muslim intellectuals of the nahḍa movement. The persistence of these scribal and intellectual traditions reveals a longue durée of Islamicate scholarly traditions that is only beginning to be understood by historians of Arab modernity.

The monastic genealogy of Hoḫʷärwa monastery – a unique witness of Betä Ǝsraʾel historiography

During the course of a study of the manuscript tradition of the Betä Ǝsraʾel (Ethiopian Jews), the manuscript Jerusalem, National Library, Ms. Or. 87 came to light. This codex is a unique manuscript with several important elements that contribute to our knowledge of the history of the Betä Ǝsraʾel. Its by far most important feature are two short additional notes that I have come to call the Hoḫwärwa genealogy. This genealogy is the second piece of original pre-twentieth century Betä Ǝsraʾel historiography ever discovered, next to the text published by Leslau in 1946-47 as ‘A Falasha Religious Dispute.’ Taking the manuscript as a starting point, this article aims to cover topics such as the Betä Ǝsraʾel scribal tradition and aspects of their literature, their monasticism, the history of Hoḫwärwa monastery, and the history of the manuscript itself.

Introduction and General

Introduction and General Andrew E. Steinmann, Atilla Bodor, Christopher T. Begg, Isaac Kalimi, and Thomas Hieke Andrew E. Steinmann Concordia University Atilla Bodor The Biblicum Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Isaac Kalimi Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz 2548. [The Northern Soldiers-Tomb (H11.1) at Asyut] Mohamed Abdelrahiem, The Northern Soldiers-Tomb (H11.1) at Asyut (The Asyut Project 13; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2020). Pp. viii + 109. Paper €34. ISBN 978-3-447-11431-5. Since 2003, the Asyut Project's Egyptian-German team has been working on Gebel Asyut al-gharbi situated close to the modern city of Asyut on the west bank of the Nile in central Egypt. One of the areas investigated is a structure known as the Northern Soldiers-Tomb (H11.1) due to its painted decoration of marching warriors. The tomb has suffered severely from extensive quarrying activities in the past so that today only parts of the walls and the subterranean burial chambers are still preserved. The fieldwork conducted under the auspices of the Asyut Project at the tomb focused on cleaning the inner hall and the shafts, surveying the tomb's decorations and preparing facsimiles as well as plans of the component sections. A.'s short volume presents the results of these activities. In so doing, he provides a thorough description of the tomb's architecture and decoration, details its long research history, and introduces a selection of finds from the tomb that provide evidence of the long-term use of the Asyutian necropolis. Based on the data collected in his work, A. is able to date the tomb to the end of the 11th or the very beginning of the 12th Dynasty and identify its owner as a "nomarch" of Asyut whose name was Djefai-Hapi. A. likewise highlights the tomb's extensive re-use as a burial ground through the centuries: constructed originally during the late Dynasty 11, the tomb houses several shafts and small niches that contain (or once contained) remains of burial equipment from later periods, especially from the Middle Kingdom and Roman-Byzantine times. [Adapted from published abstract] A.'s volume comprises seven brief chapters: (1) Location of the Tomb; (2) Research History of the Tomb; (3) Architectural Features; (4) Representations and Inscriptions; (5) Finds; (6) Dating the Tomb and Identifying the Tomb Owner; and (7) Re-use of the Tomb. These chapters are illustrated with numerous drawings, photos, charts, and maps. The volume's end-matter consists of a bibliography, indexes, and a total of 55 colored plates depicting the tomb's current appearance and a sample of the finds made there.—C.T.B. Google Scholar 2549. [The Laws of Hammurabi] Pamela Barmash, The Laws of Hammurabi at the Confluence of Royal & Scribal Traditions (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2020). Pp. x + 319. $99. ISBN 978-0-19-752540-1. Since its discovery at the very beginning of the 20th century, the "Code of Hammurabi" has continued to be one of the best known ANE artifactual finds ever made. As B.'s monograph makes clear, however, already in ancient times, the Code had a significant impact on the Mesopotamian legal tradition: synthesizing and elaborating as it did earlier [End Page 940] legal materials, it became a model for subsequent law collections and a resource for the training of aspirant scribes that itself spawned a multi-century commentary literature whose influence made itself felt throughout the wider ANE. B.'s treatment of the Code's multifaceted tradition-history consists of an introduction followed by seven chapters and a conclusion. The chapters are titled, respectively: The Stela of the Laws of Hammurabi and the Representation of Political Power; Royal Legitimation through the Establishment of Justice; The Laws of Hammurabi as a Royal Inscription; Scribes and Statutes (with an Excursus: Scribes and Scribal Education); Adoption in the Laws of Hammurabi; The Legal Authority of the Laws of Hammurabi; and The Afterlife of the Laws of Hammurabi: The Continuation of Scribal Improvisation outside Mesopotamia and the Creation of Commentaries in Mesopotamia. The volume's end-matter features a bibliography and indexes of subjects and authors and of...

On Recent Methods in Psalms Studies

On Recent Methods in Psalms Studies Joel M. LeMon and Eric D. McDonnell Jr. A Review Essay of Simon Chi-Chung Cheung, Wisdom Intoned: A Reappraisal of the Genre 'Wisdom Psalms.' LHBOTS 613. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015. Michael Snearly, The Return of the King: Messianic Expectation in Book V of the Psalter. LHBOTS 624. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016. Form criticism has provided the foundation for Psalms scholarship for a century. Yet in recent decades, and especially since the groundbreaking work of Gerald Wilson, canonical criticism has become increasingly important, though scholars have applied different names to the enterprise.1 Two recent monographs share the admirable goal of addressing persistent methodological problems within these two modes of inquiry. Simon Chi-Chung Cheung provides a fresh look at the genre of the wisdom psalms, and Michael Snearly seeks to advance canonical criticism through an analysis of Book V of the Psalter. Together, these projects illuminate the shape of Psalms scholarship today. They also underscore the continuing challenges inherent within its most prominent methods. I. Simon Chi-Chung Cheung's Wisdom Intoned Cheung's study is a revision of his dissertation at the University of Cambridge under the direction of Katherine Dell. The aim of the work, as the subtitle suggests, is to clarify what the category of "wisdom psalms" entails. Cheung takes up the task in an orderly and coherent way. He first identifies prior attempts to define "wisdom psalms," a notoriously amorphous form-critical category. An exceedingly helpful chart included as an appendix shows all the texts that have been classified as wisdom psalms from 1867 (Otto Zöckler) to [End Page 431] 2010 (pp. 188–189). Cheung identifies the problems of categorizing the wisdom psalms by highlighting how several scholars have presented varying lists of wisdom psalms at different points in their careers as their understanding of the genre changed (e.g., James Crenshaw, Otto Eissfeldt, Roland Murphy, Leo Purdue, R. Norman Whybray, pp. 4–9). Notably, Cheung's own list of wisdom psalms does not appear in this appendix. Nor does it appear anywhere in the book, since Cheung has framed his project in a way that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to assemble a definitive list. To reframe the study of wisdom psalms, Cheung identifies challenges that have persisted within scholarship since the category "wisdom psalms" was first introduced. One problem has been establishing the formal content of wisdom literature as a whole, with an associated challenge of determining which of those wisdom forms or "wisdom formulae," according to Cheung's terminology, appear within individual psalms (p. 19). Another problem Cheung identifies is the tendency of form-critical studies to focus on reconstructing the specific historical settings of wisdom psalms, including a specific scribal tradition from which these works emerged (pp. 19–20). Indeed, Cheung rejects "wisdom psalms" as a form-critical category altogether, arguing instead that the wisdom psalms should be understood as a "literary term….[that] refers to a group of psalms that bear varying degrees of resemblances to other sapiential works in the OT" (p. 21). At this point, Cheung employs a "family resemblance" understanding of genre, with the "family" of wisdom psalms including "graded degrees of membership" based on a constellation of features (p. 21). To identify these "salient wisdom features," Cheung turns to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, having judged that these books alone present characteristics by which other wisdom literature can be determined. Cheung finds Job unhelpful for determining the features of wisdom literature because it is itself a "tapestry" of multiple genres and thus cannot be used to establish the contours of another genre. On this point, Cheung is following directly upon Katharine Dell's judgment that Job does not qualify as wisdom literature, and "can only be called 'wisdom' in a broad sense" (p. 27).2 Cheung bases his subsequent analysis of the wisdom psalms on what he considers to be three constituent features of wisdom literature, the (1) content, [End Page 432] (2) tone, and (3) intention of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Cheung characterizes the content of wisdom literature, somewhat infelicitously, as "a ruling wisdom thrust." Cheung dedicates only two paragraphs...