From Texts to Scribes: Evidence for Writing in Ancient Israel
august 2021 | Vol. 9.8
By Philip Zhakevich
Writing and literacy has long been a popular subject in Biblical Studies. Archaeological sites in Israel have yielded many artifacts inscribed with Hebrew writing. Such finds often have a sensational flare and for good reason: they offer a window into the world of ancient Israel. We can learn about ancient beliefs and practices, and compare actual finds with the text of the Bible. Biblical names, persons, and practices all come into sharper view.
But what about the act of writing and the scribal culture that produced written documents? Here we must glance at the occurrences of two words in the biblical text, the verb ‘write’ (katav) and the noun ‘scribe’ (sofer). How much information about writing from the biblical text can we extract while focusing on two words central to the act of writing?
Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa). 1st century BCE; Israel Museum. Image by Google Cultural Institute via Wikimedia Commons
The verb ‘write’ (katav) occurs over 200 times in the biblical text. It appears in connection with several types of writing surfaces, but in the vast majority the verb is used with words that denote scroll documents (e.g., Jer 36:2). Such scrolls were made of papyrus or leather and were utilized for literary and religious compositions, state bureaucratic purposes, and day-to-day correspondence and contracts.
Although they date after much of the Bible was already written, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a great example of what an ancient library of scrolls would have looked like. There are also over 200 hundred extant clay bullas or fragments of bullae dating to the 1st Temple Period. These bullae would have been attached to papyrus scrolls and stamped with a seal containing a name and/or image to guarantee the authenticity of their contents.
Seal impressions from Jerusalem (6th century BCE; Israel Museum) Copyright: A.D. Riddle/BiblePlaces.com
The Bible also uses the verb katav in relation to writing on plastered surfaces (e.g., Deut 27:3). Just a handful of ink-on-plaster inscriptions have survived from the vicinity of ancient Israel, above all the inscriptions from Deir ‘Alla and Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. And while the Bible does not explicitly mention writing on ostraca, such writing may be implied in at least one passage (e.g., Judg 8:14). But it is surprising that this form of writing is not mentioned plainly since many inscribed ostraca have been found in various archaeological sites in Israel. Together, the three sites Samaria, Lachish, and Arad have yielded more than 200 hundred inscribed ostraca.
To sum up, the Bible uses the verb katav in connection with scrolls, plaster, and perhaps ostraca. Writing on such surfaces was done with ink along with reed pens. But the same verb is also utilized in connection with the engraving of writing on hard surfaces such as wood, stone, and metal. In Exodus 34:1, for instance, Moses is commanded to hew out stone tablets and engrave upon them the words of God. There are few complete stone inscriptions that have survived into the modern era, but classic examples are the Gezer Calendar, the Tel Dan inscription, and the Siloam Tunnel Inscription.
Arad Letter 24 (6th century BCE; Israel Museum) Copyright: Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com
Up to now, we have considered biblical references as well as archaeological finds related to writing. Here, we may consider an interesting question. If we set aside those data, the biblical references and physical evidence for writing, could we establish that writing existed in ancient Israel? To answer this we can look at the origin of writing in the ancient world.
Scholars believe that writing emerged in the ancient Near East for accounting and bureaucratic purposes, pragmatic reasons that remain a foundation for writing even today. And when we examine finds from archaeological sites, it is clear that a sophisticated bureaucracy existed in ancient Israel. We will consider two pieces of evidences in this regard.
First, the structures discovered in ancient Israel suggest that a sophisticated bureaucracy was in place. Palaces, royal enclosures, and fortifications all point to a prosperous political reality, one that is hard to imagine without a culture and tradition of writing. Second, in addition to the remains of structures from ancient Israel, there is ample evidence for commerce and a complex economy.
Gezer Calendar (10th century BCE; Istanbul Archaeology Museums). Copyright: Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com
Specifically, the so-called LMLK seal impressions on ancient jar handles, where the four letters spell the word ‘for the king,’ speak to the well-oiled commerce system of ancient Judah. These LMLK seal impressions comprise a collection of over 2,000 jar handles from various sites primarily in Judah and date to the 8th century BCE. All are imprinted by seals with the Hebrew phrase ‘for the king,’ a winged symbol, and sometimes a place name. While the exact function of such jars is not known, it is clear that they were widely used in Judah for some type of collection and distribution purposes associated with the Judahite monarchy. As pointed out already, bureaucracy usually coincides with writing culture. Accordingly, evidence of architectural structures and of a developed economy suggests that writing existed in ancient Israel.
Different lines of reasoning can be offered to support the existence of writing in the world of the Bible. But who were the actual producers of writing in ancient Israel? To answer this question, we turn to the Hebrew word sofer ‘scribe’. The term occurs just over fifty times in the biblical text. In the majority of cases, a sofer is associated with the palace and temple (e.g., 2 Kgs 12:11). Scholars point out that scribes were also associated with the military (e.g., 2 Kgs 25:19) and were probably responsible for recording the annals of the Israelite and Judahite monarchies (e.g., 1 Kgs 14:19, 29).
LMLK jar handle impression (writing is upside-down). At Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv. Photo by Bukvoed, CC BY-SA.
Biblical references to scribal implements (e.g., Jer 8:8; 17:1; 36:23) as well as surviving alphabetic inscriptions from ancient Israel indicate that formal training in writing and scribal practices must have existed in ancient Israel and Judah. Within the broader literature of the ancient Near East, the scribal profession was praised and lauded for its elite status and its enduring legacy. Biblical passages that associate Israelite scribes with the monarchy and with the Jerusalem temple suggest that the status of the scribe in ancient Israel was likewise respected.
Moreover, there is general agreement among scholars that the scribes in ancient Israel and Judah comprised a relatively exclusive group. And while this group was not large in numbers, it was this elite group of literati that was responsible for composing the biblical text and for producing the majority of extant inscriptions. Their legacy has certainly endured.
Philip Zhakevich is a lecturer of Hebrew in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.
How to cite this article:
Zhakevich, Philip. 2021. “From Texts to Scribes: Evidence for Writing in Ancient Israel.” The Ancient Near East Today 9.8. Accessed at: https://anetoday.org/writing-evidence-israel/.
Want to learn more?
Post a comment