refuted in scholarship (107). The latter example is consistent with Schaper’s claim that a new co... more refuted in scholarship (107). The latter example is consistent with Schaper’s claim that a new conception of the self emerged together with monotheism (176). To my mind, both proposals read later developments back onto the biblical text. The same is also true when Schaper insists that the “word” ensures that anyone anywhere could experience the divine in contrast to the restriction of images to the priesthood (135). It felt rather more like the polemics of seventeenthand eighteenth-century CE Europe than sixthand fifth-century BCE Israel.
Although the three laws on illicit sexual intercourse in Deut 22:23-29 are often treated as a set... more Although the three laws on illicit sexual intercourse in Deut 22:23-29 are often treated as a set, close examination indicates that the assault of an engaged woman in a field (vv. 25-27) represents the literary core to which verses 23-24 and 28-29 were appended. The isolation of 22:25-27 from its secondary frame enables its independent legal reasoning to emerge. The scribe presents an unusual scenario by ancient Near Eastern legal standards, in that the assault of the victim transpires without witnesses. Curiously, the solution favors the woman by comparing the assault to a homicide and then positing a hypothetical situation whereby the victim is imagined to have shouted for help. I propose that the closest parallel for this display of legal reasoning is found not in another cuneiform law collection but rather in the "Nippur Homicide Trial, " a Mesopotamian "model case" that was utilized in second-millennium scribal education. Not only does this model case shed fresh light on the legal reasoning that undergirds Deut 22:25-27, but its genre also provides a new lens through which to reconsider the origins of a wider set of women and family laws in Deuteronomy.
WRITING, REWRITING, AND OVERWRITING IN THE BOOKS OF DEUTERONOMY AND THE FORMER PROPHETS ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF CYNTHIA EDENBURG, 2019
A striking set of parallels between Deut 25:5-10 and wills from the Late Bronze Age city of Emar ... more A striking set of parallels between Deut 25:5-10 and wills from the Late Bronze Age city of Emar suggest that the biblical legal text may have its roots in a comparable Israelite will.
In recent years, scholarship on OB literature has largely centered on its pedagogical function. D... more In recent years, scholarship on OB literature has largely centered on its pedagogical function. Drawing on tablet typology and literary catalogues, scholars have managed to reconstruct both elementary and advanced phases in the OB scribal curriculum. 1 These studies represent a major breakthrough in our perception of Near Eastern literature and help situate it within its broader sociocultural landscape. The archaeological context for the two Tell Haddad (= ancient Meturan/Sirara) copies of Adapa (= Adapa in Akkadian), however, offers one point of entry in a different direction. Like the school texts, these copies are in Sumerian and date to the OB period, with a terminus ad quem of the 31 st year of Hammurabi's reign, or approximately 1760 BCE (Cavigneaux 1999: 252). The tablets are each four columns long and were apparently copied by different * This essay would not be possible without the insights and generosity of Antoine Cavigneaux. Not only did his 1999 essay on magical texts at Tell Haddad inspire this line of reasoning in the first place, but he also provided me with advance access to his much-anticipated edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa (Cavigneaux 2014). To him I offer my sincerest gratitude. All references to the Tell Haddad version derive from his translation. I also wish to thank Daniel Fleming for offering swift and crucial and feedback on this essay at multiple stages in its development, and the participants in the symposium for their helpful comments. 1 Much rests on the foundational work of Civil (1969), who analyzed collections of tablets at multiple locations and divided them into four types of formats. Type I tablets are large multicolumned tablets; Type II are large "teacher-student copies" that contain extracts with one side inscribed by the teacher and the other inscribed by the student; Type III are single-column extracts of compositions; and Type IV are round tablets, or "lentils," that consist of 2-4 lines of a composition and show signs of inscription by teachers and students, like Type II. The first major application of this data was by Veldhuis (1997), who used it to reconstruct four phases in the elementary scribal curriculum at OB Nippur. Scribes, he proposed, started with the acquisition of basic writing techniques (e.g., sign exercises; syllabic value lists); moved on to learn Sumerian nouns and nominal phrases; then turned to complex sign lists and mathematics; and finally advanced to copying full sentences. Tinney (1998 and 1999) then determined that advanced scribes learned two sets of literary compositions: the "Tetrad," a group of four relatively simple hymns, and the "Decad," a set of ten more advanced hymns and narratives. Robson (2001) provided confirmation for this hypothesis in her analysis of tablet finds at House F, a school house at Nippur dating to the 1740s BCE that yielded about 1,400 tablets. Numerous exemplars of texts from the Tetrad and the Decad were found at House F alongside school exercises, a situation that matches the data from other OB school houses, both inside and outside of Nippur. For a comprehensive analysis of variation in the Decad, see Delnero 2012.
Antoine Cavigneaux’s (2014) recent edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa allows for a fresh... more Antoine Cavigneaux’s (2014) recent edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa allows for a fresh assessment of the myth in all of its available versions. Close examination of the Tell Haddad version and the Amarna Tablet in particular reveals that the two display different sets of logic and foci, with only the latter concerned especially with Adapa and his fate. This distinction is reflective not merely of fluidity in copying but instead appears to indicate evidence of revision in the course of transmission.
When we encounter a text, whether ancient or modern, we typically start at the beginning and work... more When we encounter a text, whether ancient or modern, we typically start at the beginning and work our way toward the end. In Tracking the Master Scribe, Sara J. Milstein demonstrates that for biblical and Mesopotamian literature, this habit can yield misleading results.
In the ancient Near East, "master scribes"—those who had the authority to produce and revise literature—regularly modified their texts in the course of transmission. One of the most effective techniques for change was to add something to the front—what Milstein calls "revision through introduction." This method allowed scribes to preserve their received material while simultaneously recasting it. As a result, numerous biblical and Mesopotamian texts manifest multiple and even competing viewpoints. Due to the primary position of these additions, such reworked texts are often read solely through the lens of their final contributions. This is true not only for biblical and cuneiform texts in their final forms, but also for Mesopotamian texts that are known from multiple versions: first impressions carry weight.
Rather than "nail down every piece of the puzzle," Tracking the Master Scribe demonstrates what is to be gained when engaging questions of textual transmission with attention to how scribes actually worked. Working from the two earliest corpora that allow us to track large-scale change, the book provides broad overviews of evidence available for revision through introduction, as well as a set of detailed case studies that offer fresh insight into well-known biblical and Mesopotamian literary texts. The result is the first comprehensive and comparative profile of this key scribal method: one that was not only ubiquitous in the ancient Near East but also epitomizes the attitudes of the master scribes toward the literature that they produced.
The Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, perhaps the most famous of Mesopotamian literature, has been conside... more The Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, perhaps the most famous of Mesopotamian literature, has been considered the artistry of one author inspired by Sumerian tales. Specialists have assumed that all the earliest evidence (ca. 1800-1700 BCE) reflects this creative unity. Deep contrasts in characterization and narrative logic, however, distinguish the central adventure to defeat the monster Huwawa from what precedes and follows it. The Huwawa narrative stands on its own, so that the epic must have been composed from this prior Akkadian composition. Recognition of the tale embedded in the epic allows each block of material to be understood on its own terms. Such literary-historical investigation from contemporary texts is new to Assyriology and may produce important results when applied to other Mesopotamian writing.
refuted in scholarship (107). The latter example is consistent with Schaper’s claim that a new co... more refuted in scholarship (107). The latter example is consistent with Schaper’s claim that a new conception of the self emerged together with monotheism (176). To my mind, both proposals read later developments back onto the biblical text. The same is also true when Schaper insists that the “word” ensures that anyone anywhere could experience the divine in contrast to the restriction of images to the priesthood (135). It felt rather more like the polemics of seventeenthand eighteenth-century CE Europe than sixthand fifth-century BCE Israel.
Although the three laws on illicit sexual intercourse in Deut 22:23-29 are often treated as a set... more Although the three laws on illicit sexual intercourse in Deut 22:23-29 are often treated as a set, close examination indicates that the assault of an engaged woman in a field (vv. 25-27) represents the literary core to which verses 23-24 and 28-29 were appended. The isolation of 22:25-27 from its secondary frame enables its independent legal reasoning to emerge. The scribe presents an unusual scenario by ancient Near Eastern legal standards, in that the assault of the victim transpires without witnesses. Curiously, the solution favors the woman by comparing the assault to a homicide and then positing a hypothetical situation whereby the victim is imagined to have shouted for help. I propose that the closest parallel for this display of legal reasoning is found not in another cuneiform law collection but rather in the "Nippur Homicide Trial, " a Mesopotamian "model case" that was utilized in second-millennium scribal education. Not only does this model case shed fresh light on the legal reasoning that undergirds Deut 22:25-27, but its genre also provides a new lens through which to reconsider the origins of a wider set of women and family laws in Deuteronomy.
WRITING, REWRITING, AND OVERWRITING IN THE BOOKS OF DEUTERONOMY AND THE FORMER PROPHETS ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF CYNTHIA EDENBURG, 2019
A striking set of parallels between Deut 25:5-10 and wills from the Late Bronze Age city of Emar ... more A striking set of parallels between Deut 25:5-10 and wills from the Late Bronze Age city of Emar suggest that the biblical legal text may have its roots in a comparable Israelite will.
In recent years, scholarship on OB literature has largely centered on its pedagogical function. D... more In recent years, scholarship on OB literature has largely centered on its pedagogical function. Drawing on tablet typology and literary catalogues, scholars have managed to reconstruct both elementary and advanced phases in the OB scribal curriculum. 1 These studies represent a major breakthrough in our perception of Near Eastern literature and help situate it within its broader sociocultural landscape. The archaeological context for the two Tell Haddad (= ancient Meturan/Sirara) copies of Adapa (= Adapa in Akkadian), however, offers one point of entry in a different direction. Like the school texts, these copies are in Sumerian and date to the OB period, with a terminus ad quem of the 31 st year of Hammurabi's reign, or approximately 1760 BCE (Cavigneaux 1999: 252). The tablets are each four columns long and were apparently copied by different * This essay would not be possible without the insights and generosity of Antoine Cavigneaux. Not only did his 1999 essay on magical texts at Tell Haddad inspire this line of reasoning in the first place, but he also provided me with advance access to his much-anticipated edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa (Cavigneaux 2014). To him I offer my sincerest gratitude. All references to the Tell Haddad version derive from his translation. I also wish to thank Daniel Fleming for offering swift and crucial and feedback on this essay at multiple stages in its development, and the participants in the symposium for their helpful comments. 1 Much rests on the foundational work of Civil (1969), who analyzed collections of tablets at multiple locations and divided them into four types of formats. Type I tablets are large multicolumned tablets; Type II are large "teacher-student copies" that contain extracts with one side inscribed by the teacher and the other inscribed by the student; Type III are single-column extracts of compositions; and Type IV are round tablets, or "lentils," that consist of 2-4 lines of a composition and show signs of inscription by teachers and students, like Type II. The first major application of this data was by Veldhuis (1997), who used it to reconstruct four phases in the elementary scribal curriculum at OB Nippur. Scribes, he proposed, started with the acquisition of basic writing techniques (e.g., sign exercises; syllabic value lists); moved on to learn Sumerian nouns and nominal phrases; then turned to complex sign lists and mathematics; and finally advanced to copying full sentences. Tinney (1998 and 1999) then determined that advanced scribes learned two sets of literary compositions: the "Tetrad," a group of four relatively simple hymns, and the "Decad," a set of ten more advanced hymns and narratives. Robson (2001) provided confirmation for this hypothesis in her analysis of tablet finds at House F, a school house at Nippur dating to the 1740s BCE that yielded about 1,400 tablets. Numerous exemplars of texts from the Tetrad and the Decad were found at House F alongside school exercises, a situation that matches the data from other OB school houses, both inside and outside of Nippur. For a comprehensive analysis of variation in the Decad, see Delnero 2012.
Antoine Cavigneaux’s (2014) recent edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa allows for a fresh... more Antoine Cavigneaux’s (2014) recent edition of the Tell Haddad version of Adapa allows for a fresh assessment of the myth in all of its available versions. Close examination of the Tell Haddad version and the Amarna Tablet in particular reveals that the two display different sets of logic and foci, with only the latter concerned especially with Adapa and his fate. This distinction is reflective not merely of fluidity in copying but instead appears to indicate evidence of revision in the course of transmission.
When we encounter a text, whether ancient or modern, we typically start at the beginning and work... more When we encounter a text, whether ancient or modern, we typically start at the beginning and work our way toward the end. In Tracking the Master Scribe, Sara J. Milstein demonstrates that for biblical and Mesopotamian literature, this habit can yield misleading results.
In the ancient Near East, "master scribes"—those who had the authority to produce and revise literature—regularly modified their texts in the course of transmission. One of the most effective techniques for change was to add something to the front—what Milstein calls "revision through introduction." This method allowed scribes to preserve their received material while simultaneously recasting it. As a result, numerous biblical and Mesopotamian texts manifest multiple and even competing viewpoints. Due to the primary position of these additions, such reworked texts are often read solely through the lens of their final contributions. This is true not only for biblical and cuneiform texts in their final forms, but also for Mesopotamian texts that are known from multiple versions: first impressions carry weight.
Rather than "nail down every piece of the puzzle," Tracking the Master Scribe demonstrates what is to be gained when engaging questions of textual transmission with attention to how scribes actually worked. Working from the two earliest corpora that allow us to track large-scale change, the book provides broad overviews of evidence available for revision through introduction, as well as a set of detailed case studies that offer fresh insight into well-known biblical and Mesopotamian literary texts. The result is the first comprehensive and comparative profile of this key scribal method: one that was not only ubiquitous in the ancient Near East but also epitomizes the attitudes of the master scribes toward the literature that they produced.
The Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, perhaps the most famous of Mesopotamian literature, has been conside... more The Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, perhaps the most famous of Mesopotamian literature, has been considered the artistry of one author inspired by Sumerian tales. Specialists have assumed that all the earliest evidence (ca. 1800-1700 BCE) reflects this creative unity. Deep contrasts in characterization and narrative logic, however, distinguish the central adventure to defeat the monster Huwawa from what precedes and follows it. The Huwawa narrative stands on its own, so that the epic must have been composed from this prior Akkadian composition. Recognition of the tale embedded in the epic allows each block of material to be understood on its own terms. Such literary-historical investigation from contemporary texts is new to Assyriology and may produce important results when applied to other Mesopotamian writing.
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In the ancient Near East, "master scribes"—those who had the authority to produce and revise literature—regularly modified their texts in the course of transmission. One of the most effective techniques for change was to add something to the front—what Milstein calls "revision through introduction." This method allowed scribes to preserve their received material while simultaneously recasting it. As a result, numerous biblical and Mesopotamian texts manifest multiple and even competing viewpoints. Due to the primary position of these additions, such reworked texts are often read solely through the lens of their final contributions. This is true not only for biblical and cuneiform texts in their final forms, but also for Mesopotamian texts that are known from multiple versions: first impressions carry weight.
Rather than "nail down every piece of the puzzle," Tracking the Master Scribe demonstrates what is to be gained when engaging questions of textual transmission with attention to how scribes actually worked. Working from the two earliest corpora that allow us to track large-scale change, the book provides broad overviews of evidence available for revision through introduction, as well as a set of detailed case studies that offer fresh insight into well-known biblical and Mesopotamian literary texts. The result is the first comprehensive and comparative profile of this key scribal method: one that was not only ubiquitous in the ancient Near East but also epitomizes the attitudes of the master scribes toward the literature that they produced.
In the ancient Near East, "master scribes"—those who had the authority to produce and revise literature—regularly modified their texts in the course of transmission. One of the most effective techniques for change was to add something to the front—what Milstein calls "revision through introduction." This method allowed scribes to preserve their received material while simultaneously recasting it. As a result, numerous biblical and Mesopotamian texts manifest multiple and even competing viewpoints. Due to the primary position of these additions, such reworked texts are often read solely through the lens of their final contributions. This is true not only for biblical and cuneiform texts in their final forms, but also for Mesopotamian texts that are known from multiple versions: first impressions carry weight.
Rather than "nail down every piece of the puzzle," Tracking the Master Scribe demonstrates what is to be gained when engaging questions of textual transmission with attention to how scribes actually worked. Working from the two earliest corpora that allow us to track large-scale change, the book provides broad overviews of evidence available for revision through introduction, as well as a set of detailed case studies that offer fresh insight into well-known biblical and Mesopotamian literary texts. The result is the first comprehensive and comparative profile of this key scribal method: one that was not only ubiquitous in the ancient Near East but also epitomizes the attitudes of the master scribes toward the literature that they produced.