Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes

“If we want to understand” the origins of the Hebrew bible, then “we need to think about... where scribes really worked,” according to this insightful and enjoyable study. Biblical historian Schniedewind (Finger of the Scribe) argues that notions of individual authorship (e.g., Solomon wrote the Proverbs) are wrongheaded, and that even recent scholarly theories about collective authorship by scribal communities have been overly aggrandizing. Instead, he presents a more down-to-earth vision of scribal community authorship that emphasizes a universal truth: “Scribes were not venerable wise men hanging out with their books. Everyone needs to ‘pay the rent’ and scribes were no exception.” In the eighth century BCE, when the Hebrew Bible was written, all scribes labored under an apprenticeship system in which one master would have multiple apprentices. Schniedewind demonstrates how these relationships—half professional, half familial—are woven into the Bible’s stories (the prophets Elija and Elisa, for example, have something like a master-apprentice relationship). He also evocatively portrays the doting brotherly relationship between scribes (in one government missive, a scribe tacked on “I am always, utterly yours!” as a personal message to the scribe on the receiving end). Schniedewind’s erudite but still conversational prose brings admirable clarity to ancient breadcrumb trails of evidence. It’s an enlightening deep dive into the social world in which the Bible was written. (June)