{"id":70932,"date":"2020-02-28T14:21:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T12:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=70932"},"modified":"2023-10-19T16:10:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T13:10:49","slug":"the-people-of-the-book-or-the-people-with-a-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-people-of-the-book-or-the-people-with-a-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"The People Of The Book, Or The People With A Voice?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[555,361,506,644],"acf":{"old_id":"70932","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64758,"related_cahpter":"426","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Oral and written tradition in ancient Israel\r\n\r\n","content":"

In 1976, Israel Finklestein led an exciting archaeology excavation at ‘Izbet Sartah.\u00a0 There he and his students from Tel Aviv University uncovered an agricultural village, predating the era of King David. At the site, one student found a piece of ceramic which looked interesting. She showed it to the professor for his assessment. He told her to throw it away and to continue looking for vessels or houses, items that he was interested in finding. She disregarded her teacher’s advice, and took the ceramic to her home to clean it up. After removing the dirt, she discovered five lines of ancient Hebrew letters engraved on the ceramic. The fifth line was the complete 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet written in order.\u00a0 However, these letters were written from left to right, as English is written today. It seems that a child wrote them down to practice writing the Hebrew letters. Even Professor Finklestein admitted that it was good that his student didn’t listen to his advice this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the message written in the first four lines of the shard is unclear, the fifth line with the complete alphabet is quite revealing. It tells us that literacy was a widespread phenomenon in ancient Israel. If a child living in a remote farming village during the pre-Davidic era knew how to read and write the <\/span>aleph bet<\/span><\/i>, then we can assume that to some degree all the people of this society were literate. However, the picture we receive from chapter 26 of Jeremiah is that Biblical Israel was an oral society, rather than a written one.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is noteworthy that all of the verbs in chapter 26 of Jeremiah are connected to speaking or listening. Jeremiah is first sent to <\/span>speak<\/b> to the people. He is to <\/span>warn <\/b>them that their refusal to <\/span>listen <\/b>to the words of the prophets will bring dire results upon the city of Jerusalem. The people <\/span>hear <\/b>Jeremiah <\/span>say <\/b>these words causing them to <\/span>shout<\/b> that he is guilty of treason.\u00a0 Jeremiah <\/span>explains <\/b>that he was <\/span>repeating<\/b> the words of God. Different factors <\/span>express their opinion<\/b> if Jeremiah should live or die. The elders defend Jeremiah by <\/span>quoting<\/b> the prophet Micah which they <\/span>heard<\/b> in their youth. Upon <\/span>hearing<\/b> Micah’s prophecy, King Hezekiah took heed to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

This chapter gives the impression that Israel during this time was exclusively oral. There is no written protocol during the court case. Even when the elders of the city bring a proof from the prophet Micah, they do not bring a scroll to read what it is written. Rather, they quote the prophecy, by heart and word-perfect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do we understand this in light of the archeological find at ‘Izbet Sartah?\u00a0 Does the Tanach have other references to whether the Israeli culture was oral or written?\u00a0 Are we the People of the Book, or the People with a Voice? We will return to these questions while discussing chapters 32 and 45 of Jeremiah.<\/span><\/p>\n

(This is the first of a three part series which discusses if Biblical Israel was a written or oral society).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":70971,"id":70971,"title":"jer26-reading book","filename":"jer26-reading-book.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer26-reading-book.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-people-of-the-book-or-the-people-with-a-voice\/jer26-reading-book\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer26-reading-book","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":70932,"date":"2020-02-28 12:20:16","modified":"2020-02-28 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