Writing on the Tablet of the Heart : Origins of Scripture and Literature

This book explores a new model for the production, revision, and reception of Biblical texts as Scripture. Building on recent studies of the oral/written interface in medieval, Greco-Roman and ancinet Near Eastern contexts, David Carr argues that in ancient Israel Biblical texts and other texts emerged as a support for an educational process in which written and oral dimensions were integrally intertwined. The point was not incising and reading texts on parchment or papyrus. The point was to enculturate ancient Israelites - particularly Israelite elites - by training them to memorize and recite a wide range of traditional literature that was seen as the cultural bedorck of the people: narrative, prophecy, prayer, and wisdom. Explores a model for the production, revision, and reception of Biblical texts as Scripture. Building on the studies of the oral/written interface in medieval and Greco-Roman contexts, this book argues that in ancient Israel, Biblical texts emerged as a support for an educational process in which written and oral dimensions were intertwined. In her book Oral World and Written Word, Susan Niditch vividly illustrates the problems with contemporary assumptions about ancient textuality, as she outlines the picture many biblical scholars often assume in their discussions of biblical formation. The primary focus was not on writing such texts on tablets or papyrus, but inscribing hallowed writings, word for word, on the hearts of elite members of society."--Jacket "In Writing on the Tablet of the Heart, David Carr explores a new model for the production, revision, and reception of ancient texts The Gilgamesh epic, Homer's Iliad, and the Bible, he shows, were first and foremost intended as educational texts David M. Carr. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [307]-317) And Indexes.