Who Really Wrote The [Hebrew] Bible: The Story of the Scribes, William M. Schniedewind, c. 2024. Princeton University Press.

Who Really Wrote The [Hebrew] Bible: The Story of the Scribes, William M. Schniedewind, c. 2024. Princeton University Press.

Professor of Biblical Studies at UCLA, where he was the inaugural holder of the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies. Has written at least two other books on the Bible. 

Kuntillet 'Ajrud inscriptions, link here.

Kuntillet ʿAjrud or Horvat Teman is a late 9th/early 8th centuries BCE site in the northeast part of the Sinai Peninsula.

It is frequently described as a shrine, though this is not certain.

The Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions discovered in the excavations are significant in biblical archaeology. Kuntillet Ajrud is in the north Sinai; carbon-14 dating indicates occupation from 801–770 BCE, and the eponymous texts may have been written c. 800 BCE. [Interesting enough, this corresponds almost exactly to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.]

As a perennial water source in this arid region, it constituted an important station on an ancient trade route connecting the Gulf of Aqaba (an inlet of the Red Sea) and the Mediterranean. It was located only 50 kilometers from the major oasis of Kadesh Barnea.

Additionally, despite its proximity to the Kingdom of Judah, it has an association with the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria): "elements of the material culture such as the pottery, the 'northern' orthography in certain inscriptions, and reference to YHWH of Samaria suggest that Kuntillet ʿAjrud was an Israelite outpost, or at the very least, had a strong Israelite presence".

Northeast Sinai! How close to Gaza?  One can locate is on google maps. Type in Kuntillet 'Ajrud and google will automatically change is to Khirbet el-Qom, about twenty miles due east of the northeast corner of the Gaza Strip. It is about five miles west of Hebron. Bethlehem is about five miles south of Jerusalem and another ten miles south takes one to Hebron.

Nice short preface.

Introduction.

Scribal communities, not individuals are important. 

It was a Hellenistic idea that "individuals" wrote the Bible.

The DocumentaryHypothesis. 

"A wisdom school." A genre of literature called "wisdom literature" which the author feels does not exist.

Author "defines" his view of Jerusalem, Judah, and Israel, p. 5.

The writing of the Bible? All roads lead to Jerusalem.

Beginning of the Iron Age -- 11th century BCE -- p. 7 - 8. That also aligns with the end of the Bronze Age, with the fall of Troy -- Bronze Age transitioning to the Iron Age -- said to have occurred about 1200 BC. Wiki: 

The Iron Age ( c. 1200 – c. 550 BC) is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age.

The focus of this book: scribal communities. 

Chapter 1: Scribes and Their Apprentices -- Communities At Work