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OverviewThe Invention of Hebrew is the first book to approach the Bible in light of recent epigraphic discoveries on the extreme antiquity of the alphabet and its use as a deliberate and meaningful choice. Hebrew was more than just a way of transmitting information; it was a vehicle of political symbolism and self-representation. Seth L. Sanders connects the Bible's distinctive linguistic form--writing down a local spoken language--to a cultural desire to speak directly to people, summoning them to join a new community that the text itself helped call into being. Addressing the people of Israel through a vernacular literature, Hebrew texts reimagined their audience as a public. By comparing Biblical documents with related ancient texts in Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Babylonian, this book shows Hebrew's distinctiveness as a self-conscious political language. Illuminating the enduring stakes of Biblical writing, Sanders demonstrates how Hebrew assumed and promoted a source of power previously unknown in written literature: ""the people"" as the protagonist of religion and politics. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Seth L. SandersPublisher: University of Illinois Press Imprint: University of Illinois Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.426kg ISBN: 9780252078354ISBN 10: 0252078357 Pages: 280 Publication Date: 28 June 2011 Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional & Vocational , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowlegments xv Abbreviations xvii Introduction 1 1. Modernity's Ghosts: The Bible as Political Communication 13 2. What Was the Alphabet For? 36 3. Empires and Alphabets in Late Bronze Age Canaan 76 4. The Invention of Hebrew in Iron Age Israel 103 Conclusion 157 Notes 173 Bibliography 225 Index 251Reviews"""An absolutely innovative way of reading the use of ancient Hebrew for generating political identity and for understanding the Hebrew Bible itself. It is refreshing to see such profound insight and analyses come out of material that has otherwise not received substantial recognition of its cultural and political importance."" Mark S. Smith, author of God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World ""Sanders takes familiar, long-studied material and makes new knowledge. He treats biblical Hebrew as a political phenomenon, exploring how language and especially its written form were employed in the creation of an imagined community--a nation--in the course of ancient Israel's history."" Eva von Dassow, author of State and Society in the Late Bronze Age: Alalah under the Mittani Empire ""S. Brings anthropology and epigraphy together in an original and stimulating way, seeking to discern the roots of biblical texts by exploring the contexts and development of writing in the Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages...This wide-ranging, extensively annotated book deserves careful study and offers much of value to OT scholars."" A. R. Millard Journal for the Study of the Old Testament" An absolutely innovative way of reading the use of ancient Hebrew for generating political identity and for understanding the Hebrew Bible itself. It is refreshing to see such profound insight and analyses come out of material that has otherwise not received substantial recognition of its cultural and political importance. Mark S. Smith, author of God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World Sanders takes familiar, long-studied material and makes new knowledge. He treats biblical Hebrew as a political phenomenon, exploring how language and especially its written form were employed in the creation of an imagined community--a nation--in the course of ancient Israel's history. Eva von Dassow, author of State and Society in the Late Bronze Age: Alalah under the Mittani Empire <p> Illuminating the enduring stakes of biblical writing, Sanders demonstrates how Hebrew assumed and promoted a sourse of power previously unknown in written literature: 'the people' as the protagonist of religion and politics. -- Shofar Author InformationSeth L. Sanders is an assistant professor of religion at Trinity College and the editor of the Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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