Reading Psalms with the scribes : using ancient manuscript evidence to inform Biblical studies / John Screnock.
| Author/creator | Screnock, John author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025] |
| Description | x, 288 pages ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Reading with the scribes ; Scribes and literature in the ancient world ; Windows into the literary activities of scribes ; Case study: Exodus 3-12 ; The aims of this book --The dynamics of textual criticism ; Hebrew language studies ; Septuagint studies ; Case study: Representation of verbs in Septuagint Psalms ; Psalm 18 ; Psalm 104 ; Dead Sea scrolls studies and material philology ; Literary criticism -- Poetics ; Poetics and parallelism ; Case study: Psalm 124:1-5 ; Case study: Psalm 145:4-7 ; Case study: Psalm 49:13 and 21 -- Composition history ; Text-critical data as empirical evidence ; Psalm 96 in the making ; Snapshots of shiru ladonai in witnesses to 1 Chronicles 16 -- Close reading ; What is close reading? ; Reading Psalm 104 with the scribes. |
| Abstract | "Reading Psalms with the Scribes argues for a new approach to the study of the Hebrew Bible, 'reading with the scribes,' which puts variation in the ancient witnesses at the center of the endeavor. With a focus on texts from Psalms, Reading Psalms with the Scribes explores how ancient manuscript evidence can impact scholars' thinking about poetics, composition, and interpretation. Whereas most biblical scholarship keeps textual criticism distinct from other kinds of analysis - as a preliminary step that provides one correct version of the text to be studied, for example - the practice of reading with the scribes leverages moments of variation for their insights into the thoughts, practices, and work of scribes. The scribes of the Second Temple period were much more than copyists; they were practiced readers who paid close attention to the poetic features of psalms, competent editors who polished the existing strengths of psalms, talented authors who could add new elements to psalms without altering their compositional unity, and skilled interpreters with robust understandings of the text. Though current scholarship has extensive knowledge of these ancient texts in all their facets, there is much we can learn from the scribes of the Second Temple period. When we focus our attention on the places in the text where the scribes were at work and explore the elements of the text involved in that work, we can glean methodological insights and approach ancient Hebrew texts in new ways." -- Publisher, back cover of dust jacket. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages [267]-282) and indexes. |
| ISBN | 9780198853640 |
| ISBN | 0198853645 hardcover |
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