Syracuse 2023 Call for Papers
Scholars have endeavoured to identify the authors and redactors of biblical texts since the beginning of modern biblical criticism and invented and used the notions of scribal groups or schools e.g., Dtr, P, and prophetic groups. Scholars, however, have paid less attention to the criteria for making a concrete connection between a text and a scribal group, their purpose, and meanings in a specific socio-historical context. Moreover, biblical scholars traditionally identified scribal groups based on the biblical texts without reflecting on the social-cultural contexts within which these scribal activities took place. This hiatus in biblical scholarship should therefore be appended with comparative studies from the wider ancient Near Eastern world and from extra-biblical literature. This session therefore aims to open in-depth and focused methodological discussions by addressing scribes and scribal groups in socio-historical perspective first and then by critically reassessing the definition of scribal groups based on the biblical literature. We cordially invite scholars working on issues on scribes, scribal groups and scribal activities within biblical and extra biblical literature, from the Persian period onwards, to submit papers on methodological aspects.
