yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (Yirmiyahu BenDavid) (12/03/84)
I am reposting this article since it was originally posted here and
a) no complete answers were offerred to the original poster and
b) I can't get the path correct in order to mail to him after repeated
attempts (perhaps he will send me a correct path with no parsing
errors able to creep in, etc.?)
If no good answers are forthcoming in the interim, I'll try to
answer as best I can as soon as winter break gets here (I'm really
in deep until then).
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I have some questions for any and all Bible/Torah/Talmud scholars out
there. It concerns the earliest dates of the written source for the
Old Testament. I learned in Religious Studies that the Pentateuch
(sic?) was passed down from generation to generation orally until
sometime after the reign of King David c. 1000 B.C. The first book of
the OT to ever be written was the First Book of Samuel, at least
according to the religious historians I encountered at school. The
purpose of this book was to legitimatize the monarchy instituted by
King Saul. The transcribing of the oral tradition that make up the
five books of the Pentateuch followed the writing of the First Book of
Samuel.
This is what I learned in school. We all know that a lot of time what
one learns in school is not necessarily (unfortunately) true.
Here are my questions:
1) What is the first book of the bible ever written?
2) When was the earliest source still extant today written?
3) How long were the books that comprize the Pentateuch orally
transmitted before they were transcribed?
Please include source references wherever possible. mis@spuxll.UUCP (Meyer Steinberg) (12/06/84)
I also heard that Samuel was the first book to be written down, but I don't know where they came up with that. It is possible that when all the manuscripts of different sections where compiled, certain Books of the Bible where written first from these sections first. It is seems that the Books of the Bible where compiled from manuscripts of different sections. This may be why in Isaiah we find chapters that are repeats from Kings. I the Chumash (5 Books of Moses, I dont know how to spell that word starting with "P") there are references to the words being written down. For example Duetoronomy 30:10, "... to observe His commandments and laws that are *written* in this Torah ... . We find references to the different parts being written down. [And Moses wrote thier journeys according to the word of G-d] Numbers 33:2. In Kings II 22:8 there is the story that while the Temple was being repaired, the Cohain Gadol (high priest) reports to king Yoshiyahu's scribe that he found a "Sefer HaTorah" (Book of the Torah). I believe that the earliest manuscripts available today are the Dead Sea Scrolls dating around 100 BCE.