I am excited to read Professor Wright’s book “Why the Bible Began.” I bought the book based on the Adam Gopnik’s fine review in the August 28, 2023 The New Yorker.
Excuse the non-scholarly formatting of this review, given Amazon’s editing restrictions.
I am giving Professor Wright the benefit of the doubt with the five star review. That may change in the future as I continue reading and commenting here.
Comments are quick.
I just added today (October 29, 2023) comments on Chapter 1 regarding Wright's comments about the evolution of writing systems.
PROLOGUE
FIRST. Wright’s praise of Robert Alter’s three volume “The Hebrew Bible” is spot on. (xiv)
SECOND. Wright states that in comparison to the Bible, “the literary legacies of [ancient] leading civilizations were completely forgotten.” (xv) What about Book of the Dead; Gilgamesh; Upanishads; The Ryamayan; Mahabharata; Bhagavad Gita; Homer. Virgil, and so on?
THIRD. Wright quotes Bart Ehrman (xv) to support his statement that “a sacred text was rarely central to [the] rites and rituals” of the ancients. (Egyptian Book of the Dead comes to mind, without thinking, as one of those rareties.) But more disturbingly, anything Bart Ehrman says is highly suspect after Richard Bauckham’s masterpiece of scholarship and logic: “Jesus and the Eyewitnesses—The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony.” (2006, 2nd Ed. 2017). After Bauckham, Ehrman’s Form Criticism is dead, and anything Ehrman says based on his form critical approach to the Bible is more than deeply suspect. In only reading Wright’s Prologue thus far, quoting Ehrman was not an auspicious beginning and puts me in a suspicious reading mood right out the chute. I hope Wright’s interesting thesis is not reliant on a form critical approach to the Bible. If his thesis is so reliant, his book is already dated. We’ll see. I will be back.
INTRODUCTION
Interesting brief history of the ancient orient, especially Assyria and “The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal.”
Wright’s questions here are intriguing. He quotes Wellhausen, “Why, beginning from approximately the same starting point, did Israelite history end at a very different place from say, their Moabite neighbors?” (9)
Wright argues that there is a difference between a “state” (or empire) and a “nation” and that “the biblical authors were creating the first nation” or “national identity.” (11-12) A “nation . . . is a political community [not necessarily a geographical territory] held together by shared memories and a will to act in solidarity . . . a state of mind. . . . a diverse political community whose members share a culture and a collective consciousness.” (12)
I can see now, despite my second criticism of the Prologue (above), what Wright is saying about other ancient literary legacies being forgotten in comparison to the Bible. None of those literary legacies created a “nation” in Wright’s definition.
Wright argues that his book is unique in that it asks NOT the “who, what, when, and where” of traditional biblical scholarship, but the “why?” Why did the Bible originate? Why is it so unique?
Finally, I found intriguing the following questions posed of ancient Israel, but that are still modern in their applicability: “How do we survive in a world ruled by empires, and in which we are the underdogs? Can we still be a people without kings to define our destiny? And what does it even mean to be a people?” (15)
(Errata to correct in second edition: page 13, eighth line from bottom: extraneous word “the.”)
CHAPTER 1—ABRAHAM AND SARAH
Good solid basic information. But I have a disagreement with one statement:
Wright: “Many centuries of experimentation produced two elaborate writing systems: cuneiform in Mesopotamia and hieroglyphics in Egypt. The former is likely older, and thanks to archaeological discoveries, we can watch the texts slowly evolve from simple accounting receipts with rudimentary syntax to elaborate literary productions.” (22)
This is a half-truth and could be misinterpreted to mean that archaeological discoveries prove that Sumerian and Egyptian writing systems evolved over centuries. No.
The most comprehensive single book on the world’s writing systems is the collection of essays by the world’s leading grammatologists (scholars who study writing systems) found in Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, eds, "The World’s Writing Systems" (Oxford University Press, 1996). Other excellent books on writing systems include John DeFrancis, "Visible Speech—The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems" (U of Hawaii Press, 1989) Albertine Gaur, "A History of Writing" (British Library, 1984); Roy Harris, "The Origin of Writing" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), and Andrew Robinson, (The Story of Writing), Second Edition, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2007).
In regard to the most ancient Sumerian (and earliest) writing system, Professor Michalowski writes: “the structure and logic of the system indicate that it was invented as a whole and did not develop gradually. . . . The number signs may have been adopted from small clay counters that were used independently . . . But the system as such was designed in one fell swoop. Those who favor an evolutionary model of the development of writing cite certain ‘antecedents' to proto-cuneiform . . . The inventor or inventors of proto-cuneiform drew on a variety of [] ideas, but the quantum leap to the conceptualization of the earliest writing system was without precedent.” (Piotr Michalowski in "The World’s Writing Systems," 35-36, Daniels and Bright eds. Oxford.)
In brief: there is no evidence of sophisticated Sumerian cuneiform “evolving.” The system exploded on the scene around 3200 BC.
The one thing that grammatologists agree on is that the earliest known writing systems (specifically Sumerian and Egyptian) dramatically appeared without precedent around 3200 to 3000 BC.
There is absolutely no archaeological evidence for the evolution of these earliest writing systems. NONE—NO EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION IN WRITING SYSTEMS! Let that sink in. We go from simple vertical marks on cave drawings in France before 8000 BC to “Vinca culture” simple graphic marks in Yugoslavia (ca. 5300-4300 BC) to—KABOOM—evidence of sophisticated writing systems (Sumerian and Egyptian) emerging whole cloth around 3200 BC. No evidence at all of a gradual evolution. Fascinating.
This is akin to a Cambrian Explosion in human history. We have a pre-history of humans (pre 4000 BC) with evidence of buildings and burial customs—BUT NO EVIDENCE OF WRITING SYSTEMS prior to 3200 BC! We have simple tokens with simple etched marks for thousands and thousands of years but no evidence in all the pre-4000 BC graves and ruins of a gradual development of writing systems. No syllabaries, alphabets, or complex written grammatical constructions. Nada, nichts, none. These pre-4000 BC “humans” obviously communicated in spoken language, BUT THEY APPARENTLY HAD NO WRITING SYSTEMS! NO ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE SLOW, GRADUAL EVOLUTION OF WRITING SYSTEMS!
Why? Certainly over tens and tens of thousands of years--and thousands of pre 4000 BC archaelogical sites--and thousands of archaelogists poring over those sites--certainly, surely there would be some evidence of a slow, gradual evolution of writing systems!
All this makes one revel in the mystery of what occurred around 3200 B.C. We have homo sapiens before 4000 BC, but no “humans” who could write (a central component of what civilization and being human means)—not until around 3200 BC. It makes one wonder about the “Genesis of the Written Word” (Hugh Nibley). Here is one take: Cuneiform tablets from around 1800 BC indicate that “The Sumerians believed their script was an invention of the gods.” (Michalowski in The World’s Writing Systems, 45; Daniels and Bright eds, 5.) An invention that all scientific evidence indicates (and no scientific evidence refutes) exploded on the scene WHOLE CLOTH, full-on sophisticated, around 3200 BC. Hmmm, makes one wonder!
Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
$27.50
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Choose items to buy together.
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
From the Publisher
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
