Description
About the Author
Nathan Mastnjak is Professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana and author of Deuteronomy and the Emergence of Textual Authority in Jeremiah.
Reviews
This book provides an important corrective to the scholarly tendency to import anachronistic assumptions about contemporary books into study of ancient biblical texts. An exciting entry in the emergent field of material historical study of the Bible, Mastnjak's work introduces a "collection model" that has major implications for the interpretation of biblical books and study of their formation." * David M. Carr, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Union Theological Seminary *
Almost two centuries after biblical scholars began the conversation of hypothetical documents lying behind the present text, Mastnjak puts flesh on what those earlier texts looked like as objects, the organizational logic behind their collection, and the process by which these smaller scrolls were brought together in the large scrolls found at Qumran. This is an important volume for Hebrew Bible scholarship which will in turn generate rich insights into the development of the biblical text." * Thomas Bolin, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, St. Norbert College *
Mastnjak has produced a remarkable study that offers an elegant and convincing solution to the problem of the earliest material forms of biblical literature. His bold and convincing arguments combine recent discoveries about ancient technologies of writing with careful textual analysis and will change how scholars imagine the literary form of the earliest manuscripts of biblical texts." -Brennan W. Breed, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary
Mastnjak's Before the Scrolls should be a cornerstone for any biblical scholarship that considers notions of materiality in ancient Israelite and Judean (and Jewish) texts. * William Brown, The Biblical Review *
In this lucid monograph Mastnjak (Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans) suggests biblical scholars reorient the way they look at differing forms of prophetic books, along with other books including Proverbs and Psalms...Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates thourgh faculty. * Choice *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190911096
Author Nathan Mastnjak
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 494g
Dimensions(mm) 162mm * 242mm * 24mm