Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine (Texts & Studies in Ancient Judaism) Paperback - 2001
by Catherine Hezser
From the publisher
Since Judaism has always been seen as the quintessential 'religion of the book', a high literacy rate amongst ancient Jews has usually been taken for granted. Catherine Hezser presents the first critical analysis of the various aspects of ancient Jewish literacy on the basis of all of the literary, epigraphic, and papyrological material published so far. Thereby she takes into consideration the analogies in Graeco-Roman culture and models and theories developed in the social sciences. Rather than trying to determine the exact literacy rate amongst ancient Jews, she examines the various types, social contexts, and functions of writing and the relationship between writing and oral forms of discourse. Following recent social-anthropological approaches to literacy, the guiding question is: who used what type of writing for which purpose? First Catherine Hezser examines the conditions which would enable or prevent the spread of literacy, such as education and schools, the availability and costs of writing materials, religious interest in writing and books, the existence of archives and libraries, and the question of multilingualism. Afterwards she looks at the different types of writing, such as letters, documents, miscellaneous notes, inscriptions and graffiti, and literary and magical texts until she finally draws conclusions about the ways in which the various sectors of the populace were able to participate in a literate society.
Details
- Title Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine (Texts & Studies in Ancient Judaism)
- Author Catherine Hezser
- Binding Paperback
- Pages 557
- Language ENG
- Publisher Paul Mohr Verlag
- Date June 2001
- ISBN 9783161475467
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Themes
- Ethnic Orientation: Jewish
- Religious Orientation: Jewish
About the author
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