The Literary History of the Hebrew Bible

6 - The literary history of the Hebrew Bible
from Part II - The Hebrew Bible and Old Testaments

This chapter attempts to sketch the literary history of the Hebrew Bible as the history of genres of literary production in their social and cultural settings. With regard to the history of Israelite and Judahite literature it is important to differentiate between the literary and non-literary uses of writing. One can trace the development of ancient Hebrew and early Jewish narrative in and through the history of the formation of the Hebrew Bible. The search for literary building blocks for the future seems to have been the main reason for the formation of the Deuteronomistic History, the Pentateuch and the book of Chronicles. In the case of the Pentateuch, the most significant and most momentous literary product of Achaemenid Judah, its production is best explained as being the result of a desire for national self-assertion and cultural and religious self-preservation.