Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Dear Yohanan:

Thanks for your message.

You offer some good points.

I would observe however, the following:

1. Moshe did not command the people to write for themselves a copy of the
law; but rather, only the king was instructed to do so. see, Dvarim
17:18-20;

2. Moshe implicitly commanded the people to transmit the law orally to their
sons and daughters. see, Dvarim 4:9-10
3. Joshua did order the inscription of the law on the altar; but
significantly, he read it to the people. see, Joshua 8:30-35.

4. The job of producing numerous copies of the torah, including preparation
of animal skins and ink, for say, 1 million 12th century b.c., hebrews does
not appear a reasonable conclusion. And indeed, other cultures at that time
and for the next 1,000 years and longer, generally exhibited illiteracy. The
printing press transformed literacy rates in the 15th century.

5. And let's not forget Ezra produced the book of the law and read it to the
people. Nehemiah 8:1-10.

Consumption of the law by the people seems to have been oral, rather than by
reading it.

regards,

fred burlingame.
On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 11:50 AM, Yohanan bin-Dawidh <
yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Fred;
>
> I disagree with the notion that the ancient Yisraelim could neither read
> nor write, based upon upon the teaching of the Torah itself, which clearly
> notes that it was supposed to be written on our very gates and our
> doorposts, and discussed daily, something one would need to be able to read
> and write to be able to do.
>
> Regards,
>
> Yohanan bin-Dawidh
>
>   On Oct 27, 2010 10:47 AM, "fred burlingame" <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello all:
>
> Since the intended consumer of torah could neither read or write;
>
> http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/illitera.html
>
>
> since he heard the reading of torah, only once every seven years;
>
> dvarim 31:10-11,
>
> do not these circumstances counsel in favor of a simple and clear message;
> and literal meaning of words of the scrolls?
>
> In other words, the numerous, written language subtleties, discussed daily
> here ... nice and interesting as they may be, become somewhat discounted,
> in
> light of the illiterate population intended as the consumer of the books?
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
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