The Bible: The Book of Life, the Book of Law, and the Book of Covenant

Dariusz DZIADOSZ

Abstract

The author discusses the Hebrew Bible as a book, taking into consideration three pivotal research planes. Firstly, the Bible is scrutinized as a literary work in the context of the invention and development of writing in the ancient Middle East. Then the authority of the Bible, as well as its place in the culture of ancient Israel, is analyzed. Finally, in the concluding part of the paper, the author focuses on the Hebrew Bible as a most representative manifestation of monotheism. The capability of expressing language by letters or other marks, paired with the concept of books as permanent records of the intellectual, social and religious culture of mankind, has been among the most evident manifestations of the development of civilization. Historians believe that it was the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent, i.e., Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syro-Palestine, that became the birthplace of writing and the ‘homeland’ of books. It was in that region that the first, initially simple, and in time more developed, alphabet systems originated, followed by the ascent of writing and books. Stone or clay cuneiform tablets, papyrus scrolls, parchment scrolls with texts written in Classical, or Square, Hebrew, and the first written codes preceded books as we know them today. While the contents of ancient books were varied, they tended to oscillate around economic and trade issues within and among the communities in question, the administrative and diplomatic problems state structures (mainly monarchies) of those times experienced, and questions regarding religion and cult in a very broad sense.