The Formation of the Pentateuch blackboard 1 f07

Early Israel was an agricultural society. By most estimates, 97% of the population of monarchic era Israel was directly occupied in the production of agricultural products (i.e. farmers), with 1-2% providing agricultural implements (i.e. smiths, potters, plow and tool makers). Israel was also a village society with the same 98% of its population living in small villages which were entirely populated by these same agricultural workers. These farmers were quite well trained in farming techniques, building methods, animal husbandry, weather forecasting, human relationships, religious doctrines, and a host of other essential knowledge. They were well trained and of quite high intelligence. But they were illiterate lacking any knowledge of reading and writing. Israel was a literate society in that there were people in the nation who could read and write quite well but it was not a widely practiced skill because it was not a needed skill by most Israelites. Literacy was an esoteric skill practiced by only a few people who formed a professional class: the scribes. Literacy was not a skill needed by the typical Israelite farmer because there was nothing in the village for him to read. No books, newspapers, magazines - not even any handwritten notes or papers. About the only things written in Israel were government records - very few by our standard - and some temple records, which were thought of as governmental by Israel as a whole. So the typical village had nothing in it to be read. With this scarcity of written materials, it would be a hugely inefficient use of time for a farmer to take the several years necessary to learn how to read. The few times that an agricultural family needed to have something written or read would much more efficiently handled by having a professional scribe take care of the matter. Oral Tradition In these minimally literate societies like Israel and in non-literate societies, the main method of information storage was oral tradition. The knowledge possessed by these well informed farmers was not learned from books or in a formal school but by watching and listening to the people older than them in their village, chiefly their parents, but also other family members and other village residents. Farming techniques, animal husbandry, food preparation, religious doctrines, practices and rituals, manufacturing processes and techniques, building methods, etc. were all passed from generation to generation by word of mouth, the older teaching the younger what they knew. This process was mostly very informal and went on without the participants in the process being aware that they were a part of anything so grand sounding as “oral tradition.” They were simply making sure that their sons knew how to plant and harvest grain properly, to separate sick animals from healthy, to repair a stone wall correctly, to cook bread without burning it, to pick grapes without damaging them, and to keep Israel’s covenant with God so that His blessings continued to come. Although most of these training sessions were quite informal, some formal settings also would have been conducted, in settings which closely resembled a school, especially religious training by the priests. In addition to such educational purposes for oral tradition, much of the villages entertainment would consist of oral traditions as well, in the form of story telling. This is a standard feature of all non-literate cultures and is found in all cultures, even literate and electronic ones (What is a “stand-up comedian” but a teller of funny stories?). In Israel, such stories would be told in many varied settings: mothers telling bedtime stories to children, elders talking in the gate, older telling stories to younger as they worked, and other opportunities would arise for story-telling as well. These would also be mostly informal settings but some formal story telling venues