Strong claims

Regarding the article appearing in The Jerusalem Post on April 13, “Handwriting analysis provides new clues for dating biblical texts,” Tel Aviv University scholars who analyzed written documents from Tel Arad, a Judean fortress town dated to the end of the Judean monarchy, have empirically confirmed the ongoing research of Bar-Ilan University Prof. Aaron Demsky, a noted biblical historian whose book in Hebrew on Literacy in Ancient Israel (2012) won the prestigious Bialik Prize in 2014.

In his book Demsky claims that the Judean monarchy from the eighth century onward was a literate society with an undefined number of professional and lay people who were literate. He based his findings in part on the epigraphic evidence written in the ancient Hebrew script, which shows different handwriting skills reflecting levels of literacy.

Going beyond simple administrative texts, he integrated a variety of sources especially the relevant and contemporary biblical texts such as the books of the Writing Prophets.

From a historian’s perspective Demsky presented the social background for literacy and the part played by scribes and local administrators serving in the Temple, royal court and army, such like those writing in biblical Arad.

He also suggested an outline of formal education and particularly how the alphabet was learned and how it facilitated the spread of literacy in a pre-modern society.

While recognizing the initial results brought by the Tel Aviv team, Demsky cautions that the study of a few dozen ostraca from Arad is a long way from clarifying such major cultural issues like defining literacy in antiquity on the one hand and on the other, understanding the composition and transmission of books of the Bible that formed the national literature of ancient Israel. HAIM ZISOWITZ Ramat Gan The writer is a spokesman for Bar-Ilan University.