Texts without Contexts: The Dating of Biblical Texts

Weeks, Stuart

Abstract

We know little about the circumstances which gave rise to the composition of biblical texts, except what they themselves choose to tell us, and there is much debate about their dates and origins. They not only furnish a salutary example, however, of the many problems involved in trying to pin down the date of ancient texts, but also emphasize the need to consider such texts against a broader background. They are not necessarily simple products of single contexts, but may be used and re-used across long periods, with different circumstances potentially providing new contexts and new uses. Ultimately, there is more to texts than their date of composition, and it would be a mistake to rely wholly on theories of origin as a key to interpretation of meaning.

Citation

Weeks, S. (2013). Texts without Contexts: The Dating of Biblical Texts. In G. Moers, K. Widmaier, A. Giewekemeyer, A. Lümers, & R. Ernst (Eds.), Dating Egyptian literary texts (599-616). Widmaier Verlag

• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Mar 7, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 14, 2014
• Publisher: Widmaier Verlag
• Pages: 599-616
• Series Title: Lingua Aegyptia – Studia Monographica
• Book Title: Dating Egyptian literary texts.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1682384
• Publisher URL: http://wwwuser.gwdg.de/~lingaeg/lingaeg_studmon11.htm