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December 10, 2008

References to the Reading and Writing of Kings

I continue to be abnormally interested in the literacy of kings in the ancient world. At this time, I'm trying to pull together a list of all explicit references to any Biblical king or queen who is said to have read or written something or other. By explicit, I mean the Hebrew text uses a word based on קרא, read, or כתב, to refer the activity of some king or queen. Right now, I am not interested in the likelihood that any king or queen actually read or wrote anything the Bible says they read or wrote. Nor am I interested in the question of whether, in any particular case or in all the cases, one should be understand "read" as having someone read for them or that one should understand "write" as "dictate." I know of very good evidence that writing sometimes meant dictating and of not quite so good evidence that reading might mean instructing someone else to read. For now, I'm not even interested if these examples address the question of royal literacy in anyway. Heck, for this part of my little project, it isn't even important to me if any or all of these folks were actually kings or if they even existed. I only require that the Hebrew Bible calls them a king and that it says he read or wrote. I will turn to the more interesting questions after I'm sure I have a proper dataset from the Hebrew Bible and elsewhere. I am also compiling, but not in this post, all the occasions where claims of royal reading or writing are less explicit; the superscripts to some Psalms may well contain examples of less explicit references to royal literacy and I compiling another annotated list of references to teaching and learning.

So here is what I've found so far of cases where there is an explicit claim that a Biblical king or queen read or wrote (in one case, from the standpoint of the narrative, future writing and reading),

While it is not popular these days to think of Moses as a king, he certainly has some kingish properties, so I am tempted to add Deuteronomy 31:9 and 22 (wrote law, wrote a song) to my list. While not exactly what I am looking for either, notice that the god YHWH, who at times is said to be a king (cf. Isaiah 44:6), writes on tablets in Exodus 31:18 and Deuteronomy 5:22 and does it again in Deuteronomy 10:2, 4.

I may have missed a number of cases. If you know of additional explicit, as I have defined explicit, examples of kings or queens reading or writing something in the Hebrew Bible, please tell me.

I'm compiling such lists for Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian kings also. When I get a little further along with these lists, I plan to post them also. The problem with this part of the project is that isn't not only hard to know if a list is complete, it's even hard to know when you have all the most significant references. Why did these people write so much in such strange systems? And why is't it all published in one place or even three places with nice, user friendly, search tools? Secondary sources provide a start, but as far as I can tell, not a finish.

Update: December 12, 2008
Added 2 Chronicles 30:1 example

Posted by Duane Smith at December 10, 2008 8:36 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |

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Comments

Maybe these also qualify?

Hezekiah, 2 Chron 30:1,6
Sennacherib, 2 Chron 32:17

Regards,
MO

Posted by: Mokum Olif at December 12, 2008 9:45 AM

2 Chron 30:1 sure qualifies. I will add it to the list. 2 Chron 32:17 will be in my list of Assyrian examples. Thanks!

Posted by: Duane at December 12, 2008 10:17 AM

You might also put down:

David - superscripts of Pss 16, 56, 57, 60 "miktam of" = an inscribed object of some kind according to LXX, Theodotion, and Targum

Posted by: John Hobbins at December 12, 2008 6:03 PM

Well, if you include Moses, you had better include his successor, Joshua:

Joshua - Joshua 1:8 (read the book of the law).

Don't be fooled by some translations. The verb הגה is a verbum dicendi. The rabbis thought in terms of two kinds of speech with respect to this verb (really, this is in the Bible already): heart-speech and mouth-speech. In Josh 1:8, it is explicitly "mouth"-speech.

Posted by: John Hobbins at December 12, 2008 6:11 PM

John,

Thanks, these are interesting cases. I've pondered the etymology and the meaning in context of miktam before. The over all syntax makes the examples somewhat less explicit that what I am looking of just now, but they are certainly more explicit than other things that may be evidence for someone writing something or someone saying that someone else wrote something.

With regard to Joshua 1:6f, I agree with your understanding of the use of הגה here but does the passage say that Joshua should recite in the morning and evening from a written source or that he should recite what is otherwise written?

Posted by: Duane at December 13, 2008 11:24 AM

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