Scribal Laws

On the basis of a detailed analysis of extant texts and versions, David Andrew Teeter examines the nature and background of deliberate scribal changes in the text of biblical law during the late Second Temple period. What were the »laws« governing this mode of scribal production and how are the »laws« produced thereby to be understood? What are the underlying causes of textual difference, and what are the effects of the resulting plurality upon the character of interpretive scriptural encounter? What do the attested textual differences reveal about the social history of the biblical text, and how does this relate to halakhic diversity within Judaism of the period? The author undertakes to answer these questions in a methodologically rigorous way, offering a sustained examination of the nature of exegetical textual variants and their place within the multi-faceted interpretive encounter with scripture in the late Second Temple period.Introduction: Scribal Laws

Chapter 1: Text History as Reception History: Plurality and the Dynamics of Textual ChangeTextual Variation in Context: Pluriformity and Scriptural Reception in the Second Temple Period - Halakhah and Textual Plurality - Summary

Chapter 2: Exegetical Variation in the Text of Biblical LawPart One: Larger Scale Variation

Moderate Pluses

Part Two: Smaller Scale Variation

Minor Expansions - Combined Expansion and Change - Change/Exchange - Exegetical Omission - Diachronic Considerations

Chapter 3: The Textual Hermeneutics of Exegetical Variation in Biblical LawTextual and Exegetical Procedures - Presuppositions

Chapter 4: Historical Assessment: The Nature and Background of Textual Variation in Scriptural Legal TextsCharacterizing Legal Transmission: »Genre« and Textual Variation - Characterizing Textual Plurality: Textual Status- Literary Scope-Social Location: An Anatomy of Issues - Conclusion

Conclusion