INTRODUCTION
The Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity (DDL), to be issued in four volumes, was a project begun 30 years ago with the collaboration of the distinguished Old Testament scholar Roland K. Harrison (1920–1993), to whom Marvin Wilson and I dedicate this reference work. In the original conception of the project, Harrison, Wilson, and I were to write all the articles for a work entitled Dictionary of Bible Manners and Customs. It subsequently became expedient to engage the research and writing skills of other select scholars of the ancient world.
While there are many excellent Bible dictionaries and encyclopedias, and popular books on biblical backgrounds available, I had noticed a serious deficiency. I noted that while every one of these had an entry on “Abomination,” none (with the exception of the six-volume Anchor BibleDictionary) had an entry on “Abortion.” Why was this the case? It was because these references were keyed to the words which occurred in the Bible.
From my 40 years of teaching the history of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, early Judaism, and early Christianity, I was well aware of the widespread practice of abortion, contraception, and infanticide in these societies and epochs. I therefore proposed a new framework for the DDL, one based on the Human Relations Area Files, an anthropological grid of human society, which would systematically and comparatively survey different aspects of culture, whether they were highlighted in the Bible or not.
The biblical texts were not intended to give us a complete representation of their worlds. In fact, they take for granted what was well known to both the writers and readers, but of which we are not aware. It is as though we hear the vocalization of an operatic libretto, but do not see the scenery and the costumes of the singers. Thanks, however, to extra-biblical texts and archaeology, we are able to recreate much of the background for the Bible.
For example, what did ancient people eat and drink? In the essay on FOOD PRODUCTION, one will learn that before the introduction
of rotary mills, housewives had to labor on hands and knees about four hours a day to grind wheat and barley for their daily bread. Most of the bread in the ancient world was flat (unleavened) bread, because the predominant emmer wheat and the barley in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece did not have the gluten necessary to cause bread to rise.
From the articles on CLOTHING, DYEING, LAUNDRY & FULLERS, and TEXTILES, one would learn that white linen was the preferred textile in Egypt, and was worn by Israelite priests and New Testament angels. How was Jesus dressed? Jesus’ sole garments, except for his burial shroud, were woolen. As wool was not easily laundered, his clothes would have been dirty except for the moment of his transfiguration.
How did Jesus appear? From the article on BARBERS & BEARDS, we can conclude with near certainty that Jesus had a beard. Why? Men in antiquity could not shave themselves. They had to resort either to slaves or to barbers for a shave. Moreover, beards were a symbol of masculinity and seniority. The Old Testament word for “elders” is literally “bearded ones.”
Where did people live? This would have varied from place to place and from one time period to another. From the article on DWELLINGS, one would learn that in the Old Testament era in Palestine most would have lived in houses with flat roofs and courtyards full of animals. In Rome, 95% of the people would have lived in insulae, crowded tenements without kitchens or bathrooms.
What about the relations between men and women? From the ar‐ticles on EDUCATION and MARRIAGE, one would learn a striking fact, which is missing from both the Old and the New Testaments— the average age of spouses. We learn from our extra-biblical evidence that the bride would have certainly been a young teenager, and the groom several years her senior. The early marriage of girls, to preserve their purity, meant that they had only at best a primary education, with the exception of those from wealthy Roman families, which could afford private tutors for their daughters.
The DDL is also quite unique in attempting to trace the developments of the features of the biblical world along what the
French historians of the Annales School have called the longue durée, that is, over the centuries afterthe New Testament era. It is instructive to understand how the Jewish rabbis, in following the traditions of the Pharisees, debated over the application of biblical laws in changing circumstances, and how the Church Fathers also responded to these same developments.
Rather than attempting to cover all possible topics, we have chosen to concentrate on 120 subjects, not because of their prominence in the biblical text but because of their significant roles in the ancient world. For example, ASTROLOGY, DREAMS, MAGIC, and DIVINATION & SORTITION (i.e., the casting of lots) are mentioned sparingly in the biblical texts themselves but they were dominant facets of life in antiquity.
The outline each contributor has followed is to briefly summarize references to his or her subject in: (1) the Old Testament and (2) the New Testament; followed by (3) the Near Eastern world, primarily Mesopotamia and Egypt, with some references to Anatolia and Persia; (4) the Greco-Roman world, from the Minoans and Mycenaeans, Homer, through the Hellenistic era, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire; (5) the Jewish world, including the Old Testament Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Mishnah, and the Talmuds (Babylonian and Jerusalem); and (6) the Christian world, including the church fathers up to Chrysostom and Augustine, as well as the early Byzantine empire to Justinian. Each article closes with a bibliography providing both source material for the article and material for further study. Further, the articles are carefully cross-referenced with other articles in print or planned.
The citations from the Old Testament and the New Testament, unless otherwise marked, are from the New International Version. Citations from the Septuagint (LXX) are taken from A. Pietersma and B. G. Wright, trans., A New English Translation of the Septuagint (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). Citations from the Tosefta are taken from J. Neusner, The Tosefta (2 vols.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2013 repr.). Citations from the Midrashim are from the Soncino Midrash Rabba for Macintosh (Copyright Institute for
painstaking and meticulous supervision of the work on Volumes 2 and 3, and to Hannah Brown for her assistance with all three volumes. Our appreciation also goes to John F. Kutsko, who assisted with some of the research in the earliest stages of this dictionary project. Special thanks are also due to Foy D. Scalf, Chief Archivist of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, for supplying us with the sources of many Near Eastern quotations.
For their assistance in providing some of the photographs for this dictionary, we are grateful to Rami Arav (University of Nebraska at Omaha), Michal Artzy (University of Haifa), Kathryn Bard (Boston University), Rozenn Baileul LeSeuer (University of Chicago), Foy Scalf, Kiersten Neumann, and Michelle Farley (Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago), Thomas E. Levy (University of California at San Diego), Daniel Master (Wheaton College), Amihai Mazar (Hebrew University), Eilat Mazar (Hebrew University), Foy Scalf (University of Chicago), Steven L. Tuck (Miami University), and Alain Zivie (Centre national de la recherche scientifique).
Finally, our profound gratitude goes to Andrew Pottorf for his valuable assistance with this project. A very gifted young scholar with unusual talent for writing and editing, Andrew is currently pursuing his doctorate in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. The authors of this dictionary and the editors at Hendrickson Publishers appreciate Andrew’s superb scholarship, dedicated work ethic, and great flexibility.
Edwin M. Yamauchi April 2016
LITERACY
In antiquity the ability to read and write was limited to a very small minority. The ability to read did not necessarily imply the ability to write. Modern attempts to try to ascertain what percentage of people in the ancient world might have been able to read are fraught with difficulties, including that of answering the question of what level of proficiency in reading one must attain to be considered literate and that of knowing how to determine who could read or not. Estimates of literacy rates in various societies are at best educated guesses by scholars based on such factors as the complexity of the writing systems and the availability of education. Levels of literacy range from “signature literacy” (i.e., the ability merely to write one’s name) to the ability to compose and read literature. Reading in antiquity, which was customarily done out loud, was complicated by the fact that some texts, such as those in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hittite, were written in cumbersome logographic scripts; others, such as those written in Semitic alphabets, were only written with consonants; and texts that were written with vowels, such as Greek and Latin texts, were written without word divisions or punctuation marks.
A. THE OLD TESTAMENT
The first mention of writing in the OT occurs in Exod 17:14, where the Lord commands Moses to record the Israelites’ defeat of the Amalekites on a scroll. Moses is said to have kept an account of the Israelites’ travels to the Promised Land (Num 33:2) and to have written down the law of God (Exod 24:4; Deut 31:9), which was intended to be read publicly and to be taught. God commands Moses to write down a song as a testimony against the Israelites (Deut 31:19, 22; cf. 32:1–52). Joshua is commanded to “keep this Book of the Law always on your lips” and to “meditate on it day and night” (Josh 1:8) and during the covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem he himself writes “in the Book of the Law of God” (Josh 24:26).
Samuel writes down the duties of a king (1 Sam 10:25). Letters are written, for example, by David to Joab (2 Sam 11:14), by Jezebel (1 Kgs 21:8–10), by the king of Aram (2 Kgs 5:5–7), and by Jehu to various people in Samaria (2 Kgs 10:1–6), as well by foreign rulers (2 Kgs 19:14; 20:12). Hezekiah’s Passover proclamation is read throughout the land (2 Chr 30:5–10). Jehudi reads Jeremiah’s prophecy to Jehoiakim (Jer 36:21). With a few notable exceptions, kings in antiquity did not read and write correspondence but depended on royal scribes to do so.
The law, including its more minute requirements, was expected to be read and followed. The law was to be read publicly (Deut 31:9–13) and the commandments of the Lord were to be written on the doors and door frames of houses (Deut 6:9; 11:20). If a man divorced his wife, he was required to write a certificate of divorce for her (Deut 24:1–3; cf. Isa 50:1; Jer 3:8). Each of these responsibilities assumes a certain level of literacy among the people.
The chance survival of hundreds of clay bullae containing the imprint of names, and the survival of notes on ostraca and in the form of graffiti, provide additional evidence for literacy in ancient Israel. Ostraca have been found at military outposts, towns, and farms, which seems to indicate that literacy was widespread in ancient Israel. Many seals that include the names of kings and other officials mentioned in the OT have been found. (See Mykytiuk.) Most of this epigraphic evidence dates between the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
Recently, epigraphic evidence from the eleventh and tenth centuries BC has been found at sites such as Tel Qeiyefa (ostraca), Tel Zayit (stone), and Jerusalem (ostraca), which has bolstered the case for some degree of literacy during the united kingdom under David and Solomon (see Millard, 2014). Judges 8:14, which narrates that a young man captured by Gideon “wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven officials of Sukkoth, the elders of the town,” suggests an even earlier date for widespread literacy.
The spread of literacy in ancient Israel was fostered by the availability and use of an alphabet that required the memorization of only twenty-two letters, as opposed to the need to learn a complex
teacher (Matt 23:1–12). John 7:15 reports: “The Jews there were amazed and asked, ‘How did this man get such learning without having been taught?’ ”
One day when Jesus attended the synagogue at Nazareth, the scroll of Isaiah was handed to him, and he read from Isaiah 61:1–2 (Luke 4:16–19). In the Gospel accounts, Jesus quotes from both the Hebrew Scriptures and from the LXX, their Greek translation; he was also well versed in Aramaic interpretations (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34). He challenges opposing teachers, questioning their interpretations of Scripture (Mark 2:25; 12:10, 26; Luke 10:26). The only reference to Jesus writing occurs in John 8:6, when he writes something on the ground. This passage about the woman caught in adultery, while considered by some scholars to be an authentic story, is not found in the earliest Greek manuscripts of the NT.
According to Craig Evans, “Indications of Jesus’ literacy may also be seen in his familiarity with and usage of Scripture. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus quotes or alludes to 23 of the 36 books of the Hebrew Bible” (Evans, 50). Evans then adds, “Finally, the frequency and poignancy of Jesus’ employment of Aramaic tradition in his allusions and interpretations of Scripture are suggestive of literacy, regular participation in the synagogue (where the Aramaic paraphrase, or Targum, developed), and acquaintance with rabbinic and scribal education itself” (Evans, 51).
The members of the Sanhedrin remark that Peter and John are agrammatoi and idiotai (Acts 4:13). In papyri that date to the NT era, the former term can mean “illiterate,” but in this context these epithets seem to indicate that Peter and John were “unschooled” and “ordinary” men (as the NIV translates). In light of this fact, the members of the Sanhedrin “were astonished” on account of Peter and John’s courage and their ability to preach and heal “and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The earliest converts to Christianity were Jews and “God-fearers” (Gentiles who attended synagogue). The core beliefs of the early church were committed to writing and believers were urged to read and study the Scriptures (2 Pet 3:15–16; Rev 1:3).
C. THE NEAR EASTERN WORLD
Mesopotamia
Writing was invented in southern Mesopotamia sometime during the latter half of the fourth millennium BC. The earliest written language was Sumerian, which is not related to any known language. The earliest texts are pictographic. The cultures of Mesopotamia had a strong political and cultural influence over a broad geographical area for three millennia. All regions from Anatolia (northwest of Mesopotamia) to Iran (east of Mesopotamia) used cuneiform scripts based on the one developed for Sumerian and adapted for Akkadian.
Semitic names are found in the earliest tablets, indicating the existence of multilingualism in Mesopotamia. (Sumerian, unlike Akkadian and its relatives, is not a Semitic language.) Semitic texts date to a slightly later period. With the rise of the Akkad Dynasty (23rd c. BC), Akkadian became the dominant Semitic language. Scholars call what became the two major dialects of this language Babylonian and Assyrian. With the expansion of the Akkadian Empire (23rd c. BC), Akkadian became the official language of a vast empire reaching from southern Anatolia to southern Mesopotamia. Hurrian, which was spoken for over a millennium in southern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia (especially in the state of Mittani), was also written in cuneiform. In Anatolia the Indo-European Hittite language was written in cuneiform, along with Luwian, which, in addition to cuneiform, used a pictographic system. In the Neo-Assyrian period, Aramaic, which was written in an alphabetic script, supplemented some cuneiform texts.
Most of the surviving cuneiform tablets are administrative texts. The transmission of astronomical and mathematical texts, like that of administrative texts, necessitated a written rather than an oral transmission. The largest number of administrative tablets, about one hundred thousand, have been recovered from the Ur III Dynasty (21st c. BC); many of these have yet to be translated. Though at that time Sumerian continued to be used by scribes, it was no longer spoken. Schooling was based on Sumerian, and Sumerian literature
was translated into the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian. During the Isin-Larsa period, Akkadian texts became more prevalent than Sumerian texts.
A number of private accounts and correspondences written by people outside the scribal class have survived from the Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian periods. Large collections of literary texts date to the first millennium BC, including tablets from the celebrated library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Writing became increasingly complex over time, resulting in fewer people being able to read and to write and restricting writing largely to the scribal class. While literacy may have been high in small groups such as merchants, the available evidence suggests that only a very small number of people in Mesopotamia and the surrounding areas could read and write; perhaps fewer than 3 percent could do so (Wilcke, 48–49). Most kings could not read or write; rare exceptions were Shulgi of the Ur III Dynasty and the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who assembled the great library at Nineveh. The latter boasted: “among my royal predecessors no one had grasped this message— the wisdom of Nabu, the signs of writing, as many as have been devised, I wrote on tablets, I arranged (them) in series, I collated (them), and for my royal contemplation and recital I placed them in my palace” (cited in Weitemeyer, 228).
Egypt
Writing was invented in Egypt in the late Predynastic period, around 3100 BC. Beginning in the 2nd Dynasty, it was incorporated into reliefs. Early evidence for writing in Egypt is sparse because administrative records were written on wooden writing boards and papyrus, examples of which have been preserved only in exceptionally dry conditions. Most of the surviving evidence comes from tombs and royal monuments.
Writings that have survived from the 2nd through the 4th Dynasties primarily include texts containing brief speeches by the gods and administrative records composed of simple sentences. Both the public and private use of writing had grown by the 5th and 6th
The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet during the ninth century BC or earlier and made the important innovation of using some of that alphabet’s consonants as vowels. Although the Greeks possessed a writing system that was easy to learn, literacy was never high in ancient Greece. Specific requirements, such as a broad system based on a commitment to the education of children, are necessary for literacy to extend outside of a small elite group. As this was lacking, the literacy rate was never more than 20 percent at best, even at Athens; literacy was restricted to elite males.
Sparta emphasized physical and musical education over literary and oratorical skills. (The English word “laconic,” which means sparing in speech, is derived from the Greek word lakonikos, which referred to an inhabitant of Laconia, i.e., a Spartan.) Spartan leaders were literate enough to include diplomats; their military commanders wrote letters.
Athens, on the other hand, particularly in its Golden Age (5th–4th c. BC), gloried in drama, philosophy, history, politics, and litigation, activities that required its male citizens to be literate. The chorus in Aristophanes’s play The Frogs jokes that everyone in the audience has a book (Frogs 1114); Euripides was noted for his personal library. Books, however, were expensive and were not plentiful.
“Signature literacy” was necessary for citizens to participate in the action of “ostracism,” by which they rid themselves of an unpopular political leader for ten years; the name of this practice comes from the fact that the leaders’ names were written on ostraca, broken pieces of pottery. In this “unpopularity contest,” which was devised by Cleisthenes in 508 BC, the person who had the largest number out of six thousand votes was ostracized. Over ten thousand ostraca have been recovered; a batch of 190 found in a well were written by only a few hands, and were evidently to be handed out to voters. Plutarch reports that an illiterate citizen once asked Aristides, without realizing his identity, to write the name “Aristides” on an ostracon. When the latter asked why, the citizen responded that he disliked hearing Aristides referred to as “the Just.” In response, Aristides did what the man asked him and wrote his own name down on the ostracon (Plut. Arist.7.5–6).
Plato records that an Egyptian king named Thamus criticized the invention of writing by the Egyptian god Thoth (Gk. Theuth):
You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise. (Phaedr. 275a–b)
Rome
It has been estimated that the literacy rate in the Roman Empire ranged from 10 to 15 percent of the entire population, including women (Harris, 328). Parents who could afford to pay the rather low salaries of elementary teachers could have both their sons and daughters educated. Advanced education was open to boys, while girls at puberty prepared for marriage. Only wealthy Romans who could pay private tutors could provide their daughters with further education.
Judging from the numerous inscriptions and graffiti at Pompeii, for example, it seems that many Romans had at least a functional literacy. A portrait of the young magistrate Terentius Nero and his wife found at Pompeii depict both holding writing materials. Elite Romans often had Greek slaves instruct their children in Greek as well as Latin. Many Romans relied on a notarius, a professional scribe, to write letters that they dictated. The wealthy Roman Pliny the Elder would have educated slaves read to him, even as he ate or took a bath.
Literacy declined in the Roman world after the political and military turmoils of the third century AD. In 285, in Egypt, a member of the gymnasium class can be identified, for the first time, as illiterate. In 320 the will of the legionary centurion Valerius Aion was witnessed by seven other centurions, three of whom were illiterate, which is a remarkable percentage of illiteracy among such a class of Roman officers.
E. THE JEWISH WORLD
Meir Bar-Ilan has estimated that during the first two centuries of the Common Era a 3 percent literacy rate obtained for Palestinian Jews, many of whom were farmers, whom the rabbis referred to pejoratively as ‘am ha’ares, “people of the land.” Others estimate that at least 90 percent could at least write their names. The elite Hellenized Jew Philo of Alexandria alludes to the excellence of Jewish education when he says that Jews are “trained . . . from the cradle, by parents and tutors and instructors and by the far higher authority of the sacred laws and also the unwritten customs, to acknowledge one God who is the Father and Marker of the world” (Legat. 115). Furthermore, Philo affirms: “For all men guard their own customs, but this is especially true of the Jewish nation. Holding that the laws are oracles vouchsafed by God and having been trained in this doctrine from their earliest years, they carry the likenesses of the commandments enshrined in their souls” (Legat. 210). Josephus reports: “Above all we pride ourselves on the education of our children” (Ag.Ap. 1.60).
The Qumran CommunityRuleordains:
In any place where is gathered the ten-man quorum, someone must always be engaged in the study of the Law, day and night, continually, each one taking his turn. The general membership will be diligent together for the first third of every night of the year, reading aloud from the Book, interpreting Scripture, and praying together. (1QS VI, 7–8)
In Pharisaic schools attached to synagogues, boys (but not girls) were taught to read and memorize the Hebrew Scriptures. They were not allowed to write the Scriptures from dictation or memory, as the Torah could only be copied by specially trained scribes.
F. THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
Christians placed a high value on the reading of the Gospels and Paul’s letters in their assemblies. However, the majority of Christians were not any more literate than their pagan counterparts, as educational opportunities depended on wealth and status. It has been estimated that no more than 10 percent of Christians were literate during the early centuries (Gamble, 5). In his response to
BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Baines, “Literacy and Ancient Egyptian Society,” Man 18 (1983), 572–99; J. Baines, “Literacy, Social Organization, and the Archeological Record: The Case of Early Egypt,” in Stateand Society: The Emergence and Development of Social Hierarchy and Political Centralization, ed. J. Gledhill, B. Bender, and M. T. Larsen (1988), 192–214; J. Baines and C. J. Eyre, “Four Notes on Literacy,” Göttinger Miszellen 61 (1983), 65–96; J. Baines and A. R. Millard, “Literacy,” ABD4.333–40; M. Bar-Ilan, “Illiteracy in the Land of Israel in the First Centuries C.E.,” in Essays intheSocialScientificStudyof JudaismandJewishSociety, ed., S. Fishbane, S. Schoenfeld, and A. Goldschläger (1992), 2.46–61; M. Beard et al., LiteracyintheRoman World (1991); T. A. Boring, Literacy in AncientSparta (1979); A. K. Bowman and G. Woolf, ed., Literacy andPower intheAncientWorld (1994); B. Bryan, “Evidence for Female Literacy from Theban Tombs of the New Kingdom,” Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 6 (1984), 17–32; S. G. Cole, “Could Greek Women Read and Write?” in Reflections of Women inAntiquity, ed. H. P. Foley (1981), 219–45; J. D. Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1992); J. D. Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994); A. Demsky and M. Bar-Ilan, “Writing in Ancient Israel and Early Judaism,” in Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, ed., M. J. Mulder and H. Sysling (1988), 1–38; C. A. Evans, “Jewish Scripture and the Literacy of Jesus,” in From Biblical Criticism to Biblical Faith, ed. W. H. Brackney and C. A. Evans (2007), 41–54; H. Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (1995); J. Goody, The Interface between the Written and the Oral (1987); W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (1989); F. D. Harvey, “Literacy in the Athenian Democracy,” Revue des ÉtudesGrecques 79 (1966), 585–635; E. A. Havelock, TheLiterateRevolutioninAncientGreece andItsCultural Consequences (1982); R. S. Hess, “Literacy in Iron Age Israel,” in WindowsintoOldTestamentHistory, ed. V. P. Long, D. W. Baker, and G. J. Wenham (2002), 82–102; R. S. Hess, “Writing about Writing: Abecedaries and Evidence for Literacy in Ancient Israel,” VT 56 (2006), 342–46; C. Hezser, Jewish Literacy in Roman Palestine
(2001); J. H. Humphrey, ed., Literacy in the Roman World (1991); W. A. Johnson and H. N. Parker, ed., AncientLiteracies:TheCulture of Reading in Greece and Rome (2009); C. Keith, Jesus’ Literacy (2011); A. R. Millard, “Authors, Books, and Readers in the Ancient World,” in The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies, ed. J. W. Rogerson and J. M. Lieu (2006), 544–64; A. R. Millard, “Knowledge of Writing in Iron Age Palestine,” TynBul 46 (1995), 207–17; A. R. Millard, “Literacy in the Time of Jesus,” BAR 29.4 (2003), 36–45; A. R. Millard, “The New Jerusalem Inscription—So What?” BAR40.3 (2014), 49–53; A. R. Millard, Reading and Writing in the Time of Jesus (2000); A. R. Millard, “Zechariah Wrote (Luke 1:63),” in The New Testament in its First Century Setting, ed. P. J. Williams et al. (2004), 46–55; L. Mykytiuk, IdentifyingBiblicalPersonsinNorthwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200–539 B.C.E. (2004); E. R. Richards, “Reading, Writing and Manuscripts,” in The World of the New Testament: Cultural, Social and Historical Contexts, ed. J. B. Green and L. M. McDonald (2013), 345–66; C. H. Roberts, “Books in the Graeco-Roman World and in the New Testament,” in TheCambridge HistoryoftheBible, ed. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (1970), 1.48–66; C. A. Rollston, WritingandLiteracyintheWorldofAncientIsrael (2010); S. L. Sanders, “Writing and Early Iron Age Israel,” in Literate Culture and Tenth-Century Canaan: The Tel Zayit Abecedary in Context, ed. R. E. Tappy and P. K. McCarter, Jr. (2008), 97–112; C. Schams, Jewish Scribes in the Second-Temple Period (1998); W. M. Schniedewind, Howthe BibleBecame a Book(2004); W. M. Senner, ed., The Origins of Writing (1989); J. P. Small, Wax Tablets of the Mind:CognitiveStudiesofMemoryandLiteracyinClassicalAntiquity (1997); R. E. Tappy and P. K. McCarter, Jr., ed., LiterateCulture and Tenth-Century Canaan: The Tel Zayit Abecedary in Context (2008); R. Thomas, Literacy and Orality in Ancient Greece (1992); M. Weitenmeyer, “Archive and Library Technique in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Libri 6 (1956), 217–38; C. Wilcke, Wer las und schriebinBabylonienundAssyrien(2000); D. J. Wiseman, “Books in the Ancient Near East and in the Old Testament,” in TheCambridge HistoryoftheBible, ed. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (1970), 1.30–
48; H. C. Youtie, “UPOGRAPHEOS: The Social Impact of Illiteracy in Greco-Roman Egypt,” ZPE17 (1975), 201–21.
CONTRIBUTOR: Scott T. Carroll, PhD (Director, Manuscript Research Group).
See also ARCHIVES, COMMUNICATIONS & MESSENGERS, EDUCATION, and LIBRARIES & BOOKS.
esp. especially et al. etalia, and others
ESV English Standard Version
Eth. Ethiopic
F Fahrenheit
fig. figure
fl. floruit,flourished
frag. fragment
ft. foot, feet
gal. gallon(s)
Gk. Greek
ha. hectare (about 2.5 acres)
Heb. Hebrew
i.e. idest, that is ibid. ibidem,in the same place
in. inch(es)
JB Jerusalem Bible
KJV King James Version
kg. kilogram(s)
km. kilometer
Lat. Latin
lb(s). pound(s)
LCL Loeb Classical Library
lit. literally
LL Laws of Lipit-Ishtar
LXX Septuagint
m. meter(s)
m. Mishnah
MAL Middle Assyrian Law Code
MASCA Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology
mi. mile(s)
MK Middle Kingdom (of Egypt)
Mt. mount, mountain
sq. square
St. saint
Sum. Sumerian
Suppl. Supplement
t. Tosefta
tr. translated
trans. translator(s)
Ugar. Ugaritic
vol(s). volume(s)
vs(s). verse(s)
Vulg Vulgate
y. Jerusalem (Yerushalmi) Talmud
YLT Young’s Literal Translation
ANCIENT SOURCES
Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
Gen Genesis
Exod Exodus
Lev Leviticus
Num Numbers
Deut Deuteronomy
Josh Joshua
Judg Judges
Ruth Ruth
1–2 Sam1–2 Samuel
1–2 Kgs 1–2 Kings
1–2 Chr 1–2 Chronicles
Ezra Ezra
Neh Nehemiah
Esth Esther
Job Job
Ps(s) Psalm(s)
1–2 Thess1–2 Thessalonians
1–2 Tim 1–Timothy
Titus Titus
Phlm Philemon
Heb Hebrews
Jas James
1–2 Pet 1–2 Peter
1–3 John 1–3 John
Jude Jude
Rev Revelation
Apocrypha and Septuagint
1–2 Esd 1–2 Esdras
1–4 Macc1–4 Maccabees
Add Esth Addition to Esther
Bar Baruch
Bel Bel and the Dragon
Ep Jer Epistle of Jeremiah
Jdt Judith
Pr Azar Prayer of Azariah
Pr Man Prayer of Manasseh
Sg Three Song of the Three Young Men
Sir Sirach/Ecclesiasticus
Sus Susanna
Tob Tobias
Wis Wisdom of Solomon
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
2Bar. 2Baruch
1En. 1Enoch
4Ezra 4Ezra
Jos.Asen.JosephandAseneth
Jub. Jubilees
Lad.Jac. LadderofJacob
Let.Aris. LetterofAristeas
Pss.Sol. PsalmsofSolomon
Sib.Or . SibyllineOracles
T.Ash. TestamentofAsher
T.Benj. TestamentofBenjamin
T.Isaac TestamentofIsaac
T.Jac. TestamentofJacob
T.Levi TestamentofLevi
T.Naph. TestamentofNaphtali
T.Zeb. TestamentofZebulun
Vis.Ezra VisionofEzra
New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
ActsJohnActsofJohn
Prot.Jas.ProtevangeliumofJames
Dead Sea Scrolls and Cairo Geniza
CD DamascusDocument
1QHa,b (=1Q35) Hodayot(Thanksgiving Hymns)
1QS SerekHayahad(Rule of the Community)
1QSa 1Q28a (Rule of the Congregation) 4QMMT (=4Q394–399) (MiqtsatMa‘aseha-Torah)
11QTemplea,b11Q19–20 (Temple Scroll)
Judaica
‘Abod.Zar. ‘AbodahZarah ’Abot ’Abot ‘Arak. ‘Arakin
B.Bat. BabaBatra
B.Mets. BabaMetsi‘a
B.Qam. BabaQamma
Bek. Bekorot
Ber. Berakot
Betsah Betsah(YomTob)
‘Ed. ‘Eduyyot
‘Erub. ‘Erubin
Exod.Rab. ExodusRabbah
Gen.Rab. GenesisRabbah
Git. Gittin
Hag. Hagigah
Hul. Hullin
Kelim Kelim
Ker. Keritot
Ketub. Ketubbot
Kil. Kil’ayim
Lev.Rab. LeviticusRabbah
Mak. Makkot
Maksh. Makshirin
Meg. Megillah
Mek. Mekilta
Menah. Menahot
Mid. Middot
Miqw. Miqwa’ot
Mo‘edQat.Mo‘edQatan
Naz. Nazir
Ned. Nedarim
Neg. Nega‘im
Nez. Neziqin
Nid. Niddah
Num.Rab. NumbersRabbah
’Ohol. ’Oholot
Pe’ah Pe’ah
Pesah. Pesahim
Qidd. Qiddushin
Qod. Qodashim
RoshHash.RoshHashshanah
Šabb. Šabbat
Sanh. Sanhedrin
Šeb. Šebi‘it
Šeqal. Šeqalim
SifreNum Sifre(toNumbers)
SifreDeut Sifre(toDeuteronomy)
Sotah Sotah
Sukkah Sukkah
T.Yom TebulYom
Ta‘an. Ta‘anit
Tamid Tamid
Tehar. Teharot
Tem. Temurah
Ter. Terumot
‘Uq. Uqtsin
Yad. Yadayim
Yebam. Yebamot
Yoma Yoma(=Kippurim)
Apostolic Fathers
1–2Clem. 1–2Clement
Barn. Barnabas
Did. Didache
Herm.Mand.ShepherdofHermas,Mandate(s)
Herm.Simil.ShepherdofHermas,Similitude(s)
Herm.Vis. ShepherdofHermas,Vision(s)
Ign. Eph. Ignatius, TotheEphesians
Ign. Magn. Ignatius, TotheMagnesians
Ign. Phld. Ignatius, TothePhiladelphians
Aristotle [Arist.] (384–322 BC)
Ath.pol. Athenaionpoliteia(ConstitutionofAthens)
Div.somn. Dedivinationpersomnum(ProphesyingbyDreams)
Eth.Nic. EthicaNichomachea(NichomacheanEthics)
Gen.an. Degenerationeanimalium(GenerationofAnimals)
Hist.an. Historiaanimalium(HistoryofAnimals)
Part.an. Departibusanimalium(PartsofAnimals)
Pol. Politics
Rhet. Rhetorica(Rhetoric)
Somn. Desomniis(Dreams)
Artemidorus Daldianus (mid/late 2nd c. AD)
Oneir . Oneirocritica
Athanasius (ca. AD 295–373)
C.Gent. Contragentes(AgainstthePagans)
H.Ar . HistoriaArianorum(HistoryoftheArians)
Vit.Ant. VitaAntonii(LifeofAntony)
Athenaeus (fl. ca. AD 200)
Deipn. Deipnosophistae(TheLearnedBanqueters)
Athenagoras (fl. ca. AD 180)
Leg. LegatioproChristianis(EmbassyfortheChristians)
Augustine (AD 354–430)
Bon.conj. Debonoconjugali(TheGoodofMarriage)
Civ. DecivitateDei(TheCityofGod)
Conf. Confessionum(Confessions)
Cons. Deconsensuevangelistarum(Harmonyofthe Gospels)
Demend. Demendacio(OnLying)
Doctr.chr . Dedoctrinachristiana(ChristianInstruction)
Ennarat.Ps. EnnarationesinPsalmos(ExpositionsofthePsalms)
Ep. Epistulae(Letters)
Faust. ContraFaustumManichaeum(AgainstFaustusthe Manichaean)
Haer . Dehaeresibus(Heresies)
Incomp. nupt. Incompetentibusnuptiis(AdulterousMarriages)
Man. DemoribusManichaeorum(OntheMoralsofthe Manichaeans)
Nupt. DenuptiisetconcupiscentiaadValeriumcomitem (MarriageandConcupiscence)
Op.mon. Deoperemonachorum(OntheWorkofMonks)
Quaest.ev. Quaestionumevangelicarum
Tract.Ev.
Jo. InEvangeliumJohannistractatus(Tractatesonthe GospelofJohn)
Aulus Cornelius Celsus (fl. ca. AD 25)
Med. Demedicina
Aulus Gellius
Noct.Att. Noctesatticae(AtticNights)
Basil (AD 330–379)
Ep. Epistulae
Hex. Hexaemeron
Hom.inPs. HomiliaeinPsalmos
Caesar, Julius (100–44 BC)
Bell.gall. Bellumgallicum(GallicWar)
Cassius Dio (ca. AD 155–235)
Hist.rom. Historiaromana(RomanHistory)
Cato (234–149 BC)
Agr . Deagricultura(Agriculture)
Cicero [Cic.] (106–43 BC)
Att. EpistulaeadAtticum(LetterstoAtticus)
Deor . Deoratore(OntheOrator)
Div. Dedivinatione(OnDivination)
Dom. Dedomosuo(OnHisHouse)
Flac. ProFlacco(InDefenseofLuciusValeriusFlaccus)
Font. ProFonteio(InDefenseofMarcusFonteius)
Leg. DeLegibus(OntheLaws)
Mur . ProMurena(InDefenceofLuciusLiciniusMurena)
Parad. ParadoxaStoicorum(StoicParadoxes)
Rep. Derepublica(OntheRepublic)
Clement of Alexandria [Clem.] (d. ca. AD 214)
Paed. Paedagogus(ChristtheEducator)
Protr . Protrepticus(ExhortationtotheGreeks)
Quisdiv. Quisdivessalvetur(SalvationoftheRich)
Strom. Stromateis(Miscellanies)
Clement of Rome (fl. ca. AD 96) (see 1–2Clement)
Columella (fl. AD 60–65)
Rust. Dererustica(OnFarming)
Cyprian (ca. AD 200–258)
Laps. Delapsis(TheLapsed)
Unit.eccl. Decatholicaeecclesiaeunitate(TheUnityofthe CatholicChurch)
Demosthenes [Dem.] (384–322 BC)
1Boeot. ContraBoeotumi(1AgainstBoeotos)
1–3Olynth. Olynthiacai–iii(1–3Olynthiac)
Cor . Decorona(OntheCrown)
Eub. ContraEubulidem(AgainstEubulides)
Pant. ContraPantaenetum(AgainstPantaenetus)
Dio Chrysostom (ca. AD 40–after 110)
2Fort Defortunaii(Fortune2)
Rhod. Rhodiaca(TothePeopleofRhodes)
Diodorus Siculus [Diod. Sic.] (fl. ca. 60–39 BC)
Bib.hist. Bibliothecahistorica(LibraryofHistory)
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (ca. 60–7 BC)
Ant.rom. Antiquitatesromanae
Dioscorides Pedanius (fl. ca. AD 40–80)
Mat.med. Demateriamedica
Epictetus
Disc. Dissertationes(Discourses)
Epiphanius (ca. AD 315–403)
