Media, Migration, and the Emergence of Scriptural Authority

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between media and migration in the development of the authority that sacred writings gained in ancient Israel and early Judaism. The question is framed using media theory, applied to the development of writing in the ancient Near East. A historical reconstruction of the migration of scribes and the transport of manuscripts, especially during the Babylonian exile and the return migration of Judeans in the Persian era, provides the background for considering three literary representations of the relationship between migration and scriptural authority: the extraterritoriality of divine revelation in the Pentateuch, the authorization of Torah after the return from Babylonia as reflected in the figure of Ezra, and its translation into Greek in the Hellenistic period, dramatized as narrative in the Letter of Aristeas. The article comes to the conclusion that transpositions through migration intensified the importance of writings as focal points of collective identity and thus contributed to their growing authority.