Before the Scrolls

Before the Scrolls argues that books of the Bible were not originally books or even single continuous book-scrolls. Instead, important works of the Hebrew Bible were originally archives or libraries that later scribes rendered onto single volume book-scrolls. By tracing the material history of the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible, Before the Scrolls gives a detailed insight into these processes and demonstrates how profoundly the transcription of archives into books transformed the biblical literature.