It\u2019s a wonderfully informative\u00a0book, even it presumes of its readers that they have some familiarity\u00a0epigraphy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Having said that, there is some stuff in there that made me feel affirmed and understood. Rollston collected some quotes (pp. 85-88) from ancient Egypt and\u00a0Mesopotamia lauding the scribal profession, and they show that the writer\u2019s mentality\u00a0hasn\u2019t changed much in the last 4000 years.<\/p>\n Writers want to:<\/p>\n (1) make money<\/strong><\/p>\n [S]trive to (master) the scribal art and it will enrich you, be industrious in the scribal art and it will provide you with wealth and abundance.<\/em><\/p>\n ( 2) rub elbows with the rich and famous<\/strong><\/p>\n [The scribe] makes friends with those greater than he. . . . You will be advanced by your superiors. You will sent on . . . you may become one whom the king trusts; to make you gain\u00a0entrance\u00a0to treasury and granary. . . . To make you issue the\u00a0offerings\u00a0on feast days.<\/em><\/p>\n (3) work without supervision<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s no profession without a boss, except for a scribe. Hence if you know writing, it will do you better than those professions I\u2019ve set before you [smith, jewel-maker, potter, farmer], each more wretched than the other.<\/em><\/p>\n (4) get out of doing manual labor<\/strong><\/p>\n I have seen many beatings; set your heart on books! I have watched those seized for labor; there\u2019s nothing better than books!<\/em><\/p>\n Be a scribe. It saves you from toil and protects you from all manner of work.<\/em><\/p>\n (5) live forever<\/strong><\/p>\n Man decays, his corpse is dust, all his kind have perished; but a book makes him remembered. . . . Better is a book than a well-built house, than tomb-chapels in\u00a0the\u00a0west.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s like these ancient texts are looking deep into my own soul\u00a0and telling me what they see there.<\/p>\n But hey,\u00a0at least I have goals.<\/p>\n ***Sign up for my sort-of monthly newsletter<\/strong><\/a>.***\u00a0<\/span>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thebiblefornormalpeople.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Writer_dog-rev2-235x300.png\")
Old Testament scholar Christopher Rollston, in his 2015 book\u00a0Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel<\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=inspirandinca-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1589831071\")
![\"Rollston\"](\"https:\/\/peteenns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Rollston.jpg\")
<\/a> a mission.<\/em><\/p>\n
***Join the\u00a0Bible for Normal People<\/em>\u00a0online community at Patreon<\/a><\/strong>.***<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n