He offers a few definitions but hones in on one of them for the purpose of his essay:. However, I think there were a couple of assumptions derived from that definition that are not necessarily true. They are:. If a writing has influence then it must mean that the writer has influence. So why would a writing become influential if the writer was not? This is where that 3rd example comes into play:. And this is what I propose was the status of the Biblical authors. They may not have been powerful or well known but the institution they wrote for was.
Various biblical authors wrote for various institutions over the ages see my video on multiple Elohists , but the final institution, the one with the defining hand, was the Yahwist cult. With this in mind, we can take a different perspective on the development of influential text.
Adler mentions using a spectrum when it comes to categorizing the elite:. I agree with that, but would place the Biblical authors a bit higher on it. Simply having the ability to write, automatically put one in the upper echelons of a largely illiterate society.
Note: This was originally a Twitter thread, which you can find here. First, thanks to doofgeek for posting a link to a pdf of the book. It's been on my list to read but probably never would have gotten around to it, but hey, since it was free, I had to ;. Miller II This study addresses the related questions of Yahweh's origins and the biblical claim that there were Yahweh-worshipers other than the Israelite people. It's a dry read but interesting nonetheless. If you want to save yourself time, just read the last two chapters which have the most value imo.
There are no slam dunks about the origin of Yahweh but the evidence is exhaustive and Miller makes a good case for a Midianite-Kenite origin. However, I think he takes the Bible too much at face value. For example, he talks about smiths being known as healers in the ancient world and therefore, that's why Sisera went to Jael's tent, the wife of a Kenite smith.
