Introduction

Abstract

This special issue explores the topic of “tradition inheritance” in the ancient biblical and early Jewish worlds, providing a critical analysis of past scholarly assumptions about how stories and texts have been transmitted over time and fresh insights into how conservative approaches miss the reality of the fluidity of transmission over time. The authors approach the topic from a variety of standpoints, including the reconstruction of antecedents in biblical traditions, inherited models of violence in the Hebrew Bible’s description of foreign kings, an examination of the literary and material developments of traditions concerning the matriarch Rachel in early Judaism, and the intertwined histories of the Qur’ān and the Hebrew Bible. Taken together, the articles challenge scholars to consider what they think they know about how traditions change over time.