ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the languages of ancient Israel as material practices embedded within social networks. Utilizing methods from the sociolinguistics of writing, I refocus inquiry on the practice of languaging in ancient Israel as a description of linguistic features. Written language is not simply a representation of linguistic features, but a complex practice that requires specific materials, tools, technical skills, human resources, and contexts. As such, writing is typically prescribed and proscribed in many ways by the institutions that control all these resources. It is thus inextricable from ideological processes. These processes can be reconstructed using social network analysis. Prior to the 8th century BCE, writing in Israel was diverse and reflective of different elites claiming and negotiating power in the region. During the 8th century BCE, a standardized form of Israelite writing appeared as part of the larger political program of the Nimshide dynasty. The Nimshides transformed writing in both the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Even after the fall of the kingdom of Israel at the end of the 8th century, the transmission of technologies and more importantly specialists perpetuated this system in Judah, where it took on a new and distinct form.
