ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the personification of divine knowledge in early Judaism and, especially, in the Jewish pseudepigrapha can provide us with a new perspective on the nature of pseudepigraphical attribution in early Jewish materials, a phenomenon which has puzzled students of ancient Judaism for a long time. The chapter explores the epistemological settings of pseudepigraphical attribution and its connection with the cultivation and transmission of knowledge in ancient Near Eastern and early Jewish accounts. By drawing on insights from several experts in ancient Near Eastern traditions of cultic images, including Zainab Bahrani, this chapter outlines a new methodology for understanding authorship and pseudepigraphical attribution in early Jewish literary milieus.
