Big Ideas · 17 · Moses and Joshua

National narration was innovative

Theorists from Ernest Renan to Homi Bhabha stress that nations are acts of narration. For ancient scribes, using story to build identity was new.

Today's civics test, ancient roots.

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It was also aspirational: individual recitations of the story aren't widely attested until centuries later.

Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 284

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