The Survival of Scripture

Nahum Sarna points out in Understanding Genesis that it is a remarkable fact that the Old Testament exists at all. Most ancient texts have not survived. Ancient Israel did not spread its works by military or economic hegemony. We are unlikely to find ancient examples outside of the small region ancient Israel inhabited. Instead, they were produced by a people who “knew independence for but brief interludes, that possessed no political power and that generally encountered nothing but animosity.” (xix)

Of this, he writes,

There is one simple explanation. The…