Storytelling in the Ancient Near East

Hebrew folk tales and legends were passed down orally through generations of nomadic tribes who told stories around campfires in their desert camps.  Storytelling was a universal tradition throughout the ancient Near East.  The stories told by successive generations of Israelite tribesmen memorialized significant events in their historical memory, justified wars and conquest,  and explained religious ceremonies and differences between people.  Sometime after 500 B.C. the Hebrew stories were collected from different traditions and sources, written down, compiled and edited by priests and scholars into roughly their present form, and eventually were copied by scribes repeatedly over hundreds of years into different collections of manuscripts only some of which survive today.  These stories have influenced Western literature, art, drama, music, traditions, politics, values, and culture, such that familiarity with these stories is now an important part of our education.