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中英文稿：
The Hebrew bible was first written down some 2,600 years ago. And scholars have argued that only a population with sufficiently widespread literacy could have accomplished the task. Now there’s new evidence for such literacy—in the form of notes from that same time period, written in ink on shards of pottery.
希伯來聖經大約最初寫於2600年前。學者們認為只有備受歡迎的文學作品才能完成這樣的任務。但是，新的證據表明，在同一時期，有文學作品是以墨水寫在陶瓷器上完成的。
Scientists have debated whether the first significant phase of the compilation of biblical texts happened before or after the fall of the first Temple, in 586 B.C. To get at the potential answers to that question, a group of researchers in Israel analyzed mundane inscriptions about the needs of daily life on 16 ceramic shards written about 600 B.C. from an ancient military fortress in Arad, at the northern edge of the Negev desert. These notes had no direct connection with biblical texts, which were more frequently written on papyrus or parchment and would not have survived the region’s climate. But they reveal that literacy did not belong to a privileged few. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
科學家們爭議這個聖經文本完成最初的重要階段是在西元前586年，首座寺廟倒塌前還是在其倒塌後完成的。為了得到問題的可能性答案，一批以色列研究人員分析了16種日常生活中需要的陶瓷碎片上的平凡的銘文。這些陶瓷碎片來自于內蓋夫沙漠的北部邊緣一個古老的阿拉德的軍事堡壘。這些銘文和聖經文本沒有直接關係，因為聖經文本經常寫於紙莎草紙或者羊皮紙上，而這些媒介會被氣候所摧殘。但是這揭示出了並不是只有上流社會具有讀寫能力。該研究結果發表在《美國國家科學院院刊》。
The research team was able to determine that the documents—detailing military movements and food expenses—were written by a minimum of six authors. The scientists could even generally identify those authors, who ranged from a military commander down the ranks to a much lower subordinate.
研究人員發現這些檔——詳細敘述了軍事運動和食物開支——至少是由六個人共同創作的。科學家們甚至可以這些作者，從軍事指揮官到下級下屬。
"This means that not only their priests were able to write, but also the an army administration were literate down to the quartermaster of this fort in the desert.” Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, a Tel Aviv University researcher involved with the study. “This indicates that in Judah, in the sixth century, there were high literacy ranks in not only the elite people but among simple people also.”
這意味著不僅僅牧師具有書寫能力，同時沙漠軍事要塞中的軍隊管理至軍需官都有書寫能力。Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin是特拉維夫大學的研究人員，也參與了這項研究。“這表明在猶大時期，西元前600，不僅精英人才，還有很多平凡的人都具有很高的素養。”
Such widespread literacy in the region could have set the stage for the eventual compilation of the Bible, and thus the foundation of the monotheism that still prevails in the West.
