Part I: Origins and Formation
Before there was a Hebrew Bible, there were stories—oral traditions passed down around campfires, early written fragments preserved on scrolls, and competing narratives shaped by the diverse communities that told them. This section explores the earliest foundations of Jewish sacred literature: the transformation from oral tradition to written scripture, the complex editorial processes that wove together multiple sources into the Torah, and the gradual formation of the biblical canon under the influence of exile, empire, and cultural encounter. These origins reveal not a single divine manuscript delivered complete, but a living, evolving collection shaped by real communities navigating the challenges of preserving their most treasured wisdom across centuries of historical upheaval.