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Harel13
Harel13
12:18
@AlBerko I don't agree. The Tanach does not describe Bnei Yisrael consistently sinning. What it does is often describe periods when they sinned. The Torah, on the other hand, is a work of law. How many ancient texts are there that describe the public following the law on a regular basis? I would guess that next to none, if any at all.
Because the default life of the average person in any civilized, organized society included following the law. There was no need to mention what was obvious to all. With that said, there are occasional references to following particular commandments (e.g., Arei Miklat, not punishing sons for the sins of their fathers, land ownership rights, Pesach, and more). These are all mentioned because they had relevance to their particular contexts.
As for rabbis, the term is of course a later one. The prophets, judges, Levites, Kohanim and sometimes kings were considered the religious leaders, and indeed midrashim state that such people led the courts of their times. Even if you completely disregard later sources, there are explicit and implicit mentions of such individuals holding such roles in society in Tanach.
 
9 hours later…
Al Berko
Al Berko
21:40
@Harel13 I see. You mention several interesting points: 1. Is the Tanach a library of Jewish law? I'm not sure. Even the Torah doesn't really look like "the book of law". It does contain many laws, but they are scattered all over the four Chumashim so inconsistently and incoherently that is does not give an impression that the author was writing a work of law, like the Hamurabi code for example.
Let alone the rest of the Nach including the Books of wisdom. Idolatry is a very prominent motive but not anything else, like the Sabbath or the Torah study.
2. "Regular observance was not mentioned". Fair point. Did you notice that the Torah mentions teaching Torah to your kids, which was later reinterpreted as your disciples? Does the Torah mention methods of the transmission of the oral law or Torah study? Yes, chiseling it literally on 12 stones at the Jordan River. Anything else I'm leaving out?
So I can believe that in well-developed kingdoms with developed written culture, army, police, judicial system, messengers, etc. I could assume that people were well-aware of the laws. But I don't find any resemblance in the Tanach, we hear Josiah trying to force monotheism but no system is mentioned. This is why I find it implausible to assume that people were aware of the Torah laws let alone studied them.
Why do you think the Torah doesn't mention the methods of studying and spreading the Torah laws?

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