Ruben und das System der zwölf Stämme Israels : Redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Bedeutung des Erstgeborenen Jakobs

This volume is a dissertation completed at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg under the supervision of Han C. Schmitt. The subtitle indicates the methodology followed by the author. Schorn does not offer a historical analysis of the biblical texts to discern the earliest kernels of Reubenite tribal history. As she notes in her introduction, F. M. Cross has done this ("Reuben, First-Born of Jacob," ZAW 100 [1988] 46-65) in a study she finds more suggestive than persuasive. Instead she reformulates the question of "who (or what) was Reuben" to "how is Reuben presented in the biblical sources?" The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. BZAW welcomes submissions that make an original and significant contribution to the field; demonstrate sophisticated engagement with the relevant secondary literature; and are written in readable, logical, and engaging prose.