The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research (Forschungen Zum Alten Testament)

The Pentateuch is both the literary capstone and the central core of the Hebrew biblical canon. It contains many of the best known and most influential literary texts of world literature. A firm conclusion of biblical research is that the sweeping narrative of the Pentateuch that begins with creation and concludes with the death of Moses was not composed by one author, but is the result of a literary process that took place over hundreds of years. Yet there remains significant debate among international researchers on the composition of the Pentateuch. The present volume contains a collection of articles from an international conference in Zürich that brought together leading voices from North America, Europe, and Israel to evaluate the present state of research on the composition of the Pentateuch. The aim of the conference was to clarify differences in methodology and to identify points of convergence in the present state of pentateuchal research as a basis for further discussion. Forschungen zum Alten Testament No. 78 The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research 4 Table of Contents 6 Abbreviations 10 Introduction 12 Current Issues in Methodology 20 Baruch J. Schwartz: Does Recent Scholarship’s Critique of the Documentary Hypothesis Constitute Grounds for Its Rejection? 22 Konrad Schmid: Has European Scholarship Abandoned the Documentary Hypothesis? Some Reminders on Its History and Remarks on Its Current Status 36 1. The Case of P 37 2. “Documents” in Current European Proposals for the Formation of the Pentateuch 39 3. Are These “Documents” or Mere “Fragments”? An Excursion into the Early Uses of the Terms “Document” (Urkunde) and “Fragment” (Fragment) 40 4. The Composite and Fragmentary Character of the Documents: J and E in Classic Scholarship 44 5. The Simplification of the Documentary Hypothesis in the Twentieth Century 46 6. Evaluation 48 Reinhard G. Kratz: The Pentateuch in Current Research: Consensus and Debate 50 I. The Consensus 52 II. Open Questions 55 1. The Individual Strata 55 a. The Priestly Writing 55 b. Deuteronomy 58 c. The Non-Priestly and Non-Deuteronomic Text 65 2. The Relationship of the Different Strata 68 III. The Presuppositions of Analysis 74 David M. Carr: Scribal Processes of Coordination/Harmonization and the Formation of the First Hexateuch(s) 82 The Documented Phenomenon of Scribal Harmonization/Coordination 84 P and Non-P 89 The Creation of the Non-P Hexateuch 94 Conclusions 102 Benjamin D. Sommer: Dating Pentateuchal Texts and the Perils of Pseudo-Historicism 104 The First Mistake: Meaning and Dating 104 The Second Mistake: The Lack of a Control 113 Historicisms Good and Bad 120 Jean-Louis Ska: The Limits of Interpretation 128 1. Genesis 18:6–7 – A Problem of Grammar and of Cuisine 129 1.1. The Grammar in Genesis 18:6–7 129 1.2. The Dishes and the Plates in 18:6–7 130 2. Genesis 27:23–30 – A Kitchen and a Dining Room 131 3. Genesis 28:13 – Balancing on a Ladder 133 3.1. The Syntactical Construction in Genesis 28:12–13a 134 3.2. The Narrative Function of Genesis 28:12–13a 134 3.3. The Data Yielded by the Concordance 135 3.4. The Problem of דובאיז in Genesis 28:13 137 4. Exodus 3:1–6 – To See or Not to See 137 4.1. An Irritating Bush 137 4.2. The Problem of Moses’ Fear in Exodus 3:6 139 5. Conclusion 141 Genesis 142 Thomas Krüger: Genesis 1:1–2:3 and the Development of the Pentateuch 144 Michaela Bauks: Text- and Reception-Historical Reflections on Transmissional and Hermeneutical Techniques in Genesis 2–3 158 Introduction 158 I. Intratextual Interactions in Genesis 2–3 (MT and LXX) 160 1) Fractures and Duplicates in Genesis 2–3 162 2) The Bridge Verse 2:25 as a Key for the Global Comprehension of Genesis 2–3 167 3) Genesis 2:25 MT in Its Closer Context 170 II. Main Topics in the First Reception of Genesis 2–3 174 1) Ben Sira 175 2) Book of Jubilees 177 3) First Enoch (Book of Watchers) 181 III. Reflections on Intratextual Observations in Intertextual Processes 184 Jan Christian Gertz: Source Criticism in the Primeval History of Genesis: An Outdated Paradigm for the Study of the Pentateuch? 188 Ronald Hendel: Is the “J” Primeval Narrative an Independent Composition? A Critique of Crüsemann’s “Die Eigenständigkeit der Urgeschichte” 200 Sarah Shectman: Rachel, Leah, and the Composition of Genesis 226 Background: Mothers, Wives, and Heirs 227 The Breaking of the Aramaic Connection 230 Conclusion 240 Christoph Levin: Righteousness in the Joseph Story: Joseph Resists Seduction (Genesis 39) 242 The Literary-Historical Problem 242 The Original Shape of the Scene 248 The Narrative within the Yahwist’s History (J) 249 The Righteousness Edition 251 Further Traces of the Righteousness Edition 256 Appendix 257 Exodus – Deuteronomy 260 Rainer Albertz: The Late Exilic Book of Exodus (Exodus 1–34*): A Contribution to the Pentateuchal Discussion 262 1. Reconstructing a Pre-KD/KP Composition of the Book of Exodus 263 2. Scope, Date, and Intention of the Exodus Composition 266 3. Consequences for the Formation of the Pentateuch 272 Thomas B. Dozeman: The Priestly Wilderness Itineraries and the Composition of the Pentateuch 276 1. The Methodology for Identifying Itineraries 277 2. The Priestly Itineraries in Exodus and Numbers 279 2.1 The Exodus from Egypt 281 2.2 The Manna in the Wilderness 285 2.3 The Loss of the Land 292 3. The Priestly Itineraries and the Composition of the Pentateuch 298 3.1 Geography and Narrative in the Wilderness Journey 298 3.2 The Creative Role of Editors in the Composition of the Wilderness Journey 299 3.3 A Priestly Redaction and/or a Priestly Source? 300 3.4 The Ending of the Priestly Corpus 303 4. Conclusion 306 Erhard Blum: The Decalogue and the Composition History of the Pentateuch 308 1. Priority of Exodus 20:1–17 or Deuteronomy 5:6–21? 308 2. The Latest Module of the Decalogue: The Second Commandment 310 3. Was There a “Pre-Decalogue”? 311 4. The Primary Context of the Decalogue Vorlage 314 5. Another Short “Biography” of the Decalogue, Described in Seven Statements 316 Simeon Chavel: The Literary Development of Deuteronomy 12: Between Religious Ideal and Social Reality 322 Joel S. Baden: The Deuteronomic Evidence for the Documentary Theory 346 P, H, and D 364 Saul M. Olyan: An Eternal Covenant with Circumcision as Its Sign: How Useful a Criterion for Dating and Source Analysis? 366 Israel Knohl: Who Edited the Pentateuch? 378 1. Exodus 24:16–18a; 31:12–17; 35:1–3; 40:34–38; Leviticus 1:1 378 2. Genesis 1:31–2:3; Exodus 39:32–33, 42–43; 40:33 379 3. Leviticus 16:31, 33; 26:2 380 4. Exodus 25:8; Numbers 5:3; 35:34 382 5. Numbers 27:12–14; Deuteronomy 32:48–51 383 Jeffrey Stackert: Distinguishing Innerbiblical Exegesis from Pentateuchal Redaction: Leviticus 26 as a Test Case 388 Contrasting Models of Redaction: Non-Documentarians and Neo-Documentarians 388 Testing the Approaches: ברית in Leviticus 26 393 Concluding Remarks 404 Itamar Kislev: P, Source or Redaction: The Evidence of Numbers 25 406 Christophe Nihan: The Laws about Clean and Unclean Animals in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Their Place in the Formation of the Pentateuch 420 1. Introduction 420 2. The Relationship between Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14: A Reexamination 424 3. The Reinterpretation of the Torah on Clean/Edible and Unclean/Nonedible Animals in D and in P 436 4. Further Implications for Pentateuchal Models 450 Pentateuch in the Hebrew Bible and Its History of Reception 452 Reinhard Achenbach: “A Prophet like Moses” (Deuteronomy 18:15) – “No Prophet like Moses” (Deuteronomy 34:10): Some Observations on the Relation between the Pentateuch and the Latter Prophets 454 I. The Relation between Early Prophetic Texts and Early Traditions in the Pentateuch 454 II. The Third Revelation from Mount Horeb: Deuteronomy 18:15–22 459 III. 2 Kings 17:13: A Theory about the Role of the Prophets at the Time of the Kings 463 IV. Jeremiah, a Prophet like Moses: Deuteronomy 18:15–22 and the Book of Jeremiah 465 V. The Word of YHWH in the Mouth of the Servant of YHWH in Deutero-Isaiah and in the Mouth of a Representative of Zion in Trito-Isaiah 470 VI. The Word of YHWH in the Mouth of Aaron: From Prophetic to Priestly Torah 472 VII. Consent and Dissent between Priestly Torah and Prophets 474 Graeme Auld: Reading Genesis after Samuel 478 1. The Question Posed and Sampled 478 2. Tamar in Genesis and Samuel 480 3. The Developing Book of Samuel: Four Snapshots 481 4. David > Samuel ... > Isaac 482 5. David and Abraham 483 6. Laban and Nabal 484 7. Akedah (Genesis 22) and Census (2 Samuel 24) 485 8. David and Joseph Again 486 Thomas Römer: Extra-Pentateuchal Biblical Evidence for the Existence of a Pentateuch? The Case of the “Historical Summaries,” Especially in the Psalms 490 Introduction 490 The So-Called Historical Summaries and the Formation of the Penta- or Hexateuch 493 The “Historical” Allusions in the Book of the Psalms 496 1) Allusions to Origin Traditions in the Psalms 498 2) The Scope of the Historical Summaries in the Psalms 502 3) The Psalms and the Pentateuch 506 James W. Watts: Using Ezra’s Time as a Methodological Pivot for Understanding the Rhetoric and Functions of the Pentateuch 508 The Pentateuch as a Scripture: Engaging Some Old Challenges 509 The Contribution of Comparative Scriptures Studies 511 Ezra’s Time As Methodological Pivot 513 Torah Ritualization and Historical Criticism 522 Rhetoric on Both Sides of the Pivot 523 Gary N. Knoppers: Parallel Torahs and Inner-Scriptural Interpretation: The Jewish and Samaritan Pentateuchs in Historical Perspective 526 I. Introduction: The Samaritan Pentateuch and the So-Called Samaritan Schism 526 II. Two Different Pentateuchs or Two Parallel Pentateuchs? 530 III. Books without Borders: The Pre-Samaritan Texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls 535 IV. Borrowed or Shared? The Pre-Samaritan Samarian Pentateuch in the Persian and Early Hellenistic Periods 544 Conclusions 549 List of Contributors 552 Source Index 556 Hebrew Bible 556 New Testament 585 Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha 586 Dead Sea Scrolls 587 Rabbinic Literature and Targums 588 Cuneiform Texts 588 Egyptian Texts 588 Greek and Latin Texts 588 New World Texts 589 Author Index 590 Current issues in methodology. Does recent scholarship's critique of the documentary hypothesis constitute grounds for its rejection? / Baruch J. Schwartz Has European scholarship abandoned the documentary hypothesis? : some reminders on its history and remarks on its current status / Konrad Schmid The Pentateuch in current research : consensus and debate / Reinhard G. Kratz Scribal processes of corrdination/harmonization and the formation of the first hexateuch(s) / David M. Carr Dating pentateuchal texts and the perils of pseudo-historicism / Benjamin D. Sommer The limits of interpretation / Jean-Louis Ska Genesis. Genesis 1:1-2:3 and the development of the Pentateuch / Thomas Krüger Text- and reception-historical reflections on transmissional and hermeneutical techniques in Genesis 2-3 / Michaela Bauks Source criticism in the primeval history of Genesis : an outdated paradigm for the study of the Pentateuch? / Jan Christian Gertz Is the "J" primeval narrative an independent composition? : a critique of Crüsemann's "Die Eigenständigkeit der Urgeschichte" / Ronald Hendel Rachel, Leah, and the composition of Genesis / Sarah Shectman Righteousness in the Joseph story : Joseph resists seduction (Genesis 39) / Christoph Levin Exodus-Deuteronomy. The late exilic book of Exodus (Exodus 1-34*) : a contribution to the pentateuchal discussion / Rainer Albertz The priestly wilderness itineraries and the composition of the Pentateuch / Thomas B. Dozeman The decalogue and the composition history of the Pentateuch / Erhard Blum The literary development of Deuteronomy 12 : between religious ideal and social reality / Simeon Chavel The deuteronomic evidence for the documentary theory / Joel S. Baden P, H, and D. An eternal covenant with circumcision as its sign : how useful a criterion for dating and source analysis? / Saul M. Olyan Who edited the Pentateuch? / Israel Knohl Distinguishing innerbiblical exegesis from pentateuchal redaction : Leviticus 26 as a test case / Jeffrey Stackert P, source or redaction : the evidence of Numbers 25 / Itamar Kislev The laws about clean and unclean animals in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and their place in the formation of the Pentateuch / Christophe Nihan Pentateuch in the Hebrew Bible and its history of reception. "A prophet like Moses" (Deuteronomy 18:15), "no prophet like Moses" (Deuteronomy 34:10) : some observations on the relation between the Pentateuch and the latter prophets / Reinhard Achenbach Reading Genesis after Samuel / Graeme Auld Extra-pentateuchal biblical evidence for the existence of a Pentateuch? : the case of the "historical summaries," especially in the Psalms / Thomas Römer Using Ezra's time as a methodological pivot for understanding the rhetoric and functions of the Pentateuch / James W. Watts Parallel torahs and inner-scriptural interpretation : the Jewish and Samaritan Pentateuchs in historical perspective / Gary N. Knoppers. The Pentateuch is both the literary capstone and the central core of the Hebrew biblical canon. It contains many of the best known and most influential literary texts of world literature. A firm conclusion of biblical research is that the sweeping narrative of the Pentateuch that begins with creation and concludes with the death of Moses was not composed by one author, but is the result of a literary process that took place over hundreds of years. Yet there remains significant debate among international researchers on the composition of the Pentateuch. The present volume contains a collection of articles from an international conference in Zürich that brought together leading voices from North America, Europe, and Israel to evaluate the present state of research on the composition of the Pentateuch. The aim of the conference was to clarify differences in methodology and to identify points of convergence in the present state of pentateuchal research as a basis for further discussion. With contributions by:Reinhard Achenbach, Rainer Albertz, Graeme Auld, Joel S. Baden, Michaela Bauks, Erhard Blum, David M. Carr, Thomas B. Dozeman, Jan Christian Gertz, Itamar Kislev, Israel Knohl, Gary N. Knoppers, Reinhard G. Kratz, Thomas Krüger, Christoph Levin, Christophe Nihan, Saul M. Olyan, Thomas Römer, Konrad Schmid, Baruch J. Schwartz, Sarah Shectman, Jean-Louis Ska, Benjamin D. Sommer, Jeffrey Stackert, Christoph Uehlinger, James W. Watts The Pentateuch is both the literary capstone and the central core of the Hebrew biblical canon. It contains many of the best known and most influential literary texts of world literature. A firm conclusion of biblical research is that the sweeping narrative of the Pentateuch that begins with creation and concludes with the death of Moses was not composed by one author, but is the result of a literary process that took place over hundreds of years. Yet there remains significant debate among international researchers on the composition of the Pentateuch. The present volume contains a collection of articles from an international conference in Zürich that brought together leading voices from North America, Europe, and Israel to evaluate the present state of research on the composition of the Pentateuch. The aim of the conference was to clarify differences in methodology and to identify points of convergence in the present state of pentateuchal research as a basis for further discussion. With contributions by: Reinhard Achenbach, Rainer Albertz, Graeme Auld, Joel S. Baden, Michaela Bauks, Erhard Blum, David M. Carr, Thomas B. Dozeman, Jan Christian Gertz, Itamar Kislev, Israel Knohl, Gary N. Knoppers, Reinhard G. Kratz, Thomas Krüger, Christoph Levin, Christophe Nihan, Saul M. Olyan, Thomas Römer, Konrad Schmid, Baruch J. Schwartz, Sarah Shectman, Jean-Louis Ska, Benjamin D. Sommer, Jeffrey Stackert, Christoph Uehlinger, James W. Watts