The Last Days of Judah and the Roots of the Pentateuch What Does History Tell Us? (original) (raw)
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Recently, that is within the past twenty or twenty-five years, these scholars have pushed forth the idea indirectly that the Pentateuch, in fact, may be a product of the 2nd millennium in light of archaeological and textual data. Although this author does not discredit the idea that some of the Pentateuch was written in the first millennium, this short paper therefore argues that a case can be made for the plausibility that the Pentateuch was written in the 2nd millennium rather than the 1st millennium as some scholars suggest.
Taking the Pentateuch to the Twenty-First Century
Expository Times, 2007
Since the latter half of the twentieth century the literary origin of the Pentateuch and its sources have been re-evaluated. As a result the validity of the long-standing classical formulation of the Documentary Hypothesis has been called into question. Recently several new theories of the literary formation of the Books of Genesis-Deuteronomy (Joshua) have emerged that maintain the existence of a priestly source but view the other material as much more fragmented in character than proponents of the classic hypothesis were willing to do. A closer look at the text itself suggests that a combination of documentary, fragment and supplementary hypothesis is probably the best way to explain the long and complicated literary history of the Pentateuch.
Throughout the Pentateuch, God and Moses have done, before anyone else, what the scribes have always done: they have updated, amended, and supplemented. Through the projection of such characters in the narrated story, characters endowed with their own hermeneutical skill, the scribes have authorized – better, canonized – their own work, inscribing their practice in the texture of the founding events. They have cast God and his prophet as scribes in their own image, so as to become scribes in Godʼs and Mosesʼs images.
Review of The Formation of the Pentateuch
Review essay on a monumental collection of essays on all aspects of the subject. Dominant themes of the essay: seek models for formation of biblical literature in what we find in ancient Near Eastern scribal practice; adjust expectations of consistency etc. in biblical literature on the basis of what we find in ANE and popular literature in general.
The Authorship of the Pentateuch
2010
THE PENTATEUCH INCLUDES THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). These books separate into two unequal parts: Genesis and Exodus-Deuteronomy. Genesis traces the ancestral origins of Israel. No single character dominates the story. Genesis 1-11 presents a panoramic view of creation, including the formation of heaven and earth and all humanity. The time span from the creation of Adam (Gen. 1:26-27) to the birth of Terah, the father of Abraham (Gen. 11:24), is 1,876 years. Genesis 12-50 narrows in scope to chronicle the family history of Israel through a series of migrations. Israel's story begins in Ur of Babylon with Terah. The main subject matter concerns the three original generations of Israelites represented by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose stories take place primarily within Canaan, the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 12:1-4). Genesis ends with the fourth generation of Israelites (i.e., Jose...