Anchoring Revelations in the Authority of Sinai: A Comparison of the Rewritings of “Scripture” in Jubilees and in the P stratum of Exodus

Abstract

As a contribution to the on-going scholarly process of developing a new paradigm for the study of authoritative Scripture within Second Temple Judaism, this paper investigates the use of one particular authority-conferring strategy both within the Scriptural texts themselves and in a prominent example of “rewritten Scripture.” After some introductory reflections on the notion of “Authoritative Scripture,” it specifically explores how the tradition of the theophany at Sinai functions in the book of Jubilees and in the Priestly layer within the Pentateuch. As such, it also attempts to bring classical redaction criticism of the biblical texts into dialogue with the study of other Second Temple Jewish writings.