Abstract
This article engages with the work of scholars such as Jacob Milgrom and Avi Hurvitz on dating the Priestly text (P) in the pre-exilic period. In response to Wellhausen�s argument that P is guilty of archaising, Milgrom and Hurvitz have always maintained that there would be some �anachronistic slips�. In this article the author points out a few examples from Leviticus which could be understood as �anachronistic slips�. The author also shows the difficulties one encounters when attempting to interpret a text such as Leviticus 26 in the pre-exilic period.
Highlights
Until about the middle of the 19th century scholars accepted that the Priestly text (P) was the basic document or the oldest stratum of the Pentateuch.1 This radically changed in the days of Edouard Reuss, Karl-Heinrich Graf, Abraham Kuenen and Julius Wellhausen
As Collins (2004) puts it: In Wellhausen’s view, the Priestly theology reflected the decline of Israelite religion, from the spiritual heights of the prophets to the legalism of ‘Late Judaism’. (Collins 2004:173)
(especially after Elliger 1966 and Cholewinski 1976) many scholars have argued that H is later than P because H seems to know of P and other earlier texts, or as Collins (2004) puts it: Most importantly, these chapters attempt to integrate ethical commandments of the type found in the Decalogue, and emphasized in Deuteronomy and the Prophets, with the more specific cultic and ritual laws of the Priestly tradition.11 (Collins 2004:148)
Summary
Until about the middle of the 19th century scholars accepted that the Priestly text (P) was the basic document or the oldest stratum of the Pentateuch. This radically changed in the days of Edouard Reuss, Karl-Heinrich Graf, Abraham Kuenen and Julius Wellhausen. (especially after Elliger 1966 and Cholewinski 1976) many scholars have argued that H is later than P because H seems to know of P and other earlier texts, or as Collins (2004) puts it: Most importantly, these chapters attempt to integrate ethical commandments of the type found in the Decalogue, and emphasized in Deuteronomy and the Prophets, with the more specific cultic and ritual laws of the Priestly tradition.11 His broadly speaking in the same tradition as P and would be treated as part of P by most textbooks. Milgrom and Knohl regard Deuteronomy as later than P and H
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