First-Person Narration and the Poetics of Theophany in the Deuteronomic Horeb Account

Abstract

Abstract: In recent years, scholars of the Hebrew Bible have increasingly challenged entrenched dichotomies between historical criticism and literary theory. This integrative approach draws on contemporary literary studies to achieve a fuller understanding of biblical texts as fictive works in their ancient historical contexts. Theophany narratives invite especially fruitful application of this approach because they are both culturally specific and literarily complex. In this article, I contribute to this conversation by analyzing the fictive role of narrational voicing in Deut 4:1–40, the opening section of Moses's first-person account of the Horeb theophany in the pentateuchal Deuteronomic source. This passage famously underscores the auditory (as opposed to visual) character of the Horeb theophany in order to provide phenomenological ground for aniconism. While scholars usually treat this as a tenet of Deuteronomic theology, I argue that it is also part of the Deuteronomic poetics of first-person narration: Moses is framing the theophany in terms of his experience of the molten calf, which has already happened within the story world of D. This literary effect emerged both through Deuteronomic engagement with the earlier, Elohistic version of the story and through retrospective sapientialization of earlier material within D itself. Integrating historical-critical and literary-theoretical approaches shows how Deut 4:1–40 uses first-person narration to construct the theophany through the character development of the narrator.