Historical Books

Abstract

Historical Books Christopher T. Begg and Leslie J. Hoppe Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Leslie J. Hoppe OFM, Catholic Theological Union 1739. [Joshua 20–22] Erasmus Gaẞ, Asyl, Leviten und ein Altar. Eine literarhistorische Analyse von Joshua 20–22 (FAT 144; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021). Pp. vii + 304. €134. ISBN 978-3-16-159830-2. The three chapters of G.'s (sub-)title constitute an appendix to the account of the partitioning of the newly occupied land in Joshua 13–19 (previously treated by G. in a monograph of 2019), each of which has its own content focus that is alluded to in G.'s three-word main title: the cities of refuge (Joshua 20), the Levitical cities (Joshua 21), and the altar of the Transjordanian tribes (Joshua 22). G.'s aim in the present volume is to reconstruct the formation-history of the three chapters in a way that takes into account all relevant evidence—text-critical, literary-critical, redaction-critical, and intra- and intertextual (as well as the long-running scholarly discussion of this evidence). Among his findings are the following: Joshua 22* is the conclusion of a P segment in Joshua 13–19* which itself rounds off the P account of Israel's time in the Transjordan as recounted in Numbers 26–36* and as such constituted the finale of a "Hexateuch." Joshua 21, for its part, was initially composed on the basis of two preexisting lists, independently of the materials that now precede and follow it. Joshua 20, by contrast, was composed in view of Joshua 21, with which it was eventually combined. At a still later point, this complex was incorporated into the P narrative in Joshua 13–19, 22 by a Deuteronomistic redactor who inserted the [End Page 634] resultant segment Joshua 13–22* into the earlier Deuteronomistic Book of Joshua, chaps. 1–12* and 23–24*, resulting in a Vorform of the Book of Joshua whose various components subsequently underwent a series of late P and Deuteronomistic supplementations that eventually gave rise to the extant (MT) Book of Joshua. Throughout, G. underscores the need, in text-historical reconstructions like this, to make use of all relevant evidence—something that previous scholars have often failed to do—as well as the ambiguity of so much of that evidence which may be accounted for in alternative ways (or may resist any satisfactory "solution"), a state of affairs that renders any proposed reconstruction—including of course his own—non-definitive and always open to revision. The volume's end matter comprises a series of appendixes in which G. reproduces the materials of Joshua 20–22 with the component strata distinguished by different typefaces, a bibliography, and various indexes.—C.T.B. Google Scholar 1740. [Late Hebrew in the Book of Judges] Alexander Müller, Historische Linguistik und Redaktionsgeschichte. Spätbiblisches Hebräisch im Richterbuch (AKM 121; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2021). Pp. x + 181. Paper €48. ISBN 978-3-447-11654-7. The German-language commentators W. Groß (2011) and E. A. Knauf (2016) have identified elaborate multi-strata redactional levels within the current Book of Judges, each with its approximate datings; their proposals differ in many instances, with Groß tending to ascribe more material to the preexilic, Knauf to the (late) postexilic period. In this revision of his 2016 Bern University dissertation directed by A. Wagner and E. A. Knauf, M. seeks to evaluate the above authors' redaction-critical and dating proposals in light of the character of the Hebrew used in the various segments of the Book of Judges. To that end, M. works through the component passages of the book (leaving aside the "special case" of chap. 5, the "Song of Deborah"). In so doing, he focuses on select linguistic (orthographical, morphological, syntactical, and lexical) features of each segment in light of the long-running scholarly discussion concerning these as well as the stage of Hebrew the particular feature seems to represent, e.g., (preexilic) Northern Hebrew, Standard Hebrew (the Hebrew, inter alia, of the Pentateuch), and Late Biblical Hebrew (LBH, the language of writers of the late Second Temple Period that was itself impacted by the spoken vernacular...