The Pentateuch: Genesis

Abstract

The PentateuchGenesis Christopher T. Begg, Andrew W. Litke, Todd R. Hanneken, and John M. Halligan ________ 329. [Pentateuch; Prophets; Psalms] Rainer Albertz, “Ausprägungen der Exodustradition in der Prophetie und in den Psalmen,” Tradition(en) im alten Israel, 109–42 [see #774]. A.’s survey of the references to the Exodus tradition in the OT unfolds in four segments. He begins by reviewing the varying understandings and uses made of the concept of “tradition” in different psalms. Next, he identifies the psalmic and prophetic literary forms in which allusions to the Exodus occur and the programmatic functions of these allusions in a given genre (e.g., evocation of praise, appeal to Yhwh to act now as he did at the time of the Exodus, and as a basis of condemnation of Israel’s dealings with its God who had delivered it from Egypt). A. then highlights the many and varied formulations and motifs used in connection with the Exodus tradition in the Psalms and prophetic books. Finally, he seeks to trace the diachronic interplay among the pentateuchal, the psalmic, and the prophetic Exodus traditions. Here he distinguishes three phases in this long-running process: In the period between the 10th and 7th cents., the three corpora and their respective Exodus references circulated largely independently of each other. Thereafter, in the phase extending from the middle of the 6th to the end of the 5th cent., the three corpora did begin to interact with each other, though still without one of these assuming a clear primacy over the others. Lastly, once the Pentateuch was canonized at the beginning of the 4th cent., it began to exercise a normative influence on the Exodus allusions of the Psalms and prophetic books. A.’s essay concludes with a series of charts listing the various formulations used in reference to the Exodus in the psalmic and prophetic materials and the pentateuchal counterparts to these (where such exist).—C.T.B. 330. [Genesis–2 Kings] Andrew Messmer, “A Possible Chiastic Center for Primary History (Genesis–2 Kings),” VT 69 (2019) 232–40. In summary, the widespread use and function of chiastic centers in non-biblical literature, the widespread use and function of chiastic centers also in the Hebrew Bible, and the incredible “coincidence” that the middle of the “Primary History” (Genesis–2 Kings) falls almost exactly at Deut 6:4 make a compelling case that Deut 6:4ff. might indeed constitute the chiastic center of the Primary History and thereby provide crucial interpretive insights into the entire complex. [Adapted from author’s conclusion, pp. 239–40—C.T.B.] 331. [Pentateuch] Olivier Artus, “Israel, People of the Exodus: An Identity in Debate in the Pentateuch,” ITS 56 (2019) 7–29. Our study leads us to nuance the claim that the Pentateuch, as composed and demarcated as a complex on its own in the Persian period, proposes an “exodic” identity for Israel. It is indeed the case that references to the Exodus and the liberation from Egypt are a determining feature of Israel’s identity according to the extant Pentateuch. However, many [End Page 98] other theological and theological-political currents were operative in the proto-Judaism of the Persian period. Thus, on the one hand, the P authors propose an a-historical—indeed anti-historical—definition of Israel’s identity, while on the other the Jewish presence in the diaspora or in territories adjacent to the promised land, such as the Transjordan, gave rise to the incorporation into the Pentateuch of stories echoing these alternative Israelite identities. In addition, we should note that one of the last stages in the formation of the Pentateuch corresponding to its division into five books postdates the composition of that complex in the Persian period. This division led to a new understanding of the Pentateuch, one centered on the Book of Leviticus. The Pentateuch’s five-book structure, with its center and summit in Leviticus, invites readers to give a place of privilege to a legal hermeneutics of the Penateuch, in which one shifts from a narrative identity based on Exodus to a “normative” identity grounded in the correct interpretation of a literary...