The Theophany of the God of Sinai

Abstract

ANY CONSIDERATION of the theophany of the God of Sinai must concern itself with the Song of Deborah in Judges 5. This song is generally considered to represent the oldest literary material in the Bible. The validity of much of its historical background is being attested in an increasing measure particularly by some of the results of archaeological research.1 Other archaeological discoveries, however, as well as renewed careful literary analysis of Judges 5 suggest that, even aside from verse 1 and part of verse 31, some of the main body of this chapter in its present form is not original, but rather the result of secondary redaction. This portion, too, has been subjected to the same processes of revision so frequently manifest elsewhere in the Bible, as a result of which original materials have been changed in accordance with the conceptions of subsequent generations of Biblical writers. We hasten nevertheless to stress at this point our firm belief that most of the historical allusions in the Song of Deborah are correct, even as most of its present form and language are original. We direct our attention in particular to Judges 5, 3-5 which we regard as an editorial expansion inserted into the original poem. These verses read as follows: