Abstract Three orders of legal collections can be identified conceptually in the Pentateuch: hattôrāh, hāʽedut and hammiṣwāh. A comparison of their Greek textual and Masoretic vocalisation traditions can identify linguistic impulses that subordinate hāʽedut and hammiṣwāh to the legal system of the Dtn. hattôrāh. This article details why, in the Hellenistic period, hattôrāh could have emerged from a reframing of the pre-existing hammiṣwāh, which other textual witnesses confirm is older than hattôrāh.

Abstract In prophetic texts, humor is frequently employed to mock the hubris of imperial powers and rulers. This article describes various forms and stylistic devices of mockery such as caricaturing exaggerations, irony, alienation of genres, the grotesque, and mythical coloring, thereby working out the subversive function of »humor from below«. This type of humor serves to critique power and to expose and shame the (once) powerful. In 2Kgs 19:21 par. Isa 37:22, this mockery of imperial hubris is even personally embodied by daughter Zion.