Priestly Texts Research Articles

Water (and Blood) in Ezekiel 16 and 36-37

This article compares Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 36:1-37:14 as an example of “resumptive exposition” (D. I. Block) with particular attention to the ways that the message of Israel’s restoration in the later chapters allude to the message of Jerusalem’s judgment and rehabilitation in the earlier one. Although commentators have occasionally noted various lexical and thematic links between Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 36-37, none has yet provided an integrative assessment of these chapters with respect to the foundling motif. The prophetic indictment of the adulterous Jerusalem in Ezekiel 16 recurrently appeals to YHWH’s merciful treatment of Jerusalem in her youthful years as an exposed orphan and uncovered virgin (vv. 1-14). The author proposes that the ancient Near Eastern texts on the birth ritual and the foundling inform the rhetoric of Ezekiel 16. A careful examination of the chapters warrants the conclusion that Ezekiel 36:1-37:14, in connection with Ezekiel 16, employ literary reversal and amplification through skillful interlacing of lexical elements (e.g., to multiply, to know, to remember, and to live) to augment the import of YHWH’s message for the eschatological renewal of Israel. Moreover, in both chapters (Eze 16 and 36), the water ritual intimated at the beginning of YHWH’s deliverance of the covenantal partner is allusively linked to priestly texts on riddance rituals (e.g., Num 19; Lev 16), underscoring the irony of divine forgiveness of the house of Israel to her shame. Ezekiel’s prophecy of the restoration of the — house of Israel (Eze 36:33-38) and the vision of the bones in the valley (Eze 37:1-14) parallel the depiction in Ezekiel 16 of Jerusalem’s encounter with YHWH as a foundling in response to his divine command, “Live!” (Eze 16:6/2x). The creative imperative reverberates throughout Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 (vv. 6, 9, 10, and 14) with the word to live ( חיה ) serving as a characteristic leitmotif. This pronouncement powerfully affirms YHWH’s eternal loving-kindness for his chosen people, whom their parents had abandoned (Eze 16:2), in contrast to the way these estranged parents entreat the river god for their lives while abandoning an unwanted child in the Mesopotamian riddance ceremony. Ezekiel 16 is thus a significant dialectical partner in understanding the prophetic discourse on the hopeful future of Israel in Ezekiel 36:1-37:14.

Making Sense of the Incense Altar: Location in Sacred Space and Text

Abstract The position of the prescriptive unit regarding the construction of the incense altar (Exod 30:1–10) has been identified in previous scholarship as problematic. In support of Julius Wellhausen’s diachronic solution to this problem, several additional irregularities in this unit can be adduced, as well as indications in the larger Priestly texts in the Pentateuch that an independent altar for incense was not in use. An explanation for the entire array of irregularities is based on the suggestion that the incense altar was meant to replace another vessel, the menorah. The current command regarding the function of the menorah (Exod 25:37b) raises doubts regarding its originality. Based on other features in the menorah unit (Exod 25:31–38) an alternative, original command designating the menorah for burning incense can be reconstructed. When the incense altar replaced the menorah in that role, the author of its prescriptive unit had to argue in favor of its legitimacy through direct polemics with the menorah’s function, and through the incorporation of it in the highly esteemed annual ritual of atonement.

God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History ed. by Corrine Carvalho and John L. Mclaughlin

Reviewed by: God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History ed. by Corrine Carvalho and John L. Mclaughlin Mark Lackowski corrine carvalho and john l. mclaughlin (eds.), God and Gods in the Deuteronomistic History (CBQI 2; Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2021). Pp xxiii + 277. Paper $39.99. This collection of essays came out of the Divinity in Ancient Israel Continuing Seminar at the annual meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association. Over a period of four years, the scholars who participated and published the essays in this volume examined the Deuteronomistic History (DH). Across the introduction and twelve different essays, attention is given to each book in the DH, providing a rich variety of texts to explore. Indeed, the literary diversity in the DH is reflected in its different portrayals of divinity, something even seen in the title of the book, which uses the words “God” and “Gods.” After an introduction [End Page 175] that provides a clear and concise overview of past and present scholarship on the DH and the central arguments of the different authors in the volume, the essays are organized canonically, followed by useful indexes of ancient sources, modern authors, and relevant subjects. The opening essay by Thomas B. Dozeman (“‘El, the Living’: Divinity and Holy War in the Book of Joshua,” pp. 1–29) uses diachronic exegesis to offer a synchronic reading of the final form(s) of Joshua, which he argues combined Deuteronomistic and Priestly themes to create a unique revelation of Israel’s God during the postexilic period. Dozeman shows how the controversial holy war stories in Joshua marked by “the ban” (ḥērem) are the combination of cultic features from Priestly texts and warlike features from Deuteronomistic texts into a unique revelation of “El, the Living” (Josh 3:10), who “demands ritualized genocide as the highest form of religious obedience in taking possession of the promised land” (p. 29). The essay by Corrine Carvalho (“Yhwh, Rahab, and Gibeonites: The Hybrid Other in the Book of Joshua,” pp. 30–48) challenges scholars who excuse the violent actions of Yhwh toward the Canaanites by appealing to the seemingly positive portrayals of Rahab and the Gibeonites. Rather than interpret Yhwh’s mercy toward Rahab and the Gibeonites as a divine characteristic that overcomes the merciless action of the ḥērem, Carvalho argues that it most likely reflects the postexilic author’s belief that faithful obedience by the colonized (e.g., Judahites) can result in positive treatment by the colonizer (e.g., Persians). Thus, she demonstrates how “the narrator cannot manage to tamper with the ideology of obedience to the colonizer” (p. 48). Mahri Leonard-Fleckman’s essay (“Binding Samson to Yhwh: From Disorder to Order in the Samson Cycle,” pp. 49–68) focuses on the compositional history of the Samson stories and argues how it is reflected in the complex social landscape of the Shephelah, where the stories are set. According to Leonard-Fleckman, the Samson stories are marked by blurred lines of identity, reminiscent of a preexilic reality where even the deities are not clearly delineated. However, with the addition of Samson’s death in the temple of Dagon, Deuteronomistic scribes made it clear that the “final act of terror against the Philistines and their god, with the questionable help of Yhwh, leaves the reader with the unmistakable impression that Samson belongs to Israel” (p. 65). Mark Smith (“Retrospective Deities in Judges: Memory and Amnesia about ‘Other Gods,’” pp. 69–103) uses the compositional history of Judges to highlight traces of a polytheistic past. According to the Deuteronomists, the Israelites who follow other Gods and disobey Yhwh are given into the hands of their enemies. Nevertheless, this happens repeatedly and with increasing severity from one tribe and judge to the next, reflecting a form of cultural amnesia by scribes describing cultic contexts and foreign Gods centuries after those represented in the text. The religious reforms of the Deuteronomists in Judah from the seventh century b.c.e. onward are superimposed then on an ancient Israelite past marked by cultic pluriformity and what Smith calls “retrospective deities.” Mark Enemali (“Divine Presence in the Ark of the Covenant in 1 Samuel 4:1b–7:1,” pp. 104...

Exploring the Human and Animal Relationship in the Hebrew Bible Through the Blood Prohibition

AbstractThis paper argues that the primary purpose of the blood prohibition in the Hebrew Bible is not to reflect ethical sensitivity toward animals; rather, it is part of an anthropocentric ideology that promotes both human ascendancy over, and kinship with, animals. The blood prohibition places a high value on animal life, but it does this to justify, and socially authorize, the eating of animals while simultaneously alleviating the deeply embedded human guilt over killing them. To display this, I contrast how animals and blood function in the Priestly texts of the Hebrew Bible versus the non-Priestly texts—focusing on the primeval history of Genesis and the book of Leviticus. Most tellingly, the non-Priestly material in the primeval history contains no blood prohibition and thus does not contain the profound ambivalence toward animals and eating them that the Priestly material does.

Competing Construals of Human Relations with “Animal” Others in the Primeval History (Genesis 1–11)

This article builds on earlier, more synchronically oriented studies of “animals” in Gen 1-11 (e.g., Derrida, Strømmen), exploring the related and yet distinctly different accounts of human-animal difference in the non-P and P strands of the Genesis primeval history. Diachronic isolation of the non-P primeval texts of Genesis brings into focus the way the initial depiction of animal others in these non-P stories—especially the garden of Eden story—is part of their broader construction of a species-gender-ethnic hierarchy with an implicitly male (Hebrew) subject at its top. Meanwhile, diachronically informed analysis of Priestly texts in Genesis highlights how the P source betrays a particular interest in animal agency and welfare, while also focusing particularly on a binary separating such animals from godlike humans, all of whom are destined to rule animals. Finally, diachronically informed clarification of the distinct character of each of these textual strands can help us understand the shape and later reception of the present P/non-P combined text, showing how it has P’s picture of humans as godlike rulers (Gen 1:1-2:3) precede, undergird, and intensify non-P’s carnophallogocentric construction of a male self who dominates others (Gen 2:4b-3:24; etc.).

Competing Construals of Human Relations with "Animal" Others in the Primeval History (Genesis 1–11)

This article builds on earlier, more synchronically oriented studies of "animals" in Gen 1–11 (e.g., Derrida, Strømmen), exploring the related and yet distinctly different accounts of human–animal difference in the non-P and P strands of the Genesis primeval history. Diachronic isolation of the non-P primeval texts of Genesis brings into focus the way the initial depiction of animal others in these non-P stories—especially the garden of Eden story—is part of their broader construction of a species-gender-ethnic hierarchy with an implicitly male (Hebrew) subject at its top. Meanwhile, diachronically informed analysis of Priestly texts in Genesis highlights how the P source betrays a particular interest in animal agency and welfare, while also focusing particularly on a binary separating such animals from godlike humans, all of whom are destined to rule animals. Finally, diachronically informed clarification of the distinct character of each of these textual strands can help us understand the shape and later reception of the present P/non-P combined text, showing how it has P's picture of humans as godlike rulers (Gen 1:1–2:3) precede, undergird, and intensify non-P's carnophallogocentric construction of a male self who dominates others (Gen 2:4b–3:24; etc.).

The Exegetical Character of 1QS 3:13–4:26

Abstract Pentateuchal source criticism has shown that the primordial narrative in Genesis 1–3 is a redactional juxtaposition of Priestly (Gen 1:1–2:3) and non-Priestly (Gen 2:4b–3:24) accounts. A wide variety of Second Temple literature appears to have detected this disunity, telescoping the two accounts into unified retellings. This essay argues that 1QS 3:13–4:26 (the “Treatise on the Two Spirits”) can be more fully understood within this pattern of ancient exegetical engagement with Genesis 1–3. The Treatise addresses the place of evil in the cosmos by framing the non-Priestly account of humanity’s lapse in terms of the Priestly emphasis on divine order in Gen 1:1–2:3 and other Priestly texts. It claims that the opposition of good and evil, manifest in the children of light and darkness, is part of God’s perfect creation. This exegetical approach has implications for the mutual relevance of Qumran studies and the study of pentateuchal composition.

The World of P

Abstract The Priestly source (P) is a common designation in scholarship for significant parts of the Pentateuch, which are assumed to have been written in priestly circles. While the social circles and theological background of P are more agreed upon, its dating is hotly debated, and various textual, intertextual, linguistic and historical evidence were employed in an attempt to date its composition. The present paper aims to examine the material world that is assumed by a number of Priestly texts, and the landscape in which the writings are embedded, in order to shed new light on their dating. The paper concludes that much of the priestly writings (inclusive of some of the texts commonly attributed to the Holiness school) are quite intelligible on the background the late Iron Age, mainly the 8th-7th centuries BCE.

The Pentateuch: Exodus–Deuteronomy

The PentateuchExodus–Deuteronomy Christopher T. Begg, Fred W. Guyette, Thomas Hieke, David Leiter, Paul R. Redditt, and John Thomas Willis 1126. [Exodus–Deuteronomy] John Kurichianil, "Moses the Servant of the Lord (Part II)," ITS 54 (2017) 153-77. In this second installment of a two-part article, K. continues his survey of the biblical presentation of Moses as Yhwh's servant in its various dimensions. In so doing, he focuses, in turn, on five additional features of the multifaceted depiction of Moses's person, life, and ministry in the Books of Exodus–Deuteronomy: (a) Moses's life-long suffering (above all at the hands of the people); (b) Moses who survives as a person and a leader thanks to his constant prayer; (c) the ever-greater intimacy Moses attains with God through this prayer; (d) Moses's final failure in trust and obedience to God in his striking the rock twice rather than simply speaking to it as enjoined by Yhwh (see Numbers 20) with the result that Yhwh condemns him to die outside the land; and (e) God's ultimate display of solicitude for Moses in showing him the land before his death and then burying him with his own hands once he does die (see Deuteronomy 34).—C.T.B. 1127. [Exodus; Deuteronomy; Temple Scroll; Jubilees] Dominik Markl, "Sinai: the Origin of Holiness and Revelation in Exodus, Deuteronomy, the Temple Scroll, and Jubilees," Holy Places, 23-44 [see #1510]. Sinai's hermeneutical role in early Jewish literature has attracted considerable interest in recent scholarship. The innerbiblical relationship between Sinaitic law and Deuteronomy has triggered a discussion about legal hermeneutics in the Pentateuch. Against the backdrop of these discussions, in this paper I will attempt to show that both Jubilees and the Temple Scroll derive their authority from their reception of the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, albeit in clearly different ways. The article will unfold in three phases, moving from the stage of Sinai/Horeb as the origin of law in Exodus and Deuteronomy, to hermeneutical transformations of its role in the Temple Scroll and Jubilees before arriving at a conclusion (pp. 23-24, adapted).—C.T.B. 1128. [Exodus] Francis Nataff, "Shemot's Missing Names," JBQ 45 (2017) 193-99. The first two chapters of Exodus are not very forthcoming with the names of its characters. Consider Moses. If anyone should be introduced at birth, it is he. And yet we only hear his name after he is brought into the house of Pharaoh (Exod 2:10). A similar anomaly is found in the case of Moses's family. Though we eventually find out the names of Moses's parents (Exod 6:18-20), they are initially introduced to us with striking anonymity: "And a man of the House of Levi took to marry a daughter of Levi" (Exod 2:1). Moses's sister, Miriam, who plays a significant role in the story, watching over her brother and serving as the go-between between Pharaoh's daughter and Moses's parents, is not named until chap. 15. By contrast, two minor characters, the midwives Shifrah and Puah, [End Page 387] are named in Exod 1:15. Why? It may be because they disobeyed Pharaoh and showed basic human decency. The Israelites came into Egypt as men of stature, with names they could be proud of. But later on, the Hebrew slaves were treated as a faceless crowd, as people who had no names at all.—F.W.G. 1129. [Exodus: P] Konrad Schmid, "Taming Egypt: The Impact of Persian Imperial Ideology and Politics on the Biblical Exodus Account," Jewish Cultural Encounters, 13-29 [see #1524]. S. argues that the Priestly texts in Exodus evidence the notion of Egypt standing outside the divine world order. This notion seems to reflect the peaceful world order of the Persian Empire at a time around 525 b.c.e. when it included the whole Near Eastern world except for Egypt. In this instance, a particular political and cultural context, that of the early Persian Empire, may help us understand the impact this had on the shaping of literary or religious traditions, the...

The Pentateuch: Genesis

The Pentateuch:Genesis Christopher T. Begg, CFC Alan J. Moss, David A. Leiter, John W. Wright, Fred W. Guyette, William J. Urbrock, and John Thomas Willis 281. [Pentateuch: P] Anette Schellenberg, "'And God Separated Light from the Darkness' (Gen 1:4)—On the Role of Borders in the Priestly Texts of the Pentateuch," Borders, 23-41 [see #621]. S.'s essay investigates the role of borders in the Priestly (P) texts of the Pentateuch. "P is well known for its interest in separations, as seen first and foremost in its use of the verb bdl in the hiphil ("to distinguish, separate"), which takes both God and humans as its subject." S. further shows that all borders referred to by P serve to make the world a livable space, with most of these being connected with Yhwh's decision to dwell "in the midst" of the Israelites. Because Yhwh is holy, his presence requires a sanctuary that is kept holy, as well as a special class of priests—requirements that can only be met if separations are made and borders are respected. P is highly concerned with such separations and borders; at the same time, however, it also reflects a great deal of realism and pragmatism and a theology that transcends categories. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 282. [Genesis] Martina Kepper, "What to do with borders when they become obsolete? Strategies of re-defining border concepts in the Hebrew and Greek Text of Genesis," Borders, 43-59 [see #621]. K.'s starting point in this essay is the notion of the eretz yisrael. In contrast to the frequency of its use in modern political discussions, this term is rare and late in the Bible itself. While the Book of Genesis features the concept of the land as promised to the ancestors, the term itself is entirely lacking in Genesis. Instead, the dimensions of the land are demarcated by way of descriptions of the routes Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob took during their time in the land. Thus the land's borders are established by mention of the farthest points reached by them. As archaeological research has shown, the ancestors' itineraries as described in Genesis correspond to the settlements of the Israelites and Judahites during the time of the divided monarchy, with Jacob in the north and Abraham in the south. These borders of settlement became obsolete after the destruction of Samaria, and especially after [End Page 69] the fall of Jerusalem. For the Greek translator of Genesis, they were no longer real borders; at the same time the concept of the eretz yisrael as the land his readers hoped to live in remained important. Moreover, the translator had to deal with the ancestral itineraries as described in his Vorlage in some way. He chose different strategies in rendering the various Hebrew names of towns and landscapes, and by so doing created a new concept of eretz yisrael as a theologically motivated hope for people living in the diaspora. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 283. [Genesis] Gary A. Rendsburg, "Alliteration in the Book of Genesis," Doubling and Duplicating, 79-95 [see #640]. In his study of alliteration in the Book of Genesis, R. points out that numerous examples of this device can be identified in the book, its primarily prosaic character notwithstanding. Moreover, these examples of alliteration show that the device governed the author(s)' word choice, this resulting in the appearance of various hapax legomena. Paying attention to Genesis' alliterations may help clarify the book's unusual word choices and their meanings. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 284. [Genesis] George Savran, "Doubled Requests and Doubled Refusal: The Verb פצר in Biblical Narrative," Doubling and Duplicating, 9-25 [see #640]. S. discusses the pattern of double request and double refusal in several stories in the Book of Genesis and elsewhere in Hebrew Bible from the point of view of literary character development. He argues that such repeated requests allow for the depiction of a more nuanced character, one who is capable of changing his/her mind. In those cases where a request is followed by a double refusal, this intimates...

Irano-Talmudica and Beyond: Next Steps in the Contextualization of the Babylonian Talmud

Irano-Talmudica and Beyond: Next Steps in the Contextualization of the Babylonian Talmud Simcha M. Gross Traditional scholarly study of the Babylonian Talmud has largely ignored the work’s historical context. The underlying presumption of most scholarship was that the Bavli was the product of a reified rabbinic culture, with Palestinian rabbinic literature as its antecedent and geonic literature as its successor, and that the Babylonian rabbis were themselves an ideologically and culturally insular elite.1 In recent years, however, a school of scholarship, sometimes called “Irano-Talmudica,” sought to give historical context to the Bavli and its rabbis, challenging the presumed insularity of the Babylonian rabbis. This has proved to be a critical turn in the field. This drive to contextualize the Babylonian Talmud has begun to emerge from its infancy, raising a number of new questions: What are the most apt and fruitful sources and materials? Which methodology is most promising? What is the potential payoff for scholars investigating these sources? The answer to any one of these questions has an impact on the others. SOURCES The primary sources used for comparison by scholars of Irano-Talmudica have, to date, been a select group of Zoroastrian priestly texts composed in Middle Persian (the “MP texts”). Methodologically, scholars identified parallels exhibiting verbal, thematic, and other similarities between the MP texts and the Bavli. The parallels were meant to demonstrate that the rabbis had contact with, and were influenced by, Zoroastrian priests, and [End Page 248] in turn that the rabbis were less insular and more culturally attuned than their own rhetoric would suggest.2 In short, this research brought a new-found awareness that the Persian historical and social context had impacted the Babylonian rabbis. There are drawbacks, however, to this almost exclusive focus on the MP texts. For one, the approach makes it appear as if the Babylonian rabbis interacted exclusively with another elite and insular scholastic group—namely, the Zoroastrian priests of the MP texts.3 So, even as these studies opened communal borders, they also reified, in a modified form, the old characterization of the Babylonian rabbis as blinkered. These parallels therefore did little to animate the rabbis’ Persian historical and social context. Moreover, in concentrating primarily on the MP texts, Irano-Talmudists have tended to minimize the significance of other prospective bodies of evidence and points of social interaction. But as the field matures it should explore contextual points of reference beyond those embraced by its pioneers. None should be a priori ruled out, just as none should be deemed exclusively or singularly significant. To be sure, a pluralistic approach does not mean that every point of comparison is equally useful. However, once one begins exploring different avenues of contextualization, the evidentiary strengths and weaknesses of the various possible points of reference are not problems to be ignored or dismissed; they are simply the basic realities around which scholarship must work. Adopting a broader range of comparanda has allowed some scholars to see the MP texts as offering less instruction about the Bavli’s context than was originally thought. This has been amplified by problems with dating, access, and geography.4 The earliest manuscripts of the MP corpus [End Page 249] date well into the medieval period, and many show clear signs of post-Islamic influence. They therefore appear to substantially postdate the Bavli. That the Persian material was orally transmitted for centuries, suggesting an earlier provenance, remains a controversial counterargument. More important than dating, it remains unclear just how the Babylonian rabbis would have accessed this literature. Some Irano-Talmudists find shared rhetoric, reasoning, and ideology between the rabbis and the Zoroastrian priests,5 but how did this sharing occur? Indeed, the claim that the MP texts were transmitted orally only reinforces the problem, as it implies human contact. Were the Babylonian rabbis in personal dialogue with their Persian counterparts?6 Did they have sufficient command of colloquial Persian to converse in Persian or to read Persian texts, let alone to engage in theological discussions with Persian intellectual elites? Or, conversely, did Persians know enough Aramaic to speak with rabbis? Scholars are divided on this basic yet critical point, claiming that the rabbis...

The Role of Disgust in Priestly Purity Law

Common anthropological and structuralist approaches to Israelite purity law are often problematic. Disgust is a more promising explanation for the diverse impurities reflected in priestly texts. But not all impurities fit into a pattern of disgust equally well. Disgust language also characterizes impurities that ought not to evoke revulsion easily. I have previously suggested a transfer of emotional disgust from obvious triggers to objects that are clearly culture-specific by means of a secondary use of disgust language as value judgment. In the present article I explore this further with the help of cognitive linguistics. Conceptual metaphor theories as well as more elaborate blending models help clarify how disgust intrinsic to certain conceptions of impurity can be extended and transferred to others, which at times bear only slight resemblances. As a result, I suggest that disgust is the most comprehensive explanation for the wide variety of conceptions of impurity found in priestly legislation.

From cult to community: The two halves of Leviticus

Traditionally in Old Testament redactional criticism, a distinction is made between the first half of Leviticus (usually Lv 1�16) and the second half (Lv 17�26). In historical-critical jargon, the first half is usually regarded as part of the Priestly texts (P) and the second is called H by some, after the Holiness Code. Some have argued that Leviticus 1�16 is mostly concerned with what we would call rituals, whereas the second half (or H) is concerned with �ethics�, amongst other things. The article attempted to explore the relation between rituals and ethics by first asking what Old Testament critics seem to mean when they use terms such as �ritual� and �ethics�. The article then critically engaged with two different hypotheses which attempt to explain the ethical turn in the Book of Leviticus.

Sacred Spaces, Objects, Offerings, and People in the Priestly Texts: A Reappraisal

In the Priestly texts, holiness is understood both as an absolute and as a relative term to demarcate the hierarchy within the holy sphere. Rather than primarily redefining the term “holy,” the present work aims to determine the term’s function in describing spaces, objects, offerings, and people in the Priestly account. While there are several different levels of holiness for people, places, objects, and offerings, the Priestly writers have only two terms at their disposal, “holy” and “most holy,” which they use in a dizzying combination to situate elements hierarchically. Nonetheless, once the Priestly language is clarified, elements in the holy sphere fit into a fairly consistent hierarchy. Within this taxonomic system, people have access to spaces and objects of one level of holiness higher than they themselves possess. While accessing one degree higher is acceptable, two degrees proves fatal. The Priestly labels “holy” and “most holy” mediate access, express the privilege and unnaturalness of access, and indicate the consequences of improper contact, thereby safeguarding the divine abode from improper encroachment and humanity from the corresponding punishment.

Sacred Spaces, Objects, Offerings, and People in the Priestly Texts: A Reappraisal

Sacred Spaces, Objects, Offerings, and People in the Priestly Texts: A Reappraisal

The Form and Function of a Biblical Blood Ritual

Abstract There is a consensus in current research that Levitical law never requires blood to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar. This conception has reinforced—and has been reinforced by—an understanding that yhwh is never to be offered blood. However, it appears that according to several priestly texts, the blood of many sacrifices, including wellbeing, whole-burnt and reparation offerings, is to be tossed upon the upper surface of the altar.

COMPOSITIONAL STRATA IN THE PRIESTLY SABBATH: EXODUS 31:12–17 AND 35:1–3

Among scholars who study the composition of the Torah, there is greater agreement in the identification of the Priestly (P) source than of any other Torah source or set of texts. Yet amidst such consensus in its broad identification, considerable disagreements remain with regard to P. The most significant disagreements over- lap and concern the ending of P and the possibility of stratification within it. In this study, I will address especially the latter issue— compositional stratification—with specific focus on the divine revelation of the Sabbath law in Exod 31:12–17 and Moses’s sub- sequent recitation of the divine command to the Israelites in Exod 35:1–3. Many scholars view part or all of these units as secondary, and several have recently ascribed them in their entirety to the Holiness (H) stratum of the P source. Such full ascription to H, which challenges several attempts to identify strata in these units, is part of a trend in recent scholarship to assign more and more pentateuchal Priestly texts to H. Other scholars likewise identify these units as post-P compositions, even if they do not assign them to H in particular. Both of these approaches have significant impli- cations for understanding what the underlying P stratum is—in my view, a fully coherent and independent literary source. In this arti- cle, I will identify an earlier P stratum in both Exod 31:12–17 and 35:1–3 that was subsequently supplemented by H. I will also show how P’s narrative qualities provide the most reliable basis for iden- tifying strata in these texts and that such concern can be usefully combined with stylistic and theological criteria to separate two strata in Exod 31:12–17 and 35:1–3. Finally, I will offer a few comments on the H supplements that I identify.

COMPOSITIONAL STRATA IN THE PRIESTLY SABBATH: EXODUS 31:12–17 AND 35:1–3

Among scholars who study the composition of the Torah, there is greater agreement in the identification of the Priestly (P) source than of any other Torah source or set of texts. Yet amidst such consensus in its broad identification, considerable disagreements remain with regard to P. The most significant disagreements over- lap and concern the ending of P and the possibility of stratification within it. In this study, I will address especially the latter issue— compositional stratification—with specific focus on the divine revelation of the Sabbath law in Exod 31:12–17 and Moses’s sub- sequent recitation of the divine command to the Israelites in Exod 35:1–3. Many scholars view part or all of these units as secondary, and several have recently ascribed them in their entirety to the Holiness (H) stratum of the P source. Such full ascription to H, which challenges several attempts to identify strata in these units, is part of a trend in recent scholarship to assign more and more pentateuchal Priestly texts to H. Other scholars likewise identify these units as post-P compositions, even if they do not assign them to H in particular. Both of these approaches have significant impli- cations for understanding what the underlying P stratum is—in my view, a fully coherent and independent literary source. In this arti- cle, I will identify an earlier P stratum in both Exod 31:12–17 and 35:1–3 that was subsequently supplemented by H. I will also show how P’s narrative qualities provide the most reliable basis for iden- tifying strata in these texts and that such concern can be usefully combined with stylistic and theological criteria to separate two strata in Exod 31:12–17 and 35:1–3. Finally, I will offer a few comments on the H supplements that I identify.

Ritual Burning and Slaughtering in an AIC: Perspectives from Liturgical Studies and Old Testament Criticism

Abstract This article offers the results of research in which two theological fields cooperated in order to investigate one specific repertoire of liturgical rituals. From the perspective of both Liturgical Studies, and its focus on the functioning of ritual within its cultural context, and Old Testament Studies, and a focus on how biblical critics understand certain rituals described in the Priestly texts in the Pentateuch, ritual burning and slaughtering in an AIC was studied. Ritual Studies is beginning to play a much more prominent role in the engagement with books such as Leviticus and Numbers and also in Liturgical Studies, and this article is an example of how these two disciplines can fruitfully cooperate in the study of liturgical rituals in an AIC in South Africa.

Before YHWH at the Entrance of the Tent of Meeting: A Study of Spatial and Conceptual Geography in the Priestly Texts

The present article examines the largely neglected Priestly expression דעומ להא חתפ, »the entrance of the tent of meeting«, alongside the often parallel הוהי ינפל, »before YHWH«, in light of architectural theory and ANE architectural analogies. The phrase »the entrance of the tent of meeting« is spatially variable yet conceptually rich. More than simply a specific location in the court, the tent entrance represents the closest a common person may come »before YHWH« to meet with him, at the doorstep of his private abode where earth brushes up against heaven.