Search

The author of Joshua-Kings structured his history after a land-monarchy-centralized worship rubric. Joshua-Judges and 1-2 Kings bracket the books of Samuel as parallel panels: just as the Deuteronomic promise of land is realized in Joshua only to be compromised in Judges, so the Deuteronomic promise of centralized worship is realized in 1 Kings 1-11 only to be compromised in 1 Kings 12-2 Kings 25. 1 and 2 Samuel is an extended chiasm, the pivotal concern of which is the Davidic monarchy. The Samuel chiasm is itself tied to the parallel panels.

David and Solomon, a new book by Israel Finkelstein and Niels Asher Silberman, through their discussion of Palestinian archaeology's current understanding, proposes to provide evidence to prove the accuracy of Frank Cross's more than 30 year old revision of Martin Noth's theory of a “Deuteronomistic History.” The authors attempt to confirm the history of the redaction of the biblical narratives about Saul, David and Solomon, involving seven distinct oral and four written strata of tradition. Their argument moreover claims the warrant to assert the historicity of each of these legendary kings of Israel. The present article argues to the contrary that the “archaeological evidence” proposed does not support such a redaction history nor establish the historicity of either the biblical figures or their stories, but that the harmony of biblical and archaeological issues is circular and illegitimate by the standards of historical research. It argues, moreover, that the claim of an oral tradition, reflecting orig...

The classical questions of theodicy are regularly brought to the fore by large catastrophes, such as the recent tsunami. The present article reviews a number of responses in early Jewish literature, arguing that a traditional paradigm, based on the idea of retribution and clearly exhibited in deuteronomistic history, lies at the bottom of most – if not all – of these. Today, moralizing as well as apocalyptic readings are rendered meaningless by our evolutionary worldview. Catastrophes are often caused by those very properties of nature that have made the evolution of human life and society possible. We thus need a modified understanding of divine purpose and control. From such a perspective, three gospel texts are discussed: the stilling of the storm, the tower of Siloam and part of Jesus’ eschatological discourse. While trust in God's control in view of natural disasters is difficult to expect, some of these texts may be read against traditional paradigms as invitations to co-operation and common respons...

The article argues that the prophecy of an anonymous man of God in 1 Sam 2,27-36, often viewed as a product of Deuteronomistic writing and/or redaction, is in fact an anti-Deuteronomic and anti-Deuteronomistic text. It uses the verbal cliches, generic templates, and concepts found in Deuteronomy and the balance of Joshua-Kings to subvert the Deuteronomic principles of cultic organization and the Deuteronomistic notion of eternal Davidic dynasty. The fragment qualifies therefore as a possible post-Deuteronomistic addition to the Former Prophets.

A central character in 1 Samuel 4-6 is the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark is captured in battle, and subsequently wreaks havoc throughout the land of the Philistines until its subsequent return to the borders of Israel. Commonly referred to as the ‘Ark Narrative’ in scholarly literature, 1 Samuel 4-6 has often been viewed as a separate unit within the larger Deuteronomistic History. Although the Ark Narrative has been the subject of considerable scholarly interest, the methodological foci of such studies appear to have undergone a shift in more recent times. While earlier studies espoused a host of different critical approaches, such as tradition-historical, form-critical and redactional methodologies, it would seem that more recent studies have exhibited greater interest in literary appraisal and narrative criticism. This article presents a summary of recent research on the Ark Narrative of 1 Samuel 4-6 by 12 scholars: Robert Gordon, Lyle Eslinger, Peter Miscall, Walter Brueggemann, Yehoshua Gitay, Robert Polzin, J.P. Fokkelman, Bruce Birch, E.M.M. Eynikel, Graeme Auld, Barbara Green and Antony F. Campbell, SJ.

Through the examination of the "stubborn and rebellious son" (Deuteronomy 21) and later rabbinic understandings and resolution of this case, Mendelsohn Aviv expounds an alternative pedagogy that integrates classical perspectives with more recent research on adolescent behavior and embodied learning. Jewish tradition touts numerous examples of what Mendelsohn Aviv calls orthophagy or "right eating"-which not only reflects divine commandment (as in the case of dietary laws), but also attests to a person's wisdom and scholarly stature. Moreover, orthophagy lays the groundwork for orthopraxy, or "right doing." In other words, eating right is a lesson in and for doing right. 1. Introduction-Orthophagy and Jewish Tradition Jewish tradition touts numerous examples of what I call orthophagy, or "right eating." Orthophagy is not just a matter of divine commandment (as in the case of dietary laws), but also attests to a person's wisdom and scholarly stature.1 It encompasses table manners, food choices, and dietary regimens. Moreover, orthophagy lays the groundwork for orthopraxy, or "right doing." Orthophagy is a preliminary, yet foundational step toward orthopraxy, both of which share the same ultimate purpose-the attainment of qedushah, holiness. In other words, eating right is a lesson in and for doing right. And conversely, eating wrong is as surely then a precursor for doing wrong. The law of the stubborn and rebellious son is an explicit example of "wrong eating," whose mandated punishment is death. Through an examination of how later rabbinic authorities came to understand and resolve their discomfort on this matter, I will briefly elaborate upon my "Jewish Gastronomic Pedagogy," an approach to Jewish education that integrates classical rabbinic perspectives with research on food, adolescent behavior, and embodied learning. Though grounded in Jewish tradition, this perspective is relevant in other religious educational settings as well as secular settings, as it speaks to the very nature of the relationship between educators and their adolescent charges. In other words, through this perspective one might learn how to connect with and teach the many purported stubborn and rebellious sons that populate our classrooms. 2. The Law of the Stubborn and Rebellious Son If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken to them. Then shall his father and his mother lay hold of him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place. And they shall say to the elders of his city: "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard." And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die; so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 The book of Deuteronomy consists of a series of long farewell addresses delivered by Moses to the Children of Israel. Moses recounts their travails in the desert since the liberation from Egyptian bondage. He also introduces seventy new laws, many of which will only be relevant in the upcoming post-wandering period when the Children of Israel are to assume ownership of the Promised Land. Though Chapter 21 concentrates on wartime conduct, the Deuteronomist also presents four laws, three to five verses in length. Of these four laws, only the first ostensibly relates to wars. Each law follows a similar structure. The first verse in each law introduces an individual-a beautiful female captive, an ill-favored eldest son, a stubborn and rebellious son, and a condemned man. The subsequent verses present relevant particulars and clarifications and conclude with a judgment. For example, if an Israelite man takes a beautiful woman captive during wartime, she must shave her head, let her nails grow, and mourn for a month. …

This article reconsiders the much discussed story of ‘the book of the law’ in 2 Kings 22–23, along with the various other references to this lawbook in the so-called ‘Deuteronomistic History’. While there has been a tendency within modern scholarship to read 2 Kings 22–23 from an historical perspective and to assume that ‘the book of the law’ was an actual book that is to be identified in some way with the book of Deuteronomy, certain commentators prefer to understand references to ‘the book of the law’ as serving a rhetorical purpose in their narrative context. This article argues that a rhetorical understanding of these references receives additional support from comparison with classical literature, where stories about lost and found documents are widely used as a literary ploy to bolster the credibility of the texts within which they appear.

This article examines recent trends in the study of the book of Kings in the 1990s and in the beginning years of the third millennium. It focuses on issues pertaining to: composition and redaction; structure; sources; purpose; and date of the book. After a survey of recent commentaries, the studies on the book of Kings are presented in various circles and contexts, such as the Deuteronomistic History, the relation of the book of Kings with other biblical sources, and several disciplines, including text criticism, history and historiography, archaeology, cult and religion, society, and literary criticism. The second part of this article, scheduled to appear in a subsequent issue of Currents, will deal with specific literary units of the book of Kings.

In response to Thomas Römer’s assertion that the story of Jephthah’s sacrifice is a Hellenistic insertion into the Deuteronomistic History, this articleargues that the presence of the story is best explained as an original part of the history. The portrayal of the sacrifice fits the pattern of moral decline in the book of Judges, and it forms an integral and interconnected part of thestory of Jephthah as a whole. Moreover, as part of this whole it reflects animportant theme stressed elsewhere by the history: when Israel sacrificeslike foreigners do, it will act like foreigners, as well. This is why the story of Jephthah’s sacrifice is followed immediately by the story of the tribe of Ephraim, which acts just like the Ammonites, the foreign nation in thisaccount, by invading Gilead.

Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature: From Coedmon to Malory. By Lawrence Besserman. New York: Routledge, 2012. ISBN 978-0-415-89794-5. Pp. xii + 219. $141.00. In this study of canonical medieval literary texts, Lawrence Besserman, emeritus professor of English at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, continues an argument for the imbricated nature of the secular and sacred in medieval English culture that also drove his editorial work on Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures: New Essays (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Besserman offers thorough readings of Caedmon's Hymn and two Middle English lyrics as well as detailed readings of portions of the Old English Exodus, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Troilus and Criseyde, and Le Morte Darthur. The volume is extensively documented, with notes and bibliography comprising 69 of the 219 numbered pages. It would certainly be useful to the budding medievalist or any reader desiring orientation to these works and the scholarship surrounding them, scholarship which has, as Besserman writes in contextualizing his study, recently taken a "religious turn" (especially in the work of Nicholas Watson) that allows for "new, post-Robertsonian ways of understanding the role of religion" in ostensibly secular works (3). For D. W. Robertson, Jr., a towering figure in Chaucerian studies, the problem of the interrelationship between the sacred and the secular in medieval culture was "only a pseudo-problem" since "the secular is always assimilated to the sacred." For Besserman, however, such an "astigmatic" viewpoint assumes an orthodoxy among the medieval authors in question that is certainly questionable (5). Besserman posits a fluidity between sacred and secular concerns, meaning that "medieval English writers could appropriate biblically derived sacred motifs to express secular themes, and vice versa" (4). "Paradigm" is clearly a key term in the study, a term that also served Besserman in his capacity as editor of the 1996 Routledge volume The Challenge of Periodization: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives. For Besserman, a biblical paradigm functions in English medieval culture at the most general level in bifurcating the world into the godly and the demonic. According to this dualistic "shared religious-ideological horizon" the world is at once "home to the Devil and a breeding ground for those well-known temptations to sin that, if succumbed to, will cause people to end up (if unrepentant) eternally damned, and home to the Savior and those remedies for sin that lead people (if repentant) to eternal bliss" (135). Within this overarching paradigm exist lesser paradigms derived from the Bible, including Trinitarian and psalmic structures in Caedmon's Hymn and Davidic motifs in Beowulf. One could perhaps quibble at the expansiveness of definition that "paradigm" acquires within Besserman's study, since "biblical paradigm" may mean essentially any selection from or combination of "biblically derived diction, imagery, characterization, plot motifs, and themes" (1). In the Malory chapter, for example, Besserman argues that Kevin Grimm's observation in Malory's narrative of a parallel with the deuteronomistic view of history that shapes much of the Hebrew Bible is "certainly valid, but far too general" (123). It seems to me, however, that what Grimm observes is properly a biblical paradigm and fully deserves that appellation, whereas the association between King Pelles and Joseph of Arimathea that Besserman notes by way of extending Grimm's insight is merely an allusion. (Better is Besserman's next addition, which retells how the Hermit who chastises Lancelot does so by means of the exemplum of Christ's cursing of the fruitless fig tree.) Forcing some rigid distinction between allusion and paradigm would be tendentious, however, as well as unfaithful to the spirit of Besserman's project, which denies that the secular and the sacred occupy different spheres in medieval English culture and concomitantly argues for the profane use of the sacred and the sacred use of the profane. …

For the 2012 meeting held at the University of Amsterdam, the Expressions of Religion in Israel program unit (ERI) elicited papers treating the permu tations and avatars of'Astarte in Mediterranean Religions of the second and first millennia BCE.1 A northwest Semitic goddess, 'Astarte is widely attested in the Mediterranean Levant, beginning in the third millennium BCE in Syr ian texts (Ebla and arguably Early Dynastic Mari). References are more plen tiful in the second millennium, for example at Emar and Ugarit (mentioned dozens of times in texts from the latter). By the first millennium and there after one looks to the Phoenicians for the spread of her cult in the mainland coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, and in Sicily, Malta, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Greece, and in North Africa, especially Carthage. In the Hebrew Bible she appears as 'astorcet and mostly in the plural {'astarot). Masoretic vocal ization imputes the vowels of the word "shame" (Hebr. boscet), often in con junction with the male god "Baal" or "Baals" in categorical condemnations of foreign gods (e.g., Judg 2:13; 10:6; 1 Sam 7:4; 12:10). References to the god dess in the Deuteronomistic Histories are generally restricted to categorical polemics against foreign cults blamed for the apostasy of Israel and Judah. In studying the roles and functions of 'Astarte, scholars wrestle with the problem that the goddess appears in a wide temporal and geograph ical range: from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman Period and through out the whole Mediterranean she has undergone numerous permutations. On another front, the thorny problem of disparate and inconsistent sources presents itself: mythological texts from the LBA, in particular from Ugarit and Egypt, epigraphical texts in Phoenician and Greek, as well as the notori ously polemic Biblical accounts all require detailed comparative evaluation. On yet another front, the history of research has left modern scholarship a burden to carry from the past, namely, the reduction of the multifaceted 'Astarte to a fertility goddess or "sex goddess." The latter problem is taken in hand by Schmitt, who instead finds continuity in 'Astarte's role as violent goddess of war and as a "political" deity closely associated with kingship. Although surely a prominent deity in Phoenicia throughout the first mil lenium, the lack of artifactual evidence impedes 'Astarte's research. In view of the fact that Phoenician kings perform priestly functions for the goddess, her importance in cities seems certain. Ackerman's paper focuses on the sit

In Psalm 69:36c-37b reference is made to the deuteronomic-deuterono-mistic formula “yrš ‘rs” (i e possession of the land). A reinterpretation of this formula in these verses is proposed. The promise regarding the possession of the land is not made to the whole of Israel, as is the case in Deuteronomistic literature, but, instead, possession of the land is promised only to the “offspring of the servants”, in other words “those who love his name”, the pious, the community of the “servants”. The aim of this article is to deal with the issue of the “possession of the land” in Psalm 69:36c-37b in more detail.

This article is a literary study of Eliab’s characterization and his function within the broader narrative of David. The two scenes where Eliab appears (1 Sam. 16 and 17) need to be read together, since Eliab’s character zone contains a pair of ‘double-voiced’ utterances as defined by Bakhtin: in the first scene of 1 Samuel 16, he is an instrument of correction for the prophet Samuel; in the second scene of 1 Samuel 17, Eliab is used as an instrument of correction for the young David. His words to David in 17.28 are scathing: ‘I know about your pride and the evil of your heart’. A brief survey of secondary literature reveals that most scholars take the words of Eliab at face value, and feel that Eliab must be wrong in his assessment of David’s ‘evil heart’. This study takes a different approach. It is argued here that Eliab’s words are used to sound a warning about the heart of David, a highly complex literary figure. Moreover, since Eliab is used at a very early point in the narrative to inject a note of caution and a foreshadowing of potential flaws surrounding the heart of David, it is surely not coincidental that Eliab’s speech accents reverberate later in the story of David and Bathsheba.

The Oresteia of Aeschylus and the establishment of the Israelite monarchy (1 Sam. 8-2 Kgs 8) display a striking concurrence in structure and characterization. Each employs a tripartite scheme and deft use of metaphor to relate a transformation from an old kin-based social order to a new civic society. The first segment (Agamemnon and Saul) brings together the motifs of kingship, vendetta, and sacrifice to portray the disintegration of the old order. The second (Orestes and David) effects a transition through the stories of complex characters associated with youth and the wilderness. Finally, agents of wisdom (Athena and Solomon) establish mediating institutions on the sacred hill of the city, signifying the inauguration of a new social and cosmic order.

This article argues that the development of the text within 1 Kgs 16.29- 2 Kgs 10.36 can be described in four major stages. First, the Deuteronomistic History—which was composed shortly after 562 BCE—contained only three of the Elijah-Elisha stories: the narratives about Naboth’s vineyard, Ahaziah’s death and the story of Jehu’s coup. By means of the epoch from Ahab to Jehu the Deuteronomists demonstrated the reliability of the word of God throughout history. Further, they embodied the theme ‘Baal worship—cultic reform’ in the history of the Northern Kingdom. Second, shortly after the narratives about the Omride wars were added and a new theme introduced: the attitude of the king towards the word of the prophets determines the fate of Israel. Third, in early post-exilic times, 1 Kings 17-18 was added to demonstrate the possibility of a new life in community with God after the time of judgment. Fourth, in the fifth century, 1 Kgs 19.1-18 and the remaining Elisha stories were inserted to give prophecy a legitimate foundation in the history of Israel.

In earlier work on the Deuteronomic History, I have defined 1 Kings 11 to 2 Kings 17 as 'The Book of the Divided Kingdoms', and argued that its deep-structural 'message' is one of salvation for northern Israel. Here I present the Syrians, the most pervasive foreign presence in this 'Book', as a major element in this dynamic of salvation. In the account of the house of Jehu, they function analogously to the foreign power in one of the judge-cycles (in Judges and 1 Samuel) by means of which Yahweh punishes Israel—a role necessary to the eventual salvation. Historically, it seems likely that all the traditions about the Syrians, and about the prophet Elisha, originated in the time of Jehu's dynasty. But in the existing text, stories of the Syrians and/or Elisha extend well back into the time of Ahab. The reason for this, I suggest, is that the Syrians' salvific role is being intensified by making them agents in the process whereby Baalworship was removed from Israel. In terms of 'ideological geography', Israel's north-east (Syrian) boundary is given a positive valence (cf. traditions of the arrival from that direction of Israel's ancestors), in opposition to the north-west (Tyrian) boundary, whence comes the Baalistic threat. This suggests a promise of salvation even in the later invasions from the north-east, by the Assyrians and their imperial successors.

This paper draws attention to the exact relationship between the prophecy for "everlasting covenant" (Jer. xxxii 36-41) and the words of the prophet and his ideological agenda on the one hand, and the redactional level of the Book of Jeremiah on the other. Examination of the genre of the prophetical unit presents it to be a quasi-disputation-speech, and a further testimony to the exilic voices in Jeremiah on the controversy between the Jehoiachin exiles and the remnant. A close reading of the verses gives evidence to five different ways of dependence on and independence from both the words of the prophet and the redactional additions to Jeremiah. Hence, this prophecy demonstrates the composition of a new independent prophecy within exilic context, and thus adduces the question whether the exilic material within Jeremiah can still be restricted to Deuteronomistic circles.

The notion of the variety of Jewish theologies echoes the variety found within Israel's sacred scriptures. Paul, in his Torah-centred period, based his theology mainly on notions derived from the Deuteronomistic school; later, after his call to be the apostle of Jesus Christ, he was indebted to the theology of the Priestly Code (see especially the figure of Abraham in Rom 4). Just as the Torah remains the privilege of Israel, so also the covenant. Non-Jews participate in the divine promises. Accordingly, ‘scripture’ as such cannot be invoked as witnessing to Paul's gospel; instead, Pauline theology is constituted on the basis of certain passages found within the corpus of Israel's sacred scriptures.

The standard understanding of Q's presentation of the suffering entailed in discipleship is Deuteronomistic; just as the Deuteronomistic history describes prophets being persecuted and even killed when they preached repentance, so does Q present Jesus' followers. The Deuteronomistic explanation, however, fails to reckon adequately with the fact that Q does not portray Jesus' disciples as prophets preaching repentance, and that the cause of their suffering is not Israel's refusal to repent. Rather, Q's understanding of discipleship suffering is that it is the means by which the reign of God is extended.

Since the work of A. Heschel, who described the pathos of God in Jeremiah, it has become common to identify the weeping speaker of Jeremiah viii 23 as Yahweh. Many hold that the speech of God and the speech of the prophet are indistinguishable, but a few, including M. Biddle, maintain that Yahweh alone is the speaker. This paper contends that the speaker of Jeremiah viii 23 (and several other passages that express sympathy for the people) is not Yahweh, but Jeremiah. It argues that the sympathetic term bat-'ammî found in these passages and similar passages in Lamentations is typical of a speaker who cries out to God in complaint. Distinguishing Jeremiah's diction and concerns from Yahweh's allows the poetry of Jeremiah ii-xx to be read as dramatic dialogue.

Of all the accounts of deliverance in the Book of Judges, none is more complete nor complex than the story of Gideon (Judges 6:1–9:57). The account divides into two major parts, the actual account of Israel’s deliverance from the Midianite oppression under the leadership of Gideon (6:1–8:35) and the story of his son Abimelech (9:1–57). Although the plot follows a definite trajectory, the story of Gideon is complex, consisting of a series of episodes that differ in style. For more than a century scholars have exploited the apparent contradictions, discrepancies, and tensions in the text to reconstruct the evolution of the literary account. The present text of Gideon narrative incorporates numerous theological expansions on the basic composition of Deuteronomistic Historian. The most important is the first section which gives the introduction and setting that lead up to the appearance of Gideon (6:1–10).

The thesis argues that we can maintain that the so-called History of David’s Rise (HDR) existed independently before the deuteronomistic work, by identifying its beginning in I Samuel 16. 14 and ending in II Samuel 5. 3. Additionally, the thesis proposes that the source was first composed during Hezekiah’s reign with a view to persuading the northerners to embrace Hezekiah’s one Israel policy, and then went through two major redactions – one in the late exilic period and the other in the post-exilic period. These later redactions were prompted not only by the political situations of the time, but also by the literary milieu. In other words, a growing interest in narratives and the emergence of the ‘Jewish novelistic impulse’ in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian period triggered the creation of more extensive narratives about Saul and David.These historical-critical arguments are preceded in the thesis by a methodological argument that a traditio-historical issue is inevitably related to a literary understanding of the larger whole. The background for this two-foci research is the wild disagreement on the issue, and the confusion around the methodology that has been aggravated by an unnecessary tension between different approaches. The thesis therefore discusses the methodological issues as carefully as possible, so that it might be transparent what actually happens when one does biblical criticism. This gives the thesis the features of a case study, but the thesis also hopes to present a satisfactory and attractive view on a particular traditio-historical issue in its own right. The study hopes to be an experiment of self-reflective biblical criticism that is serious but open. Since the thesis has two different but essentially related theses, the conclusion is established in two stages – methodological and historical. Chapter 1 shows that a literary understanding of the whole is foundational to traditio-historical discussions, and Chapter 2 demonstrates that literary understanding is always open to revision, and so are historical answers, as the latter are inevitably related to the former. Chapter 3 asks what is the most appropriate understanding of the whole HDR at this point, and the answer provides the last two chapters with the foundation by which various evidences can be measured. Chapter 4 revisits the initial question, and provides a provisional answer. And Chapter 5, after discussing the relationship between the materials in the books of Samuel, confirms the conclusion reached in the previous chapter, and elaborates further implications.

In an essay on the rhetorical use of disability in the Deuteronomistic History, Jeremy Schipper has argued that in the Hebrew Bible, barrenness or infertility can be presented as a disability.1 He makes three main points in this regard: first, that barrenness is mentioned in close context with illness (Deut 7:14–15); second, that barrenness is said to be “healed” (Gen 20:17); and third, that barrenness appears to be “under the control of a divine ‘sender/controller’ ” (following the terminology of Hector Avalos2). Rebecca Raphael, in her book on disability in the Hebrew Bible, states that “an understanding of disability as bodily impairment in the context of social environment reveals that female infertility, seldom viewed as a disability in modern post-industrial societies, is the defining female disability in the Hebrew Bible.”3 This chapter will explore in more detail some of the nuances of barrenness as disability in the Hebrew Bible, with the fundamental question in mind: what can we know from the biblical material about the reality of barrenness, and the treatment of barren women, in ancient Israel? It will do so through three separate though interconnected lenses. First, the question of what the biblical texts might be able to tell us about the “realia” of infertility in ancient Israel: where on the spectrum of “normality” did ancient Israelites conceive of fertility and infertility? Second, the theological aspect: to what force or forces did the ancient Israelite authors ascribe barrenness?

This chapter presents an overview on the existence of an effort to bring the description of land acquisition in accordance with the instructions formulated in canonical precontext. It discusses the third edition of the book of Joshua next to Masoretic Text (MT) and the Greek translation of the Septuaginta (LXX). In the present form of Deuteronomy 27 Moses provisions for blessing and curse ritual dominant after moving into the country near Shechem. The chapter discusses the literary genesis in the Deuteronomy 27 and describes the place of the Old countrymen count in the narrative context and their different testimony in Masoretic Text and Septuaginta. The editor of 4QJoshua is guided by the desire to bring this story in full compliance with the provisions in the Torah by post-processing of the Deuteronomistic basic narrative about the parallelization of the Jordan rim hole. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: Jordan; land acquisition; literary genesis; Masoretic text; Septuaginta

The story of the mission of two unnamed spies to Jericho and their memorable visit to the Canaanite harlot Rahab is from a different material than the deuteronomistic exposure in Joshua 1. In Joshua 2 there is a story created according to the rules of the Hebrew Arts. This chapter discusses three key findings in the recent research on the Joshua 2: First, the Rahab story is to be regarded as uniform literary language text, secondly the Rahab story is regarded as a single text and finally subsequent insertion of Rahab in the Deuteronomistic narrative description of land acquisition. The investigation of the deep structure of the text and its literary references will confirm the central position of the Rahab story in the Joshua 2. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: deuteronomistic narrative description; Hebrew arts; Jericho; land acquisition; Rahab story

This chapter presents a list of locations in the books Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Jeremiah discussed in this book Exodus und Eisodus. Analyzing the composition and theology of Joshua 1-5 in the three extant versions of the book (MT, LXX, Qumran), this book contributes to the current debate of the Pentateuch, Hexateuch, and Deuteronomistic History. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: Deuteronomistic history; Hexateuch; Pentateuch; Qumran

This chapter presents an overview on the composition and Theology of Joshua 1-5. Episodes clearly defined in the traditional text of Joshua 1-5 were analyzed in the individual studies and used individually, yet these analyzes have been performed in an unmistakable synchronous connections between the units and their diachronic distinct layers. The chapter discusses forming layers that have shaped the structure of the canonical form of the text in Joshua 1-5. These layers are Deuteronomistic base layer, post-priest processing in Joshua 2-4 and exodus reminiscence in Joshua 5. The base layer of Joshua 3-4 results a narrative context, which is characterized by high cohesion of text interface and coherence of narrative features. The statement intention of the base layer of Joshua 3-4 is the legalization of Joshua as the leader of all Israel. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: exodus reminiscence; leader of Isreal; legalization; post-priest processing; theology

This chapter discusses in which geographical and historical context we should place the work of writers called "Deuteronomistic" in Neo-Babylonian period. The Dtr covenant theology and otherHDcomponents were closer to Mesopotamian texts;this kinship find a very simple explanation if the authors wrote in BabyloniaHD. Deportation is a recurring theme inHD,reflecting whether this literary work was composed by people themselves deported to Babylon.Among the texts mentioned in support of the hypothesis of HDcomposition in Babylon, three cases require special consideration.The Palestinian rooting Deuteronomistic editors of the book of Jeremiah is scarcely contested.None of the arguments advanced by proponents of the hypothesis thatHDwould come from a group of Deuteronomy Babylonia seems solid.The chapter examines the arguments of the opposing party. The original text of the chapter is in French. Keywords: Babylonia; Dtr covenant theology; deportation; Palestinian; Deuteronomy; book of Jeremiah

Scholars have correctly identified a particular linguistic style as »Deuteronomistic«, but advances in our understanding of scribal practice in antiquity call in question attempts to identify a text as »Deuteronomistic« on the basis of linguistic style alone. A consideration of conceptual agendas and rhetorical choices must accompany any such assignment. Bearing this in mind, the present study returns to the issue of what is »Deuteronomistic« about the book of Jeremiah, identifying conceptual continuity and rhetorical strategies that it shares with the late-monarchic book of Deuteronomy. The present study also considers why the medium of the prophetic book (that of Jeremiah) became such a preferred choice for the development of Deuteronomistic discourse in the post-monarchic period.La recherche a établi légitimement un style »deutéronomiste«, mais des progrès dans la compréhension de la pratique des scribes dans l’Antiquité rendent plus difficile la tentative d’identifier un style comme »deutéronomiste« sur la seule base de ses particularités linguistiques. Il faut également prendre en compte le répertoire conceptuel et les choix rhétoriques. C’est dans cette perspective que l’a. aborde la question: que signifie »deutéronomiste« par rapport au livre de Jérémie? Il identifie la continuité conceptuelle et les stratégies rhétoriques que ce livre a en commun avec le livre du Deutéronome, d’époque royale tardive. Pour finalement s’interroger: pourquoi le médium d’un livre prophétique (Jér.) s’avéra-t-il si approprié pour le développement ultérieur du discours deutéronomiste après la fin de l’époque royale?Die Forschung hat zu Recht einen bestimmten sprachlichen Stil als »deuteronomistisch« identifiziert; aber die Fortschritte in unserem Verständnis der antiken Schreibpraxis erschweren Versuche, einen Text allein aufgrund seines Sprachstils als »deuteronomistisch« zu identifizieren. Eine Berücksichtigung von Begriffskonzeptionen und rhetorischen Wahlmöglichkeiten muss solche Zuweisungen begleiten. Dies im Hinterkopf behaltend, beschäftigt sich der vorliegende Beitrag mit dem Thema, was »deuteronomistisch« in Bezug auf das Jeremiabuch bedeutet, indem er konzeptionelle Kontinuität und rhetorische Strategien identifiziert, die dieses Buch mit dem spät-königszeitlichen Deuteronomium teilt. Schließlich wird überlegt, warum das Medium eines Prophetenbuchs (Jer) für die Weiterentwicklung des deuteronomistischen Diskurses nach dem Ende der Königszeit so besonders geeignet erschien.

"Sinai pericope" is based on the name of the desert in which Israel is sojourning. The section Exod 19-24 is the first part of the Sinai pericope. A widely held opinion, the so-called "Documentary Hypothesis", claims that Exod 19-24 like large parts of the Pentateuch is a compilation of three formerly independent documents: the Yahwist (j), the Elohist (e), and the priestly source (p). In Exod 18-24 there is a plurality of divine-human relations. The chapter traces how the Mountain-of-God pericope developed into the Sinai periscope. The Deuteronomists incorporate the Exodus-Mountain-of-God narrative into the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH); the former Exodus-Mountain-of-God narrative becomes the initial part of the DtrH. The Moses-centered additions of the Torah composition revoke the priestly degradation of the people and once again introduce a new concept of communal-divine interrelation. Keywords: Deuteronomistic history; Exodus; mountain of God; Sinai; Sinai pericope; Torah composition

This chapter presents an overview on the first version of the story of Israel's way through the Jordan marked in an impressive way Israel transition from the desert to the land, the completion of the Exodus from Egypt through the entrance into Canaan. The chapter outlines the canonical symmetry of the two passages in the Exodus and Eisodus. The starting point of analysis of canonical symmetry of the two passages in the Exodus and Eisodus provides two central results. First: In a post-processing of priestly Joshua 3-4 parallelization of the Jordan rim hole is introduced with the sea wonders. Secondly: The first version of the Deuteronomistic narrative brings the Jordan swipe with the sea miracle in conjunction. The Deuteronomistic conception of Jordan forms the border of the Promised Land. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: Canaan; canonical symmetry; Jordan; promised land; sea miracle

Taking its cue from Rudolf Bultmann’s famous verdict that the Old Testament is a ‘failure’ (‘Scheitern’), the article reviews three influential negative readings of Israel’s history as told in the Former Prophets. It is then argued that awareness of the theological problem posed by Israel’s history enabled the redactors of both the former and the latter prophetic collections to deal with the element of human failure in a way that facilitated Israel’s retaining of her faith. Next, the sapiential insight in failing human discernment is drawn into the equation. Failure of human action is here interrelated with failure to comprehend God’s order. By virtue of its incorporation into the totality of the Tanak, this insight became a constructive part of Israel’s faith. Therefore the concept of failure comprises more than coming to terms with Israel’s catastrophic history. Since it is encoded in Israel’s Holy Scripture, ‘failure’ is a major concept within the Old Testament internally and is therefore not suitable as a verdict over the Old Testament by an external value judgement. ‘Failure’ thus becomes a key hermeneutical category, not merely so that the Old Testament could become a ‘promise’ for the New Testament to fulfil, but as a manifestation of limits in human religion and thought. Far from undermining self-esteem, constructive use of the concept of her own failure sustained Israel in her catastrophe and should be adopted by Christianity – not least in South Africa, where the biblical message was often misappropriated to bolster apartheid.

This chapter presents an overview on the passages in Deuteronomy 1-3 and 31, where the passages are connected factually and linguistically with Joshua 1. It discusses the question of pre-deuteronomistic sources and secondary amendments in the Joshua 1. The Joshua 1 is considered to be a deuteronomy text. The passage is commonly excluded as a supplement to the deuteronomistic base layer of Joshua 1 and belongs to the existence of the introductory speech of God. The chapter examines the representation of the successor of Moses by Joshua. It discusses the Transjordan in the Deuteronomistic view of history and tribes of Jordan as the theme of the deuteronomistic Joshua story. Starting of the Joshua narrative has proven as a carefully composed literary unit. In compositional historical point of view, the chapter provides strong arguments for the deuteronomistic history hypothesis. The original text of the chapter is in German.Keywords: Joshua; Moses; speech of God; successor; Transjordan; tribes

This chapter looks for how Moses was understood and translated for different purposes in different settings outside the Pentateuch, whose main aim was to present Israel's founding legal texts. The voice of Deuteronomistic History (DtrH) emphasizes the leadership of Moses and its continuance through the prophets that come after him; DtrH even seems to take on Mosaic authority itself as it interprets new leaders within a Mosaic pattern. Moses is unimportant in the Latter Prophets, in spite of all their allusions and references to the Law or the Exodus. In the Prophets and the Writings, the figure of Moses emerges as the singular religious founder of the Israelite religion and the icon of its identity. This figure was shaped and tailored to fit various moments in the evolution of the literary, theological, and historiographical traditions that eventually constituted the Hebrew Bible as a book of books. Keywords: Deuteronomistic History (DtrH); Exodus; Hebrew Bible; Israelite religion; Moses; prophets

This chapter surveys the question whether archaeology can point out early memories in the Deuteronomistic (Dtr) literature relating to the time period from the late thirteenth to late tenth centuries B.C.E., a time frame which may be defined as 'protohistoric' in terms of Israelite history. Results of research on three major Iron Age societies - of the hill country, of Philistia, and of the anaanite enclaves - apparently fit the socio-economic and political profile of the country as reflected in the books of Judges and Samuel. The chapter poses a question of what extent do the long and detailed literary narratives on Saul, David, and Solomon, though written hundreds of years after the tenth century B.C.E., retain memories of realities rooted in that century. Conservative approaches until the 1980s were largely based on the biblical narrative, while archaeological discoveries were presented as confirming this narrative. Keywords: anaanite enclaves; archaeological discoveries; Biblical narrative; Deuteronomistic (Dtr) history; hill country; Philistia

Genesis 14 - a redactio-critical analysis. This article focuses on Gen 14 as part of the Abraham narrative in Gen 12-25. Extant research showed that the form, style, and literary character of the chapter are not in congruence with the rest of the Abraham cycle. There are however, features that correspond well with other literary cycles in the Hebrew Bible, especially with Deuteronomistic literature. The consensus amongst scholars is that Gen 14 was originally not part of the Abraham cycle. The aim of this article is to argue from a redactiocritical perspective that Gen 14 should be regarded as an insertion in the Abraham narrative. The article concludes with a discussion ofthe socio-historical factors that played a role at the time of the interpolaion.

A dominant feature of the stories in 1 Samuel 2–10 is the striking correspondence that they share with various Tetrateuchal accounts. Correspondences exist between the houses of Eli (1 Sam. 2) and Aaron (Lev. 10; Num. 25); the ark narrative (1 Sam. 4–6) and the plagues narrative (Exod. 5–12); as well as the rejection of divine kingship (1Sam. 8) and the rebellion concerning manna (Num. 11). Commentators have failed to note that many of the textual problems of the MT in 1 Samuel 2–10 surface precisely where these Deuteronomistic and Tetrateuchal accounts are parallel. Rather than being scribal errors, many textual problems in 1 Samuel 2–10 are thus the product of Dtr’s citation of, or allusion to, corresponding Tetrateuchal accounts.

The article contrasts two approaches to Judges 17–21, a historical-critical approach which studies the text as ideology, and a literary approach which treats the text within the framework of the Deuteronomistic History. The literary study is given further refinement in the light of some recent literary theory, which distinguishes between different viewpoints expressed in a text, particularly those of the implied author and the narrator. Judges 17–21 is found to express different views of the monarchy which may be characterizd as those of the narrator and of the implied author. When these chapters are studied also by a historicalcritical approach it is clear that there is a conformity with the literary approach in that the sources of the Deuteronomistic History express the view of the narrator while the Deuteronomistic Historian's perspective is that of the implied author.

Jer 31,31-34 is in substance Jeremianic (not Deuteronomistic). It reflects the prophet's indebtedness to the Hosea tradition. He came to write off the Sinai-Horeb covenant (in a way unthinkable in a Deuteronomist), but could not believe that the uprooting of the nation would be the end of YHWH's plans for it. Otherwise what would become of the cosmic covenant (Hos 2,18-22; Jer 4,23-26; 5,22-23; 31,35-37)? In place of a covenant conceived in terms of marital imagery, a covenant subject to breakdown, Jeremiah postulated one based on unconditional parental affection, a covenant that would be made with the nation but would involve direct illumination of the individual.

Most studies of 1 Kings 8 have focused on the compositional history of the text. Analysis of its literary structure, however, suggests that the passage has a literary unity that needs to be taken seriously. The heart of 1 Kgs 8 is a prayer put on the lips of Solomon that is almost completely at odds with the tenor of the event that the Deuteronomistic Historian (DtrH) is narrating: the dedication of the Temple. The text focuses on what action Israel should take once it experiences natural disaster, military defeat and exile. The Deuteronomistic story of the Temple's dedication underscores the significance of the Temple as a place of prayer rather than as the dwelling place of God and the setting for sacrificial worship. In doing so, DtrH follows a pattern of subordinating all institutions of ancient Israel to the written Torah, the observance of which was the key to the future. The efforts of DtrH ironically made possible the continuity of the idea of the Temple in a world without a temple.