[Page 66] [Page 67] 3

The Primeval History

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Study Guide, Chapter 3

The Primeval History, in Genesis 1–11, is woven from the J and P strands. The contrast between the two is clearly evident in the two accounts of creation with which they begin—the ritualistic Priestly account in Gen 1:1–2:4a*, and the colorful, folksy, Yahwistic account in the remainder of chapters 2 and 3. P is responsible for the genealogy in chapter 5, for one strand of the flood story, as we have already seen, and for the genealogies of Noah’s sons in Genesis 10 and 11. We shall begin by considering the J account of the Primeval History and then consider how it has been shaped by the Priestly editors.

Adam and Eve

The J account begins with one of the most familiar of all biblical narratives—the story of Adam and Eve. There is surprisingly little reference to this story in the remainder of the Hebrew Bible, although there are several allusions to the garden of Eden as a place of remarkable fertility (Isa 51:3*; Ezek 36:35*; Joel 2:3*, etc.). Ezekiel 28:13–16* alludes to a figure who is driven out of “Eden, the garden of God,” by a cherub, in the context of a taunt against the king of Tyre, but it is not clear that he had the same story in mind that we now find in Genesis. For clear allusions to Adam and Eve we have to wait until Ben Sira, in the early second century b.c.e., and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Creation of Humanity

The story focuses on the creation of humanity. Little is said about the creation of heaven and earth, except that they are the work of YHWH, and that the earth was not watered initially. The man (˒ādām is the generic Hebrew word for human being) is made from the dust of the ground and animated by the breath of life. In the Babylonian myth of [Page 68] Atrahasis, humanity is also made from clay, mixed in that case with the flesh and blood of a slain god. In the biblical story, the breath of God is the element of divine origin in the human makeup. In this rather simple understanding, life comes with the breath and ceases when the breath departs. Then human beings return to the state of clay.

In the Atrahasis story humanity was created to do agricultural work for the gods. In Genesis the first human being is also charged with the keeping of the garden of God, but the task does not appear very onerous. The Creator provides for the growth of “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Luxuriant divine gardens often appear in ancient Near Eastern literature. The most celebrated example is the land of Dilmun, which is described in the Sumerian myth called “Enki and Ninhursag”:

The land Dilmun is pure, the land Dilmun is clean;

The land Dilmun is clean, the land Dilmun is most bright …

In Dilmun, the raven utters no cries …

The lion kills not, the wolf snatches not the lamb,

Unknown is the kid-devouring wild-dog …

Its old woman (says) not “I am an old woman,”

Its old man (says) not “I am an old man.” (ANET, 38)

(We encounter similar imagery in the book of Isaiah in the context of the restoration of an Edenic state in the messianic age.) These gardens are often the source of life-giving waters that refresh the earth. This is also the case in Genesis, where a river that flows out of Eden is said to be the source of four rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, the great rivers of Mesopotamia.

Two trees are singled out in this fabulous garden: the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (The precise meaning of “the knowledge of good and evil” is disputed. It may mean “universal knowledge,” or it may mean the power of discernment between good and evil—cf. Isa 7:15–16*, which refers to the age by which a child knows how to choose the good and reject the evil.) Symmetry would lead us to expect that if one tree is the tree of life, the corresponding one should be the tree of death, and sure enough, Adam is told that if he eats of it he shall die. The tree is not introduced to Adam under the negative name of death, however, but in its attractive aspect as the tree of knowledge. The plot of the story hinges on the idea that God does not want humanity to eat from the tree of knowledge. The idea that gods jealously guard their superiority over humanity is widespread in the ancient world. It is also found in the Greek myth of Prometheus, the hero who was condemned to torture because he stole fire from the gods to benefit humankind. It should be noted, however, that Adam is not initially forbidden to eat from the tree of life.

[Page 69] The plot is complicated when the Creator decrees that “it is not good that the man should be alone.” (In the Atrahasis myth human beings were created in pairs, and in the Priestly account of creation in Genesis 1 they were created male and female.) In the J account, the man is allowed responsible participation in the choice of his mate. In the process, he is allowed to name all the beasts, but none of these is found to be a fit partner for him. The gradual process of creation here is sometimes cited as biblical support for the idea of evolution, but the two concepts are very different. It should be emphasized, however, that the Genesis story by no means conceives of God as an unmoved mover who produces creation fully formed. Rather, the Creator proceeds by a process of trial and error, and engages in unsuccessful experiments. This is also the way creation is imagined in the Babylonian Atrahasis myth.

Finally, Adam finds a partner in the woman who is taken from his rib. Whether the manner in which the woman is created implies the subordination of woman to man is a matter of heated dispute. For two thousand years, the implication of subordination was thought to be obvious. In the words of St. Paul, in the course of his attempt to argue that women should cover their heads when they pray or prophesy: “man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man” (1 Cor 11:8–9*; cf. 1 Tim 2:13*, which forbids women to teach or have authority over men, because “Adam was formed first”). Even Paul recognized the anomaly of this claim. He added that though woman came from man, “so man comes through woman, and all things come from God” (1 Cor 11:12*) and that “in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, or man independent of woman” (v. 11*). In the Genesis text, the emphasis is on the closeness of the bond between man and woman: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.… Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen 2:23–24*). (Usually in ancient Israel, the woman left her parents’ house to live with her husband; either the Genesis text reflects a time when this was not the custom or it simply means that for a man the bond with his wife takes precedence over that with his parents.) Despite all this, however, the reversal of the natural order of birth, by having the woman taken from the man’s body, cannot be denied. The order of creation surely implies an order of precedence. In the ancient (and modern) Near East, it was assumed that females should defer to males. But to speak of subordination here is too strong. In the account of the original creation the emphasis is on the closeness of the bond between male and female.

The man and wife were naked and not ashamed. This notice alerts us to the sexual overtones of the story. Some interpreters even hold that the “knowledge of good and evil” refers to sexual initiation. Immediately after their expulsion from Eden, we are told [Page 70] that Adam “knew his wife, Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain” (Gen 4:1*). The verb “to know” often refers to sexual relations in biblical idiom. Genesis does not say explicitly that Adam “knew” his wife in the garden. Later Jewish tradition insisted that he did not, since the garden was holy, like the temple, because of the presence of God. Nonetheless, the motif of the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3 has always lent itself to a sexual interpretation. More fundamentally, however, the nudity of Adam and Eve symbolizes their initial innocence and lack of self-awareness—a state in which human beings are not sharply different from animals. By the end of the story they will have put on clothes and become human, for better or worse.

The Serpent

Genesis 3, however, introduces another character into the story: “the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made” (3:1*). In later tradition, the serpent would be identified as Satan, or the devil. According to the Wisdom of Solomon (a Jewish text, written in Greek around the turn of the era, and included in the Catholic canon and Protestant Apocrypha), death entered the world “by the envy of the devil” (Wis 2:24*). The New Testament book of Revelation refers to “the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9*). (The role of Satan in the tempting of the primeval couple is further developed in an extensive postbiblical literature on the life of Adam and Eve.) The figure of the devil, however, is a latecomer on the biblical scene. When Satan appears in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Job, and again in Chronicles), he is not yet quite “the devil”—in Job he appears among “the sons of God” in the heavenly court. Neither should the serpent in Genesis be interpreted as the devil. Talking animals are a standard device in the literary genre of the fable, which was developed most famously by the Greek writer Aesop. The appearance of a talking snake should alert even the most unsophisticated reader to the fictional nature of the story. The snake articulates the voice of temptation, but it is not yet a mythological figure such as Satan later became.

The Knowledge of Good and Evil

The snake leads the human couple to question the divine prohibition against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So the woman takes the forbidden fruit and eats, and then offers it to Adam, and he eats. Then “the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” The “knowledge of good and evil” that they attain does not quite make them like gods, but it does give them self-awareness, and it sets them apart from the animals.

At this point, light can be shed on the story of Adam and Eve by recalling an episode from the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. When Enkidu, the companion of Gilgamesh, is [Page 71] first introduced, he roams with the wild beasts and eats grass. He is tamed by a harlot, who waits for him at the watering place. Enkidu couples with her for six days and seven nights. When he returns to the beasts, however, they run off, and he finds that he cannot keep pace with them as before. He returns to the harlot, who tells him: “You have become [profound], Enkidu. You have become like a god! Why should you roam open country with the wild beasts?” (trans. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia, 56). The harlot teaches him to eat human food and drink strong drink. Then he anoints himself with oil, puts on clothes, and becomes human. He sets out for Uruk to meet Gilgamesh and undertake great adventures. On the one hand, his encounter with the harlot leads to loss of his natural strength, but on the other hand, he becomes wise like a god, or at least like a human being.

The story of Enkidu takes a tragic turn. Because he and Gilgamesh kill the Bull of Heaven, it is decreed by the gods that Enkidu must die. He is forewarned of his death in dreams. Bitter, he curses the harlot who changed the course of his life. When Shamash the sun-god hears his curse, however, he reminds Enkidu of the good things that resulted from that change—the food, wine, and garments, and above all the friendship of Gilgamesh. Enkidu relents and pronounces a blessing on the harlot instead.

Adam is told that his death is the direct result of eating from the tree of knowledge. Enkidu’s fate is not the direct result of his encounter with the harlot. There is an analogy between the two, nonetheless. Both characters make the transition to the kind of self-consciousness that requires them to wear clothes. Both become conscious of death. Enkidu would presumably have died anyway. This is less clear in the case of Adam, who had the opportunity to eat from the tree of life but failed to do so. Both aspire to being wise like the gods, but when their eyes are opened all they discover is that they are naked and that they will die.

In the Babylonian story, Enkidu’s action and its results are mixed. Ultimately, he has to confront death, but he also gains a richness of life unknown to the animals on the steppe. The evaluation of Adam’s action in Genesis is more severe. First God curses the snake, and condemns it to crawl on its belly and eat dust. Then he tells the woman that he will greatly increase her pain in childbearing (a subject that had not previously been mentioned). Yet she is told “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (3:16*). Finally, the man is told that “because you have listened to the voice of your wife” and eaten from the forbidden tree, the ground is cursed because of him. Consequently, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (3:19*). God then expels Adam and Eve from the garden, lest they put forth their hands and eat from the tree of life and live forever.

[Page 72] Disobedience and Fall

The story of Adam and Eve is known in Christian theology as the Fall, and it is assumed that the human condition, subject to suffering and death, is a consequence of the sin of Adam. Against this, it has been objected that no Hebrew equivalent of the term “fall” is used in the Hebrew Bible in this context. The concept of a fall derives from Greek Orphic traditions and Platonic philosophy. Plato thought of the soul as a pure, spiritual substance, which falls into the imperfect material world and loses its original perfection. But even if the concept of a fall, as such, is not articulated in the Hebrew Bible, it cannot be denied that Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden as a punishment for eating the forbidden fruit. Moreover, God pronounces curses on the serpent and on the ground because of what Adam and Eve have done. The narrative can still be read, like that of Enkidu, as a coming-of-age story of the transition from a prehuman to a human state. But unlike the Babylonian story, Genesis judges this transition negatively. Even though no words meaning “sin” or “punishment” are used in the story, it is quite clear that the conditions in which men and women must henceforth live are explained as punishment for disobedience.

These conditions are described in God’s words to the serpent, the woman, and the man in Gen 3:14–19*. It should be clear that these passages give us only the author’s assumptions about the nature of life. They are not descriptions that are universally valid. Still less can they be read as normative accounts of how life must, or should, be. The nature of these passages can be seen clearly in the words addressed to the snake: “upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.” Snakes do not in fact eat dust; this was simply a misconception on the part of the author. What we have here is an etiology—a story that is told to explain the cause of something. There are numerous examples of such stories in the Bible and in ancient Near Eastern literature. An example that is relevant to Genesis 2–3 is found near the end of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh secures a plant that has the power of rejuvenation—if an old man ate of it, he would become young again. On his return journey, however, he stops to bathe in a pool. A snake smells the fragrance of the plant and carries it off. Thereafter the snake sheds its scaly skin. This episode dooms Gilgamesh’s attempt to escape from death, but it also provides an etiology of why the snake sheds its skin. Again, there is a misconception involved, insofar as the story implies that the snake becomes young again.

The curse pronounced on the snake provides an etiology of the way the snake was thought to live. God’s words to the woman likewise reflect the author’s view of the female condition. There is pain in childbearing, and subordination to a husband who “will rule over you.” It is often pointed out that this condition is not the original design of creation. It is a punishment, imposed after Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree. But it is also a mistake to read this passage as if it were the normative expression of God’s will for women (as seems to be implied in the New Testament in 1 Tim 2:13–14*, which says that [Page 73] woman will be saved through childbearing). In that case, one would also have to conclude that it is God’s will that snakes eat dust and that men earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. God’s words to the woman simply reflect the common experience of women in ancient Israel and throughout the ancient Near East. The passage is explanatory in nature. It is not prescriptive or normative.

If God’s words to the woman paint a grim picture of life, his words to the man are no less severe. The final verdict recalls the words of the alewife Siduri in the Epic of Gilgamesh, when she tells Gilgamesh: “you will not find the eternal life you seek. When the gods created mankind they appointed death for mankind, kept eternal life in their own hands” (trans. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia, 150). Genesis suggests that this may not have been the original design of the Creator, but nonetheless it is now the inescapable human condition. There is no hint here of any possibility of meaningful life after death. (The common assumption in the Hebrew Bible, as we shall see later, was that after death all people, good and bad, went to the shadowy underworld, Sheol, the counterpart of the Greek Hades.) Where the Babylonian epic, however, simply presents this situation as a matter of fact, the biblical text seeks to explain it by laying the blame on human beings. In part, the problem is disobedience to the divine command. More broadly, however, one could say that the problem is human overreaching. Like the heroes of Greek tragedy, Adam and Eve are guilty of hubris in their desire to be like God, knowing good and evil. One message of this story, which is a common message in ancient Near Eastern literature, is that human beings should know their place and stay in it.

Theological Misconceptions

More than most stories, these chapters of Genesis have been overlain with theological interpretations that have little basis in the Hebrew text. Since the time of St. Augustine, Christian theology has maintained the doctrine of original sin—the belief that human beings after Adam are born in a state of sin. There is a partial basis for this idea in the New Testament, where St. Paul asserts that “one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all” and “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Rom 5:18–19*), but there is no suggestion of this in the text of Genesis. In the first century c.e., when Paul wrote, there was some debate in Judaism about the significance of Adam’s disobedience. This debate is reflected in apocalyptic writings from the end of that century. In 4 Ezra 7:48* [118*] Ezra asks, “O Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants” (trans. RSV). In the nearly contemporary apocalypse known as 2 (Syriac) Baruch, Baruch rejects this sentiment, and takes a position that is more typical of Jewish tradition: “For though Adam first sinned and brought untimely death upon all men, yet each one of those who were born from him has either prepared for his own soul its future torment or chosen for himself the glories [Page 74] that are to be.… Thus Adam was responsible for himself only; each one of us is his own Adam” (2 Bar. 54:15, 19; trans. L. H. Brockington, in H. F. D. Sparks, ed., The Apocryphal Old Testament [Oxford: Clarendon, 1984]). The story of Adam is paradigmatic, insofar as the temptation to eat forbidden fruit is typical of human experience. One might also suppose that an inclination to sin is inherited from one generation to another. But there is no suggestion in the biblical text that guilt is transmitted genetically.

Equally unfounded is the view that the responsibility for sin lay with Eve rather than with Adam. The earliest occurrence of this idea is found in the book of Ben Sira in the early second century b.c.e.: “From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die” (Sir 25:24*). It is repeated in the New Testament in 1 Tim 2:14*: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” One may reasonably infer from the text of Genesis that the serpent approached Eve first because she was weaker, but Adam still bears the primary responsibility in the story. The command was given to him before Eve was created. Only after they have both eaten are their eyes opened. Adam and Eve suffer equally from the consequences of their action.

Finally, the words of God to the snake have been invested with theological meaning in Christianity: “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head and you will strike his heel.” Catholic Christianity has traditionally identified the woman as Mary, her seed as Jesus, and the snake as Satan. The passage is then read as a prophecy of the crushing of Satan and has inspired countless statues of Mary with a snake under her feet. Such allegorical interpretation has its place in a religious tradition, but we should be aware that it is not implied by the Hebrew text. Like the preceding verse, about the snake crawling on its belly and eating dust, this one is an etiology, meant to explain a fact of experience—snakes bite people, and people kill snakes.

The Contrast with Modern Values

The story of Adam and Eve is a compelling story, largely because the lure of forbidden fruit rings true to human experience, as does the sense that our enjoyment of paradisaic bliss is likely to be short-lived and doomed to frustration. It should be emphasized, however, that the worldview of this story is antithetical to modern Western culture. While Adam has free range over nearly all the garden, the limit imposed by the divine command is crucial. Obedience to a higher authority is an essential element of the biblical ethic. For modern culture, in contrast, the sky is the limit and people are constantly encouraged to “go for it.” One may debate the relative merits of the two approaches to life, but the fundamental difference between them must be acknowledged. Moreover, not everyone in antiquity subscribed to the kind of “philosophy of limit” that is implied in Genesis. The Greek Sophists, in the fifth century b.c.e., taught that “man is the measure of all things.” In the gnostic writings of the fourth and fifth centuries c.e. the serpent is viewed positively, as an instructor who wanted humanity to attain wisdom and illumination.

[Page 75] The recognition of human limitation is a common feature of ancient wisdom outside the Bible as well. We have already referred to the theme of hubris in Greek tragedy. Those who aspire to rise too high, to be like gods, are doomed to catastrophe. This theme was also found in Near Eastern myth, and is reflected in the Bible in taunts of Gentile kings. In the book of Isaiah, the king of Babylon is taunted: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God … I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit” (Isa 14:12–14*). Ezekiel taunts the king of Tyre by telling him that he was (or thought he was) in “Eden, the garden of God,” but was driven out by a cherub (Ezekiel 28). In these cases, as in Greek tragedy, the sin that leads to the fall is simply pride. In Genesis it is disobedience, and the desire for “the knowledge of good and evil.” Also, in Genesis this is not just the experience of a king or an extraordinary person, but of Adam, the archetypical and paradigmatic human being.

The Date of the Yahwistic Creation Story

Genesis 2:4b–3:24* is generally, and persuasively, regarded as the beginning of the J narrative because of the lively style and anthropomorphic presentation of God. There are some problems with the attribution, however. First, God is not just called YHWH as we might expect, but YHWH Elohim (“the Lord God”). This combination occurs only once in the Pentateuch outside this story, in Exod 9:30* (where the text is not certain). As we have seen in the previous chapter, there are good reasons for regarding the J narrative as generally pre-Deuteronomic. The creation story, however, and indeed all of the Primeval History, echoes Babylonian literature at several points. Such allusions would not be impossible before the exile, but they can be more easily explained in an exilic context or later. Finally, while some prophets, especially Ezekiel, are aware of traditions about Eden, there is no really clear reference to this story until the Hellenistic period, in the book of Ben Sira. The stylistic argument for ascribing the story to J is still a strong one, but the considerations we have noted suggest a relatively late date for the composition of the section of the J narrative that deals with the Primeval History.

The Priestly Creation Story

Whatever the origin of the Adam and Eve story, it stands in sharp contrast to the Priestly account of creation that now forms the opening chapter of the Bible. The opening verse (Gen 1:1*) is majestic in its simplicity: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Originally, the Hebrew was written without vowels. The vowels were added later as points above and below the consonants. If the Hebrew is pointed slightly differently, [Page 76] the verse can be translated as: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth.… ” The Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish, similarly begins with a temporal clause. (There is another possible reflection of the Babylonian myth in Gen 1:2*. The Hebrew word for “the deep” [tehôm] is a cognate of the name of the Babylonian monster Tiamat in Enuma Elish.) If the opening words are translated as a temporal clause, it is clear that we are not speaking of creation out of nothing. Already when God set about creating the heavens and the earth, there was a formless void (tōhû wābōhû), and the wind or spirit of God was hovering over the waters. God proceeds to bring order out of chaos simply by uttering commands. There were precedents for creation by divine word in Egyptian mythology, but there is an evident contrast here with Genesis 2 and with the creation mythologies of Mesopotamia. The God of the Priestly writers is more exalted, or more remote, than the God of J.

The creation is arranged in seven days:

1.     Light; separation of light and darkness

2.     Firmament; separation of lower and upper water

3a.     Dry land; separation of water and dry land

3b.     Vegetation

4.     Sun, moon, and stars; separation of day and night

5.     Water and air creatures

6a.     Land creatures; human beings

6b.     Vegetation given to birds, animals, and human beings as food

7.     God rests

The narrative is formulaic. There are frequent pronouncements that “God saw that it was good,” and after the sixth day, everything is pronounced “very good.” At the same time, the narrative is not fully consistent. The pronouncement that “it was good” is lacking for the second and fourth days, and there are double acts of creation on the third and sixth days. The duplications are necessary to fit the work of creation into six days, thereby allowing the Creator to rest on the seventh, in effect inaugurating the Sabbath day. The fact that the whole process ends in a liturgical observance is typical of the Priestly source. Also typical is the emphasis on separation—of light and darkness, upper waters and lower waters, and so on. In the Priestly creation, everything must be in its proper place.

Human beings are created on the sixth day. While humankind is designated by the masculine word ˒ādām, both male and female are explicitly included. (The rabbis later speculated that the first human being was a hermaphrodite, both male and female, an idea that is known most famously from Plato’s dialogue, the Symposium.) Both males and females, then, are created in the image of God. In the ancient Near East, images were [Page 77] very important for cult and worship, as the presence of the divinity was made manifest to the worshipers in the statues. As we shall see when we discuss the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, in Exodus, no such images were used in the cult of YHWH. Instead, according to the Priestly writer, the presence of God was made manifest in human beings. Moreover, gods in the ancient Near East were often depicted in the form of animals. Such depictions are rejected here. Near Eastern deities were also often depicted in human form. If human beings are made in the divine image, it follows that the Deity has humanlike form. In the modern world, we tend to say that God is conceived or imagined in human form—our knowledge of human form comes first and what we say about the Deity is an inference. In the ancient world, however, the divine typically comes first, and human beings are thought to be an imitation of the divine form. This account of creation, then, attributes great dignity to human beings, both male and female. Moreover, humanity is given dominion over the rest of creation. The Priestly account of creation, then, is remarkably humanistic. From a modern perspective, however, it must be noted that human sovereignty over creation has not always been a blessing, but has often been abused. It should be noted that Genesis 1 only allows for vegetarian food. Only after the flood will provision be made for eating meat.

One other commandment is given to humanity in Genesis 1, besides the charge to subdue the earth. They are also commanded to increase and multiply. The Priestly account of creation, then, affirms human sexuality, and seems to rule out at the outset an ethic of abstinence and asceticism. This point is important, as the Priestly rules of purity that we shall find in Leviticus have often been taken to suggest a rather negative view of sexuality.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the Priestly creation account, however, is its positive tone. Everything is very good. The origin of sin and evil is not addressed. It is likely, however, that the editor who placed this account at the beginning of Genesis presupposed the Yahwist creation account of Genesis 2–3. The Priestly account is not the whole story. Rather, it supplements the Yahwist account, and is meant to forestall a negative interpretation of the human situation, which might be derived from Genesis 3.

If this is correct, then the Priestly account must have been composed after the Yahwist account. There is nothing in this passage to indicate a more precise date. There is a possible allusion to Gen 1:2* in the prophet Jeremiah at 4:23*: “I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void.” Jeremiah prophesied during the Babylonian crisis, around 600 b.c.e. His vision indicated that the earth was about to be undone, and returned to the condition in which it was before creation. But Jeremiah is not necessarily referring to the text of Genesis as we know it. The idea that the earth was “waste and void” before YHWH created it may have been current before it was incorporated in the Priestly account of creation.

[Page 78] Genesis 4–11

Cain and Abel

The Yahwist provides another paradigm of sin in the story of Cain and Abel. Rivalry between brothers is a common theme in folklore, as is conflict between farmer and shepherd. In this case, however, the conflict is initiated by the apparently capricious preference of YHWH for the offering of Abel. The rejection of Cain’s sacrifice is not due to any sin on his part; rather, it becomes the occasion of his sin. He is told that “sin is lurking at your door, but you must master it.” As in the story of Adam and Eve, there is a vigorous assumption of free will, and a realistic appreciation of the force of temptation. Cain murders his brother, but interestingly enough he is not condemned to death. Instead he is sentenced to wander the earth, and his story becomes an etiology of the Kenite people, itinerants who lived in the desert lands south of Judah.

The Sons of God

The brief notice about “the sons of God” (that is, gods, or heavenly beings) in Gen 6:1–4* is difficult to assign to a source. (The statement in v. 3*, where YHWH limits the span of human life, is not necessarily part of the story about the sons of God [Elohim], and may be intrusive.) The episode of the sons of God seems to be a fragment of a polytheistic myth. Like many of the stories in Genesis, it has an etiological aspect: it explains the origin of the Nephilim (literally, “fallen ones”), the “heroes of old.” In the Greek and Latin versions, the Nephilim are rendered as “giants”—a translation suggested by the fact that the Giants in Greek mythology (as narrated in Hesiod’s Theogony) were born of the union of Heaven and Earth. Evidently, such a story was current in ancient Israel, and it was incorporated (probably by the Yahwist) as part of the account of the Primeval History.

In itself, the report in Gen 6:1–4* passes no judgment on either the “sons of God” or the Nephilim, except to note that the latter were famous. This episode is followed, however, by the statement that YHWH saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth; this statement introduces the story of the flood. It may be that the Yahwist, or whoever put these stories side by side, intended to imply a connection, so that the wickedness of humankind resulted from the descent of the sons of God and the rise of the Nephilim. Nothing further is said in Genesis to develop this connection. In later tradition, however, it grew into a full-fledged myth. In the Book of the Watchers (1 Enoch 1–36), an apocalyptic work written in Aramaic in the third or early second century b.c.e., the sons of God become “the Watchers,” angelic beings who descend to earth in an act of rebellion. The Watchers then impart to humanity all kinds of forbidden knowledge. The giants whom they beget cause great havoc on earth because of their lawless behavior. Eventually, the flood is sent to cleanse the earth. The book of Jubilees (written in Hebrew, second century [Page 79] b.c.e.) also makes the connection between the descent of the fallen angels and the spread of wickedness on earth. Unlike 1 Enoch, however, Jubilees claims that the Watchers originally came down to teach men to do what is just and right on earth (Jub. 4:15), although they subsequently sinned by entering into unions with the daughters of men. The myth of the fallen angels had a long life in Western tradition, and received a classic form in John Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost. The biblical text, however, contains only the germ of this myth. The Yahwist located responsibility for sin in the actions of human beings rather than in those of fallen angels, and this was also true of the Priestly editor of the Primeval History.

The Flood

According to Gen 6:5*, the wickedness of humankind is due to the fact that “every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” The “inclination” (Hebrew yes.er) of human beings became a matter of increased speculation in later Jewish tradition. According to the Midrash (or rabbinic commentary) on Genesis, people have two inclinations, one good, one bad, and are still responsible for the one they choose to follow. These inclinations were implanted by God at creation. For the later rabbis, this was a purposeful plan on the part of God. In Genesis, however, we rather get the impression of an experiment gone awry: “the Lord was sorry that he made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” In this respect, the Genesis account resembles the Babylonian myth of Atrahasis. There too the gods come to regret that they made humanity, and in fact this happens several times. The problem is that human beings multiply too quickly and become too noisy, and so the gods send plague and disease to destroy them. Each time the god Ea comes to the rescue of human beings and reveals a plan to the wise human Atrahasis. Finally the gods send a flood. Genesis dispenses with the attempts to destroy humanity by disease and goes directly to the flood. It is also characteristic of Genesis that the problem is wickedness rather than population or noise control.

There are two versions of the flood story in Babylonian literature. In one, the flood hero is Atrahasis. In the other, which is part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, he is Utnapishtim. The biblical story is clearly indebted to this story in some form. All the flood heroes, reasonably, cover their vessels with pitch or bitumen. Utnapishtim’s ark, like Noah’s, comes to rest on a mountaintop, and he sends out birds (a dove, swallow, and raven) to test whether the waters have subsided. When they emerge from the ark, each of the heroes offers a sacrifice. In the Atrahasis myth, when the gods smell the fragrance they gather like flies over the offering. Nonetheless, the god Enlil is angry that life has survived. The gods reach a compromise so that human population will be controlled by less drastic afflictions (wild beasts, famine, unsuccessful births). In the J account, too, YHWH is pleased by the odor of the sacrifice, but he reacts more generously than his Babylonian counterparts. Humanity is not entirely to blame, “for the inclination of the human heart [Page 80] is evil from youth,” and so YHWH resolves that he will never again destroy every living creature as he almost did with the flood.

The Priestly account of the flood is characterized by the typical Priestly interest in precise detail. Noah is given specific measurements for the ark. Only one pair of each kind of animal is taken, reflecting the Priestly preference for binary opposites. Events are dated precisely. The flood occurs in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life. He emerges from the ark in his six hundred and first year, in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month. Like the first human beings in the creation story, he is given dominion over the earth and commanded to increase and multiply. Henceforth, humanity is allowed to eat meat: every moving thing that lives shall be food for you” (9:3*). There is a restriction, however, “only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Gen 9:4*). Moreover, the fact that humanity is made in the image of God is cited as reason to refrain from murder: “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind” (9:6*).

Perhaps the most important detail in the Priestly account of the flood is the covenant that God concludes with Noah at its end. God undertakes not to destroy the earth by flood again, and sets the rainbow in the sky as a sign of this promise. The covenant, however, is usually understood to include the commandment to Noah not to eat flesh with the blood in it. In Jewish tradition, these commandments were expanded and were understood to apply also to Gentiles. Typically, they included prohibitions of idolatry, cursing God, cursing judges, murder, incest and adultery, robbery, and the eating of meat with the blood. Gentiles who observed these laws could be regarded as righteous. The Priestly theology was primarily concerned with God’s commandments to Israel, but it also recognized the common human framework provided by creation.

The Tower of Babel

The final episode in the J Primeval History is the story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1–9*). The people who live in the land of Shinar (Babylon) resolve: “let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” (The tower is an allusion to the ziggurats, or stepped pyramids, associated with Babylonian temples.) Just as YHWH in the story of Adam and Eve seemed distrustful of human knowledge and discouraged its pursuit, here he seems distrustful of technological progress (and even urban development) and hastens to put a stop to it. Again, the story has an etiological aspect. It answers the question why people speak different languages. It is also a derisive explanation of the name of Babylon (Babel = babble). Israelites certainly knew about Babylon from an early time, but the obvious setting in which such a parody would make most sense is the Babylonian exile, or later, when the people of Judah had good reason to resent Babylonian pretensions.

[Page 81] Here again we have some reason to think that the section of J that deals with the Primeval History is a late composition. Thematically, the story of the tower provides an apt conclusion to this phase of history as it reiterates the theme of human limitation and the dangers involved in trying to be like God or to rise to the heavens.

The Priestly Genealogies

The Priestly editors of these narratives tried to integrate them into an unfolding history by inserting genealogies. One genealogy, in Genesis 5, traces the development of humanity from Adam to Noah. In chapter 10 we find a list of the descendants of Noah. Finally, in Genesis 11, the editor fills in the generations from Shem to Abram (Abraham). These genealogies are largely a connecting device in the narrative, but they also provide a way for the editors to posit relationships between the various peoples known to them. Both biblical accounts of creation assume a diffusionist model of the spread of humanity—since there was only one act of creation of humanity, all human beings must be ultimately related. Inevitably, these genealogies are fictional, but they served to bring a sense of order to the diversity of human society, and also helped to keep the biblical focus on the story of Israel in perspective. Even the Gentiles, in all their ethnic variations, were made in the image of God.

Further Reading

Commentaries

Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis. IBC. Atlanta: John Knox, 1982.

Fretheim, Terence E. “Genesis.” In NIB 1.319–426. Good homiletically oriented commentary.

Gunkel, Hermann. Genesis. Trans. M. E. Biddle. MLBS. Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, 1997.

Rad, Gerhard von. Genesis. Trans. J. H. Marks. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972. Brief but classic commentary.

Westermann, Claus. Genesis 1–11: A Commentary. Trans. J. J. Scullion. CC. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984. Best full historical-philological commentary.

Other Studies

Anderson, Gary A. The Genesis of Perfection: Adam and Eve in Jewish and Christian Imagination. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001. Interesting discussion of the ways in which the story of Adam and Eve was elaborated in later Jewish and Christian tradition.

Barr, James. The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993. Incisive clarification of what the text does and does not say.[Page 82]

Batto, Bernard F. Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville: Westminster, 1992 (41–101). Discussion of Genesis 1–3 in light of Babylonian parallels.

Brenner, Athalya, ed. A Feminist Companion to Genesis. FCB 1/2. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993. Collection of essays from a feminist perspective.

———. Genesis: The Feminist Companion to the Bible. FCB 2/1. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993. Collection of essays from a feminist perspective.

Garr, W. Randall. In His Own Image and Likeness: Humanity, Divinity, and Monotheism. CHANE ;15. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Detailed and penetrating analysis of Genesis 1.

L’Heureux, Conrad E. In and Out of Paradise: The Book of Genesis from Adam and Eve to the Tower of Babel. New York: Paulist, 1983. Excellent use of Babylonian parallels.

Meyers, Carol L. Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1988 (esp. 72–138). Feminist-historical reading. Questions traditional understanding of the fall.

Trible, Phyllis. God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. OBT. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978. Groundbreaking feminist-literary work.

[Page 83] 4

The Patriarchs

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Study Guide, Chapter 4

A new phase in biblical history is ushered in by the appearance of .Abraham, or Abram as he is initially called. (His name is changed to Abraham in Gen 17:5*; his wife is initially Sarai, but her name is changed to Sarah in 17:15*.) Abram is first introduced in a genealogical list in chapter 11, which is part of the Priestly source. In 11:31* we are told that he departed from “Ur of the Chaldeans” with his father Terah and his wife Sarai, “to go into the land of Canaan,” but settled in Haran on the way. This notice is also part of the Priestly source, but another reference to Ur of the Chaldeans in 15:7* is usually ascribed to J. The tradition that the ancestors of Israel came from Haran is also attested elsewhere in Genesis. Haran was a major city in northwestern Mesopotamia, on the river Balikh, an eastern tributary of the Euphrates. The area is also called Aram-Naharaim (Aram or Syria of the two rivers). It was situated on a major trade route, but this would have been a very roundabout way to get from Ur to the land of Canaan. Ur was a famous and ancient city in southern Mesopotamia that flourished in the third millennium b.c.e. It could be called “Ur of the Chaldeans,” however, only after the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, in the late seventh century b.c.e. The Chaldeans are only known to history from the ninth century b.c.e., when they appear to the south of Babylonia. The reference to Ur of the Chaldeans can be no older than the Babylonian exile, at a time when the departure of Abraham from there had great significance for Jews who would return from Babylon to Judah. (The reference to Ur of the Chaldeans in 15:7*, then, must be a secondary addition, unless we ascribe a very late date to J.)

[Page 84] Aspects of the Patriarchal Stories

The Patriarchs and History

As we saw in the Introduction, the internal chronology of the Bible suggests a date around 2100 b.c.e. for Abraham, and a time around 1876 for the descent of his grandson Jacob into Egypt with his family. Only extremely conservative scholars would now take these dates at face value, in view of the prodigious life spans attributed to the patriarchs, but many have tried to set the stories of Genesis against the background of a historical era. It is not unreasonable to expect that even a work of fiction should provide clues as to the time of its composition. Unlike many biblical books, however, the patriarchal stories are practically void of reference to public events that might be known from other sources. There is a rare account of war between kings in Genesis 14. (The five cities of the plain, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela or Zoar, rebel against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, which was east of Mesopotamia.) But none of the kings mentioned in this account is known from any other source. At one time, scholars held that Amraphel, king of Shinar, who is mentioned as an ally of Chedorlaomer, might be the famous Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who reigned around 1850–1800 b.c.e., and is associated with a famous law code (Shinar is often used as a name for Babylon in the Bible). If this were so, we could conclude that Abraham lived, or was supposed to have lived, at the same time. Unfortunately, however, the identification has no real basis and has been generally abandoned. On a more general level, scholars sought to associate the migration of Abraham with a major shift in Near Eastern culture in the early second millennium b.c.e. (This approach is associated especially with the American archaeologist William Foxwell Albright.) At this time, the great urban centers of Mesopotamia, such as Ur, went into decline. Akkadian texts from the time refer to “Amorites” or westerners, who supposedly moved in from the wilderness. These Amorites were also thought to expand to the west into Canaan. It was suggested that Abraham was part of this migration of Amorites. It is not clear, however, that the decline of the urban centers was really due to an invasion of Amorites, and the biblical account does not suggest that Abraham was part of a larger population shift. So the “Amorite hypothesis” has been generally abandoned for lack of evidence.

Since there are no references to known historical events in Genesis, scholars have tried to infer the historical era from the customs and lifestyle described. This attempt was encouraged by the discovery of comparative material from various sites in the ancient Near East, especially Mari on the Euphrates and Nuzi east of the Tigris. Mari flourished around the time of Hammurabi. The kind of society attested there is called “dimorphic” (or “twofold in form”) because it involved both a nomadic element and a population settled in towns. This is also the kind of society described in Genesis, where the patriarchs [Page 85] move around from place to place and interact with people settled in towns. But this kind of society was not peculiar to the age of Mari. In fact it has continued down to modern times, as can be seen from the survival of bedouin to this day. Accordingly, it is not of much help in determining a historical background for the patriarchal stories. Nuzi, in northern Iraq, also flourished in the mid-second millennium, when it was the capital of a Hurrian kingdom. (The Hurrians were a distinct ethnic group with their own language.) The significance of Nuzi for biblical studies lies chiefly in the realm of law and social customs. For example, a marriage contract found at Nuzi requires a barren wife to provide a slave woman to her husband to bear his children. In Genesis 16 Sarai gives her maid Hagar to Abram to bear him children, since she is barren. Again, it was claimed that in Hurrian society a wife enjoyed special standing and protection when the law recognized her as both wife and sister of her husband. This custom was thought to clarify the stories in Genesis where Abraham and Isaac tell people that their wives are their sisters. But again, the value of these parallels has been questioned. The custom that a barren wife had to provide a surrogate for her husband is also found in Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian texts, over several centuries. The evidence for the alleged Hurrian custom, whereby a wife was also called “sister,” is dubious and debatable. In any case, the biblical stories imply no such custom—rather, they describe attempts to trick unsuspecting strangers by misrepresenting the relationship between the patriarchs and their women.

One other alleged item that has been thought to support a second-millennium background for the patriarchal stories should be mentioned here. In Gen 14:13* Abram is called a Hebrew, ˓ibrî, a designation that is used again in the stories of Joseph and the exodus. People called Habiru or ‘Apiru appear repeatedly in a wide range of Near Eastern texts throughout the second millennium. This term does not refer to an ethnic group but designates people who were on the fringes of society. The Habiru sometimes appear as mercenaries, sometimes as fugitives, sometimes as slaves, sometimes as outlaws. (The corresponding Sumerian term, SA.GAZ, is related to a word for murderer, and is sometimes translated as “brigand”; Albright suggested that ‘Apiru originally meant “dusty-footed.”) There has been extensive, but inconclusive, debate as to whether Hebrew can derive from Habiru. The Hebrews often appear as marginal people in the early books of the Bible. We shall consider the possible Habiru connection again in the next chapter, in connection with the origin of Israel. For the present, it is sufficient to note that even if Abraham were regarded as Habiru, this would not point to any specific chronological background, as Habiru are attested throughout the second millennium.

There is, then, no positive evidence that requires us to set the background of the patriarchs in the early or middle part of the second millennium. Moreover, several considerations tell against such an early background. The Philistines, who are mentioned in Gen 21:32–34*; 26:1*, 8*, 14–15*, were one of the Sea Peoples who invaded the coastal plain [Page 86] in the twelfth century, and gave their name to “Palestine.” The Arameans, who figure especially in the Jacob stories, are attested only from the end of the second millennium (eleventh century). The earliest mention of the camel as a domesticated animal dates only from the eleventh century, and its use became common only some centuries later. Archaeological evidence suggests that Beersheba was not settled before the twelfth century. Even if we allow that some references may have been added secondarily, this evidence makes it unlikely that these stories originated earlier than the end of the second millennium b.c.e. or the beginning of the first.

The Patriarchal Stories as Legends

In fact, the stories of Genesis do not lend themselves easily to historical analysis. As Hermann Gunkel saw clearly, at the end of the nineteenth century, they belong not to the genre of historiography but to that of legend. Gunkel allowed that historical memories may be preserved in legends, “clothed in poetic garb,” but he offered several criteria by which the two genres may be distinguished. Legend, according to Gunkel, is originally oral tradition, while history is usually found in written form. Written material is more easily given a fixed form, whereas oral variants of the same tales tend to proliferate. History and legend have different spheres of interest. History treats great public occurrences, while legend deals with more personal and private matters. Even when legends concern matters of great historical import, they still tend to focus on the personal. History would be expected to tell how and for what reasons David succeeded in delivering Israel from the Philistines; legend prefers to tell how the boy David once slew a Philistine giant. The clearest criterion of legend, wrote Gunkel, is that it frequently reports things that are incredible. It is poetry rather than prose, and a different sort of plausibility applies. As poetry, legend aims to please, to elevate, to inspire, and to move. It does not necessarily aspire to tell “what actually happened” in a way that would satisfy a modern historian.

Gunkel went on to distinguish several kinds of legends in Genesis. Etiological legends claim to explain the cause or origin of a phenomenon (e.g., the story of Lot’s wife explains the origin of a pillar of salt). Ethnological legends explain the origin of a people or of their customs (the story of Cain explains why Kenites are itinerant). Etymological legends explain the origin of names (there are two accounts of the origin of the name of Beersheba: Gen 21:31*; 26:33*). Ceremonial legends explain the origin of a ritual (the story of the Passover is an obvious example; the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17 explains why his descendants practice circumcision). Gunkel did not rule out the possibility that historical reminiscences might be preserved in such legends, but he changed the focus of inquiry, from the events behind the text to the function of the story and its setting in life, or Sitz im Leben. His question was, why, and in what kind of setting, was this story told? Many stories were presumably told in a cultic setting—for example, to explain why [Page 87] Bethel was a holy place (Genesis 28)—but some may also have been told simply for entertainment.

The History of Traditions

Building on the work of Gunkel, a movement in German scholarship attempted to trace the history of the oral traditions behind the biblical text. The most influential exponent of this movement was Martin Noth (1902–68). Noth found a clue to the origin of a tradition in the place with which it was associated. For example, Abraham is repeatedly associated with the “oaks of Mamre” near Hebron, south of Jerusalem. Isaac is associated with Beersheba, further south. Jacob is linked with Bethel, Shechem, and the central hill country. Noth supposed that the traditions about the individual patriarchs originated separately in the different regions.

It is clear, however, that at some point these traditions were linked together to form a genealogy of the ancestors of Israel. Jacob is identified as the father of the people of Israel; his name is changed to Israel in Genesis 32. His twelve sons give their names to the tribes that constitute Israel. Moreover, he is associated with the central hill country, which was the heartland of Israel before the rise of the monarchy. Yet in Genesis priority is given to Abraham, who is associated with the area later known as Judah. There are two periods in biblical history when such a construction would have made sense. One was in the time of David and Solomon, when (at least according to the biblical account) all Israel was united under a Judean monarchy. Scholars of von Rad’s generation, in the mid-twentieth century, dated the Yahwist to the reign of Solomon partly for this reason. The other was after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 b.c.e., when Judah had reason and opportunity to assert its leadership of all Israel, north and south. If we accept the usual view that J was a southern account of Israel’s prehistory and E a northern one, it is plausible that these traditions would have been combined after the fall of the northern kingdom. Both J and E, however, already assume the succession of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so it is likely that the linkage of the patriarchs was already established before the split between the northern and southern kingdoms.

There is good reason to think that the linking of the patriarchs in a genealogical succession was an early attempt to define the people of Israel, by showing how the tribes were related to each other. It is important that the genealogical links bind Judah and Benjamin (the eventual southern kingdom) to the northern tribes, and so create a basis for regarding all Israel as a unity. It is also noteworthy that these stories insist that Abraham and his descendants were not Canaanites. They allegedly came from Mesopotamia, and continued to go back there to seek wives for some generations. The more recent archaeological work in Israel rather suggests that the Israelites emerged out of Canaan. There is no evidence of the intrusion of a different material culture, such as we might expect if [Page 88] they had actually come from Mesopotamia. The persistent attempt to deny Canaanite origins can be explained as a way of marking a boundary between Israel and Canaan. Since the Canaanites were the Israelites’ nearest neighbors, this was the most necessary boundary if Israel were to have its own identity. The patriarchal stories viewed as a whole, then, can be understood as an attempt to define Israel over against its neighbors, by positing some relationships and denying others.

Many of the stories in Genesis are folkloric in character, and they surely evolved over centuries. A few features of these stories, however, are significant for their historical background, even if they do not suggest a specific date. There is no reference in Genesis to an Israelite or Judean king. There is no doubt that the final edition of these stories was either under or after the monarchy, but the narrative setting in premonarchic times is consistently maintained. This fact lends some credibility to the view that the stories first took shape before the rise of the monarchy. Also, the religion of the patriarchs is significantly different from that of Deuteronomy or the Priestly source.

Patriarchal Religion

Abraham has a strong personal relationship with a God who makes promises to him and protects him. Isaac is guided by “the God of your father Abraham” (26:24*). Jacob has a revelation from “the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac” (28:13*). God tells Abraham, “I am your shield” (15:1*). Jacob swears by “the Fear of Isaac” (31:53*; cf. 31:42*). We read of the Mighty One (or Bull) of Jacob (49:24*). The experience of the God of the fathers is not limited to any specific place; the protection of this God follows the patriarchs wherever they go. This form of worship is especially well suited for nomadic or migratory tribes.

But the patriarchs also worship God in specific places, as manifestations of the God El. El was the common Hebrew, and Northwest Semitic, word for “god,” but it was also the name of the high god in the Canaanite myths from Ugarit. In Genesis 14 Abraham gives a tithe to Melchizedek, king of Salem (presumably Jerusalem), priest of El Elyon (God Most High). By so doing he recognizes, and lends legitimacy to, an established Canaanite cult. In fact, El and YHWH are recognized as one and the same god in biblical religion. According to the Elohist and Priestly strands of the Pentateuch, the name YHWH was not revealed until Exodus, and so the patriarchs worshiped El in his various manifestations. In contrast, the Canaanite god Baal is not mentioned at all in Genesis, and the patriarchs are never said to worship a goddess. So the patriarchs appear to participate in Canaanite religion in a modified form, or to appropriate it in a selective way. It is possible, of course, that the selectivity is due to later editors, who edited out of the tradition religious observances that might be deemed offensive.

[Page 89] The patriarchs encounter El under different names and in different manifestations. He can be called El-Roi (16:13*), or El Shaddai (17:1*; 28:3*, etc.). In Genesis 28 Jacob has a dream, in which he sees a ladder going up to heaven and the angels of God going up and down on it. When he awakes, he declares: “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it” (28:16*), and so he names it Bethel, the house of God. He has another encounter with divinity in Genesis 32, at the ford of the Jabbok. Spirits were often thought to guard points of transition, such as fords, in antiquity, and there is probably an old legend underlying this story. Jacob names the place “Peniel,” or “Penuel,” “for I have seen God face-to-face and lived.” All these manifestations might be regarded as local spirits, but in Genesis, and probably also in ancient religion, they are regarded as different manifestations of the same god.

There is a striking discrepancy between the manner of worship practiced by the patriarchs and that which is commanded later in the Bible. Wherever the patriarchs go, they build altars to the Lord. Abram builds an altar by the oak of Mamre, and again between Bethel and Ai. Later he plants a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and calls there on the name of the Lord. Isaac builds an altar in Beersheba, and Jacob at Bethel and Shechem. At Bethel, Jacob takes the stone he had used as a pillow and sets it up as a pillar, and pours oil on it. Later, in Deuteronomy 12, Israel is commanded to restrict sacrificial worship to the one “place which the Lord your God shall choose.” Then: “you must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods” (Deut 12:2–3*).

Deuteronomic law did not apply to the patriarchs, who were supposed to have lived before Moses. Nonetheless, the association of the patriarchs with a given shrine marked it as a holy place, and gave it legitimacy in the eyes of later tradition. In fact, several stories in Genesis seem to have been preserved in order to legitimate, or establish the holiness of, specific sites. In Genesis 14 Abraham accepts a blessing from Melchizedek, king of Salem, and gives him a tithe of everything he has taken in battle. Salem, or Jerusalem, was an old Canaanite city, with its own religious traditions. Since Abraham acted respectfully toward Melchizedek, however, it was all right for later Israelites or Judeans to worship there. In Psalm 110 the king of Judah is told “you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” While it is not clear precisely what this means, it certainly shows that the Judean kings did not entirely repudiate their Canaanite heritage. Melchizedek, king and priest of El Elyon, was an ancestor of whom one could be proud.

Jerusalem, of course, was later regarded as the place that the Lord had chosen. In the books of Kings, and sometimes in the Prophets, great scorn is poured on the rival [Page 90] sanctuary of Bethel, which was one of two state temples erected by King Jeroboam I, when the northern kingdom of Israel seceded from Jerusalem (1 Kgs 12:25–33*; the other one was at Dan, on the northern border of Israel). Yet in Genesis 28 we read how Jacob discovered that Bethel was “none other than the house of God and gate of heaven” (28:17*). This would seem to establish that Bethel was a holy place, and so lend credibility to Jeroboam’s sanctuary. Most of Genesis 28 comes from E, the northern strand of the patriarchal narrative, but vv. 11–16* are clearly Yahwistic (Jacob concludes, “surely YHWH is in this place, and I did not know it”). It is not clear, however, that the place was identified as Bethel in the J source. The identification of the site of Jacob’s dream as Bethel may have been the contribution of the northern, Elohistic, writer. Interestingly, Jeroboam is also said to build Penuel (1 Kgs 12:25*), the scene of Jacob’s encounter with God (or an angel) in Genesis 32. Here again the Elohist may have been giving support to Jeroboam’s actions by associating his sites with the patriarch Jacob.

It is at least clear that the stories of Genesis were not the work of the Deuteronomistic school, which made the centralization of religion into a criterion for true religion. In part, at least, the religion of the patriarchs was the kind of observance that the Deuteronomists sought to suppress. The stories about the patriarchs must have been established as part of Israel’s heritage too strongly for the Deuteronomists to repudiate them. It is reasonable, then, to conclude that Genesis reflects a form of popular, family religion that flourished before the Deuteronomic reform. One cannot, however, take these stories as a reliable or full account of Israelite religion in any period. They are stories about a past, which was always idealized to some extent, and may have been edited to some degree besides. They are of some value to the historian of religion, but that value is limited by the lack of explicit historical data.

Genesis as Religious Narrative

Regardless of their historical value, the tales of the patriarchs remain powerful as stories. In large part this is because, like all good folklore, they touch on perennial issues, such as jealousy between a woman and her rival (Sarah and Hagar) or rivalry between brothers (Jacob and Esau). Many of the stories are entertaining—Abraham’s ability to outwit the pharaoh or the gentle story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24. Others are tales of terror, in the phrase of Phyllis Trible—the command to Abraham to sacrifice his only son, or Lot’s willingness to sacrifice his daughters to the men of Sodom (Genesis 19). When the stories are read as Scripture, they become more problematic, because of a common but ill-founded assumption that all Scripture should be edifying. The stories of Genesis are often challenging and stimulating, but they seldom if ever propose simple models to be imitated.

[Page 91] The Abraham Cycle

The Theme of the Promise

The J account of Abraham begins in Genesis 12. YHWH commands the patriarch to “go forth from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This passage introduces the theme of the promise to the fathers, which runs through Genesis and is arguably the unifying theme of the Pentateuch. Some scholars regard it as a late editorial addition, introduced to bring disparate material together. It certainly has an editorial function, but it does not necessarily belong to the latest strata of the Pentateuch. It is sufficient that it belong to the work of the author/editor that we call J. There are no strings attached to the promise. All Abraham has to do is trust in YHWH and obey the command to move.

Both J and P provide a more formal account of the promise to Abraham, casting it in the form of a covenant. The J account is found in Genesis 15 (with some additions that are usually ascribed to E). The point of departure is provided by Abraham’s desire for an heir, and his distress over being childless. This is a familiar motif in ancient Near Eastern literature. It appears in the Ugaritic stories of Aqhat and Kirta. Abraham, however, is promised more than a child. He is told to “look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them … so shall your descendants be.” This promise is formalized in a covenant. Abraham is told to take a heifer, she-goat, ram, turtledove, and young pigeon, and cut each in two. Then a deep sleep and terrifying darkness fall on Abraham, and when the sun has gone down, fire passes between the pieces. Then the Lord formally promises that he will give this land to Abraham’s descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.

The ritual described in this passage relates to the Hebrew idiom for making a covenant, which is to “cut” a covenant. An explanation of the ritual is suggested by a passage in Jer 34:18*: “And those who transgressed my covenant … I will make like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts.” In short, the ritual implies a threat—the one who does not abide by the covenant will be cut in two like the sacrificial victim. In the case of Genesis 15, however, there is no threat implied. The ritual merely indicates that it is a formal covenant. The kind of covenant involved here is quite different from that which God makes with Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai. In the latter case, there is a law attached, and the benefits of the covenant are contingent on keeping the law. The covenant with Abraham is really a grant—an unconditional promise. A similar covenant [Page 92] is made with David in 2 Samuel 7, and this is one of a number of correspondences that link Abraham and David. In each case, the promise pertains to the descendants of the recipient. All that is required of Abraham, or of David, is that they trust in the promise. The Priestly account of God’s covenant with Abraham, which is found in Genesis 17, introduces another requirement—every male among the descendants of Abraham must be circumcised.

The statement in Gen 15:6*, “And he [Abraham] believed in the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness,” has played an important and controversial role in Christian theology. It is cited by St. Paul in Gal 3:6*. Paul argues that since Abraham is also told that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed in him (Gen 12:3*), this shows that Gentiles can be justified by faith, not by the law. This argument later played a fundamental role in the theology of Martin Luther. Needless to say, there is no contrast between faith and law implied in Genesis (although it is true that there is no requirement of legal observance). Faith here is trust in the promise. In Jewish interpretation, the key element is that the promise relates to possession of the land. The promise to Abraham is seen as the original charter for possession of the land of Israel.

The extent of the land, from the Nile to the Euphrates, far exceeds the territory over which the kingdoms of Israel and Judah would later rule. It has sometimes been claimed that the passage reflects, and justifies, the extent of the empire of David and Solomon, but even the biblical text does not claim that they ruled so much. Second Samuel 8 claims that David placed garrisons in Damascus and received presents from the king of Hamath, but his dominion nonetheless stops well short of the Euphrates. Recent historians are increasingly skeptical about the extent of the supposed empire, for lack of archaeological evidence. In any case, it is clear that the territory promised to Abraham is exaggerated and does not correspond to anything in actual Israelite history. It does, however, establish a key element of later Israelite and Jewish identity. It claims that the land later called Israel was promised to this people by God, in a formal covenant. This land includes the territories later ruled by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The claim to this territory is presumably no earlier than the time of David, when the tribes of Israel were forged into a unified kingdom (according to the biblical record). It could, however, be much later, and reflect the dreams of a greater Israel on the part of the southern kingdom of Judah, after the northern kingdom had been destroyed.

Tales of Deception

Despite the election of Abraham and the promise made to him in Genesis 12, his actions are not always exemplary. On two occasions (Gen 12:10–20*; 20:1–7*), he passes off his wife as his sister. A very similar story is told about Isaac in Gen 26:6–11*. Genesis 12:10–20* and 26:6–11* are usually assigned to the J source, while the Gen 20:1–7* is from E. The [Page 93] similarity between the stories suggests a background in oral tradition, where essentially the same story is easily transferred from one character to another. The stories are not simple retellings, however, but ring some changes that highlight the central problem.

In Genesis 12 the protagonists are Abram and a nameless pharaoh. Abram goes down to Egypt because of famine, a common experience of Asiatics in the second millennium. Fearing that the Egyptians would kill him to take Sarai, his wife, he says that she is his sister. Pharaoh takes her and deals well with Abram. We are not told that Pharaoh sleeps with Sarai, but neither are we told that he does not. In any case, he is smitten with plagues. Again we are not told how Pharaoh knows that the plagues are because of Sarai. The narrator tells us that the plagues are the work of YHWH. The pharaoh sends Abraham away (rather than kill him), presumably because he fears the power that caused the plague. The most striking feature of this story is Abram’s apparent willingness to prostitute his wife, and the fact that he is nonetheless rewarded. Morality is obviously not the point of the story. Rather, it is a story of ethnic, or tribal, pride—how our ancestor Abram outwitted the pharaoh. YHWH here appears to be a tribal god, who champions his servant Abram no matter what.

In Genesis 20 the protagonists are Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar. The reason for passing off Sarah is assumed, on the basis of the earlier story. She is presumed to be irresistibly attractive (although in Genesis 18 she was already old and advanced in years). In this case God intervenes in a dream to Abimelech to protect Sarah’s virtue (dreams are a favorite motif of the Elohist writer). Moreover, Abimelech is greatly concerned to assert his innocence. There is no expression of concern on Abraham’s part, but then God tells Abimelech that Abraham is a prophet, so he may be presumed to have known how things would turn out. The simple delight in outwitting a foreign ruler, however, is tempered here by the concern for Sarah’s virtue.

The third instance of this motif, in Genesis 26, pairs Isaac with Abimelech, who is now identified as a Philistine. In this case Isaac announces that Rebekah is his sister, but the Philistines make no move to take her. Eventually, Abimelech sees Isaac fondling Rebekah and concludes that she is his wife. Again, Abimelech seems more concerned than the Hebrew patriarch, apparently out of fear of what might have befallen himself or his people if they incurred guilt. So he warns his people not to touch either Isaac or Rebekah. The concern here is for the guilt incurred in taking another man’s wife. Abimelech challenges Isaac about the deception, but a few verses later (26:12*) we read that YHWH blessed the patriarch. Deception is apparently permitted for a patriarch if his welfare seems to require it. At this point in the biblical narrative, the motif of election overrides some moral considerations, although there is increased sensitivity about sexual issues.

Later Jewish tradition was troubled by the patriarchal deception, and sought to retell the stories so as to avoid offense. The Genesis Apocryphon (cols. 19–20), an Aramaic [Page 94] paraphrase of Genesis found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, has a colorful retelling of the story of Abram and Sarai in Egypt. First, Abram is warned in a dream that the Egyptians will try to kill him, and that Sarai must protect him by saying that he is her brother. The Egyptians are amazed at the beauty of Sarai, and describe it to Pharaoh in detail. Sure enough, the pharaoh takes Sarai and tries to kill Abram, but Sarai says he is her brother. Then God afflicts Pharaoh with “a chastising spirit” so that he is unable to approach Sarai, much less have intercourse with her. Finally, Abram is asked to pray for the king, and only then do the Egyptians learn the cause of the affliction—that Sarai is Abram’s wife. Pharaoh’s outrage is tempered by the fact that he needs Abram to pray for him and expel the evil spirit, and so he sends Abram away with lavish gifts. In this form of the story, the primary concern again is that Sarai not be defiled, but the actual deception is placed in her mouth rather than in Abram’s, and it has an honorable and urgent motive.

Fathers and Sons

Another set of issues is raised in the Abraham cycle by the question of an heir who should inherit the promise. At first, Abraham worries that “the heir to my house is Eliezer of Damascus” (Gen 15:2*). Then he has a child, Ishmael, by Hagar, Sarah’s slave girl. Here again there is an ethnographic aspect to the story: Ishmael becomes the ancestor of a desert tribe. Like the story of Jacob and Esau, the account of Ishmael explains how Israel was defined over against its neighbors by divine choices that seem quite arbitrary. But this story too raises moral questions, not only for modern sensibilities.

The story is told twice, with variations, in Genesis 16 (J) and 21 (E). In the J account, the conflict between Hagar and Sarai arises when Hagar becomes pregnant and looks on Sarai with contempt. Abram makes no attempt to defend her, but allows Sarai to do as she pleases, so that Hagar has to flee. The angel of the Lord intervenes, and persuades Hagar to return, by promising that her son will have plentiful offspring, even though he will be “a wild ass of a man” and will live “at odds with his kin.” But Hagar is also told to submit to her mistress. We are left in no doubt about Sarai’s greater importance in the eyes of the Lord. Abram does not come off well in this story, as he makes no attempt to defend his offspring; but, typically, he is not censured in the text.

The E account locates the conflict later, after Isaac is born and weaned. In this case Sarah’s harshness to Hagar has less justification: she cannot abide the thought that the son of a slave woman would be on a par with her son. This time Abraham is distressed, but God tells him that Sarah is right, and that through Isaac the promise will be transmitted. He then sends Hagar and her child off into the wilderness. The plight of mother and child in the desert anticipates the later wandering of Israel and that of the prophet Elijah. In each case God comes to the rescue. This time there is no reason for Hagar or Ishmael to return to Abraham, but God causes the boy to prosper in the wilderness. Here [Page 95] again the idea of divine election seems to take priority over human compassion. The story seems to champion ethnocentrism, by suggesting that those who do not belong to the chosen people can be sent away. We shall meet a chilling application of the same principle much later in the Bible in the book of Ezra, where Ezra makes the Judean men who have married foreign women send them away with their children. The Elohist softens the story by assuring us that God looked after Hagar and Ishmael. There is no such assurance in the book of Ezra. Once again, the story raises a profound issue, one that will come up many times in the Bible, but it hardly points to a satisfactory solution.

The crowning episode in the narratives about Abraham’s heirs is the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22. The basic story, 22:1–14*, 19*, is generally ascribed to the E source, like the story of Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis 21. Verses 15–18* (“The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time …”) are generally recognized as a secondary addition, which integrates the story into the Yahwistic theme of the promise. There are some problems with the source-critical division, since “the angel of the Lord” is mentioned in v. 11* and v. 14* explains the name Moriah by the phrase “YHWH will see.” Evidently, the story has been reworked by different hands, and this helps explain why several different emphases can be detected in it. Nonetheless, the spare artistry of the story has been widely and rightly praised.

The opening verse is exceptional among the stories of Genesis in offering an explicit key to interpretation: “God tested Abraham.” The test is eventually aborted, but there is no doubt that Abraham passes. Abraham is commended in v. 12* and again in the redactional addition in vv. 16–18*. This is not just any test, however. Abraham is told to take his only son, Isaac, whom he loves, and offer him up as a burnt offering. While the reader is told in advance that this is a test, Abraham is not. To appreciate the force of the story, the awfulness of the command must be taken fully seriously.

Another key to the story is provided by the theme of providence. Abraham tells Isaac that “God himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering” (v. 8*). At this point in the story, this is an understandable attempt to dodge the awful truth, but it is more prophetic than Abraham knows. When the angel of the Lord intervenes, Abraham names the place “the Lord will provide.”

Yet another key to the story lies in the repetition of the promise to Abraham in vv. 15–18*. While this passage is an editorial addition, it integrates the story into the main theme that now binds the patriarchal stories together.

The fascination of the story, however, lies in the specific content of the command to Abraham to sacrifice his only legitimate son. We do not know how widely human (child) sacrifice was practiced in ancient Israel, but there can be no doubt that it was practiced, down close to the time of the Babylonian exile. Kings of Judah (Ahaz in the eighth century, 2 Kgs 16:3*; Manasseh in the seventh century, 2 Kgs 21:6*) made their sons “pass [Page 96] through fire,” that is, offered them as burnt offerings. There was an installation called the Topheth in Ge (valley) Hinnom outside Jerusalem, where children were burned as victims (hence the name Gehenna for hell in New Testament times). King Josiah destroyed the Topheth in the reform of 621 b.c.e., allegedly so that “no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech” (2 Kgs 23:10*). Molech is usually taken to be a Canaanite god, and some interpreters are quick to conclude that child sacrifice was a Canaanite custom. But there is evidence that it was also practiced in the name of YHWH, God of Israel. The eighth-century prophet Micah addresses a Yahwistic worshiper who wonders: “with what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? … Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Mic 6:6–8*). Micah replies that God requires only justice and kindness, but the question shows that a worshiper of YHWH could contemplate child sacrifice in the eighth century b.c.e. Moreover, child sacrifice appears to be commanded in Exod 22:28–29*: “The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth you shall give it to me” (Hebrew verse 28*, English verse 29*). This commandment is modified in Exod 34:19–20*, which likewise says that “all that first opens the womb is mine,” but adds, “all the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.” (Similarly, the firstborn of a donkey could be redeemed by substituting a lamb, but if it was not redeemed it had to be killed.) Underlying this commandment is the conviction that all life is from God, and that God’s right to the firstborn must be acknowledged, in order to ensure future fertility. We should expect that human firstborn sons were normally redeemed, as commanded in Exodus 34, but it is remarkable that the stark commandment in Exodus 22 is left on the books.

YHWH is also said to have commanded human sacrifice in Ezek 20:25–26*: “Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live. I defiled them through all their very gifts, in their offering up all their firstborn, in order that I might horrify them, so that they might know that I am the Lord.” Ezekiel does not attribute child sacrifice to Canaanite influence. He may have had Exodus 22 in mind. In any case, he provides further testimony that child sacrifice was practiced in Judah, down to the time of the exile. The polemic against child sacrifice in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah would not have been necessary if this had not been the case.

Unlike Deuteronomy and Jeremiah, Genesis 22 does not condemn child sacrifice or polemicize against it. On the contrary, Abraham is praised for his willingness to carry it out. He does not have to go through with it, but that may be an exceptional case, because of Abraham’s exceptional standing. We shall meet a counterpoint to this story in Judges 11, in the story of Jephthah. Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord that if he is victorious in battle he will sacrifice “whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me.” The [Page 97] language clearly implies human sacrifice. Unfortunately for Jephthah, he is greeted by his only daughter. He expresses more grief than Abraham, and is no less steadfast in fulfilling his vow. Modern commentators often fault Jephthah, since, unlike Abraham, he brought his misfortune on himself by a rash vow. But the Bible does not pronounce his vow rash, or pass judgment on him at all. (The New Testament proclaims him, like Abraham, a hero of faith, in Heb 11:32–34*.) Moreover, he seems to make his vow under the influence of the spirit of the Lord (Judg 11:20–21*). In this case there is no ram in the bushes. The Lord does not always provide a substitute.

While child sacrifice is not repudiated in Genesis 22, it was emphatically rejected by the later tradition. The tradition continued to praise the obedience of Abraham, but there is evident discomfort both with the idea that God gave such a command and with Abraham’s willingness to carry it out. On the one hand, it was suggested that the idea of the sacrifice came from Satan, just as Satan incited God to test Job. So the book of Jubilees, in the second century b.c.e., has the idea originate with Mastema, leader of the host of demons (Jub. 17:16). On the other hand, Targum Neofiti (an Aramaic paraphrase of the Bible from the early Christian period) has Abraham tell Isaac openly that he is to be sacrificed. Isaac responds by asking Abraham to bind him properly, so that he may not kick and make the sacrifice unfit. (In Jewish tradition, the sacrifice of Isaac is known as the Akedah, or Binding.) Other Jewish sources from the early Christian era also emphasize that Isaac was a willing victim and that his willingness was meritorious. This interpretation of the story may already be found in a fragmentary text from the Dead Sea Scrolls from the pre-Christian era (4Q225).

The story continues to fascinate philosophers and theologians down to modern times. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard reasoned that Abraham could only be justified by “the teleological suspension of the ethical”—the idea that ethical standards do not apply to a divine command. Immanuel Kant, the great German philosopher of the Enlightenment, offered a more penetrating critique. For Kant, the problem was how one can know whether such a command comes from God in the first place: “There are certain cases in which man can be convinced that it cannot be God whose voice he thinks he hears; when the voice command him to do what is opposed to the moral law, though the phenomenon seem to him ever so majestic and surpassing the whole of nature, he must count it a deception” (see Kant, The Conflict of the Faculties [Trans. M. J. Gregor; New York: Abaris, 1979] 115). He went on to cite the story of Abraham as a case in point. This is of course a modern critique, which arises in a world where God is not thought to speak to people on a daily basis, and claims of divine revelation are regarded as problematic. We shall find, however, that such a critique is not as foreign to the Bible as we might suppose. Increasingly, as the biblical history unfolds, the authenticity of revelation becomes a problem. We shall find this especially in the debates over true and false [Page 98] prophecy. In the matter of revelation, as in the matter of child sacrifice, we must acknowledge development in the biblical corpus, although that development does not necessarily proceed in a straight line.

The Jacob Cycle

Jacob the Trickster

Deception is a minor theme in the Abraham cycle, but it figures more prominently in the stories of Jacob. A prime example is presented by the story of Jacob and Esau in Genesis 27. The context is the rivalry between the two brothers that began already in the womb. The success of the younger brother is a well-known folkloric motif. There are other instances in the Bible, such as the story of David. In the case of Jacob and Esau, the rivalry is exacerbated by the fact that Esau is a hunter, while Jacob lives a settled life (compare the story of Cain and Abel). Jacob, however, succeeds by deceiving his aging, blind father and stealing the blessing meant for his brother. He does so with the connivance of his mother. His father Isaac cannot revoke the blessing. The story is told in exquisite detail, and no moral judgments are made. One is left to marvel at the strange way in which the blessing is transmitted.

In part, the tale is ethnological. Esau becomes the ancestor of Edom, Judah’s neighbor to the south. In part, it is a folkloric tale, with Jacob cast in the role of the trickster, who breaks the rules but is nonetheless attractive and winsome. Such stories provide relief from the earnestness of rule-bound life—the point is not that one should do likewise, but one can get vicarious pleasure from watching Jacob “get away with it.” In this respect the Jacob stories are exceptional in the Bible, where moral earnestness is usually the rule. But while we may appreciate the trickery of Jacob, it is still somewhat troubling that the ancestor of Israel gets his blessing by deceit. Jacob is no saint. The prophet Hosea later says of him: “in the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God” (Hos 12:3*). To some degree, he suffers consequences for his deception. He is himself the victim of deception in his dealings with Laban (Genesis 29–30) and again when he is told that his son Joseph is dead (37:29–35*). Nonetheless, he does not lose the blessing. He is not censured for his deception in Genesis, but his moral ambiguity should be kept in mind. This is not the only time that God “writes straight with crooked lines” in the Bible. The manner in which Israel, the tribes descended from Jacob, is said to take possession of the promised land raises more severe moral problems. Increasingly in the Bible, however, and as we shall see even in Genesis, the moral ambiguity of Israel is recognized. The status of “holy people” is an ideal in much of the Bible. It is seldom if ever an actual state.

[Page 99] Jacob’s character changes somewhat as he ages. In Genesis 34 we read of the rape of Jacob’s daughter Dinah and the sack of Shechem. The protagonist of the story, Shechem, is the figure who gives his name to the town in the central highlands that would figure prominently in the story of early Israel (see Joshua 24). Shechem, we are told, genuinely loved Dinah, despite the fact that he had raped her. His offer to marry her may sound monstrous by modern standards, but not by those of the ancient world. Deuteronomy 22:28* requires a man who seizes a virgin and lies with her to pay a bride-price and marry her. Since he has defiled her, he is not allowed to divorce her. The feelings of the young woman do not seem to be taken into account. The primary consideration is her economic well-being. It would be difficult for a woman who had been raped to find a husband. Shechem’s offer of marriage, then, may be construed as sincere and well intended. Moreover, Shechem’s father, Hamor, issues an invitation that reverberates through the history of Israel and Judaism, down to modern times: “Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall live with us, and the land shall be open to you” (Gen 34:9–10*).

Jacob’s reaction to the incident is low-key, as befits an aging patriarch. His sons, however, are hot-blooded, and see only the insult to their family honor. Their reply to Shechem is explicitly acknowledged to be deceitful. They agree to give Dinah in marriage only if every male in Shechem is circumcised. Circumcision becomes one of the distinctive ethnic marks of Judaism in the postexilic period, but the custom was certainly older. Here it is used as a trick, so that sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, can attack the Shechemites “when they were still in pain.” They kill Hamor and Shechem and plunder the city. They rescue Dinah (but again we are not told whether she wished to be rescued). They even take the wives of the men of Shechem as booty.

Thus far, Genesis 34 might seem to be another case where the Hebrews outwit the Gentiles. The most remarkable aspect of the story, however, is its conclusion. Jacob reproaches Simeon and Levi: “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed” (Gen 34:30*). This statement is remarkably pragmatic. The Canaanites are not demonized here, as they are so often in the Hebrew Bible. There is rather recognition that the Hebrews need to live with them. But the words of Jacob are not the author’s final verdict. The sons reply, “Why should our sister be treated like a whore?” (34:31*). Honor, too, has its claim. The text leaves the question open. What is remarkable here, however, is the critical spirit that recognizes that there is more than one side to the question.

The story of the sack of Shechem was popular in Second Temple Judaism, when Shechem was the city of the Samaritans, whom the Jews regarded as descendants of Assyrian settlers, even though they worshiped the God of Israel. The story is retold in [Page 100] Jubilees 30, without any qualms. The judgment against the Shechemites was given from heaven. Moreover, if any man in Israel wanted to give his daughter or his sister in marriage to a Gentile, he should be stoned to death. The lines between Jew and Gentile are more sharply drawn in the later text. The themes of Genesis 34, circumcision and intermarriage, are central issues in Second Temple Judaism, and much less prominent before the exile. The story in Genesis 34 must be taken to reflect some diversity of opinion on relations with Gentiles. Even in the Second Temple period, not all Jews were as hard-line as the author of Jubilees.

Judah and Tamar

A more striking example of the emerging critical spirit is found in the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. Once again, the story has several facets. In one respect, it is a genealogical tale; it explains the strange ancestry by which King David was descended from Judah. It could be taken to have political overtones, since it shows Judah, ancestor of the tribe that dominated the southern kingdom and gave its name to Judaism, in a rather bad light. Mainly, however, it is a morality tale on the dangers of double standards and moral absolutes.

The story begins with Judah’s marriage to a Canaanite woman. This is not condemned in the text, but it goes against the practice of the patriarchs hitherto. When their son Er dies, his brother Onan is expected to “go in” to his widow, Tamar, to raise up offspring to him. (This is known as the levirate law. It is spelled out in Deut 25:5–10*.) When Onan shirks his duty in this regard, he too dies. Judah then tells Tamar to wait until his youngest son Shelah has grown up, but he does not give her to him in marriage. Tamar then decides to take the initiative. She dresses like a prostitute, covering her face, and waits for Judah by the roadside when he is at a sheepshearing. The conquest is easy. There is no implication that Judah does anything extraordinary when he hires a prostitute. He promises a kid from the flock as payment, but she prudently secures pledges from him. When he sends the kid, there is no prostitute there. Only at this point does Judah show embarrassment, that he may be a laughingstock. When Tamar is found to be pregnant, however, Judah suddenly becomes a pillar of rectitude: “Bring her out; let her be burned.” (In Deut 22:24* the penalty for fornication is death by stoning. Burning is demanded only in the story of Tamar.) When he sees the pledges, however, he quickly acknowledges that “she is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” There is no suggestion that Judah should be punished for his action, but the passage is unique in Genesis for its explicit admission that a patriarch was in the wrong. There is also a recognition here of the relativity of law—Tamar’s actions are justified because she is pursuing a greater good, the continuation of her husband’s line. In [Page 101] fact, one of her twin sons, Perez, becomes the ancestor of King David. An act of deception and prostitution becomes a pivotal link in the transmission of the divine promise. Such is the irony of history.

The Joseph Story

The story of Judah and Tamar is integrated into the longer and more complex story of Joseph, which provides the richest illustration in Genesis of the irony of history and mystery of providence. This story is obviously different in kind from the short, folkloric tales that make up most of the patriarchal history. The Joseph story is a novella, a superb example of early prose fiction. Traditionally, the story has been attributed to the Yahwist (J) with some passages assigned to the Elohist (E). The argument for this division rests on the observation of several duplications. The brothers of Joseph appear as sons of Israel (J) or sons of Jacob (E). First Reuben intervenes to save Joseph’s life (E), then Judah intervenes (J). Judah proposes to sell him to the Ishmaelites, but then he is found and taken by Midianite traders, who sell him to the Ishmaelites. He is variously said to be sold in Egypt by the Midianites (37:36*) or by the Ishmaelites (39:1*). Other minor discrepancies could be added. It has been argued that much of this variation may be deliberate on the part of a sophisticated author. This argument would not apply to the contradiction as to whether he was sold by the Midianites or the Ishmaelites. It may be that the Midianites are introduced secondarily by an editor who wanted to excuse the brothers of the charge of selling Joseph into slavery, which was a crime liable to the death penalty according to Deut 24:7*. It should be noted that Joseph says that his brothers sold him into Egypt (Gen 45:4*).

The story unfolds through a veritable roller coaster of plot twists. Joseph incurs the hatred of his brothers because he is his father’s favorite, and he exacerbates the situation by telling of a dream in which his parents and brothers bow down to him. So when they are away from their parents, pasturing sheep near Shechem, the brothers propose to kill him. First, Reuben intervenes, and has him thrown into a pit instead. Then Judah proposes to sell him to the Ishmaelites. This too is a crime, but obviously a lesser one. The brothers are relieved of guilt in this regard by the arrival of the Midianites. The brothers then dip Joseph’s robe in blood and present it to Jacob as evidence of Joseph’s death. This cruel deception echoes Jacob’s own deception of his blind father, Isaac. The episode of Judah and Tamar is inserted here, and bound to its context by various motifs (e.g., Judah is asked to recognize the pledges he had given to Tamar; Jacob is asked to recognize his son’s robe). Mainly, this episode provides space between Joseph’s captivity and his rise to prominence in Egypt.

[Page 102] Joseph experiences the transition from captivity to power not once but twice. First, he is overseer of his master’s house. This happy situation is disrupted when his master’s wife tries to seduce him, and then makes a false accusation against him. (This motif has an Egyptian parallel in the Tale of the Two Brothers, where the wife of the elder brother similarly tries to seduce the righteous younger man, and then accuses him falsely.) Consequently, Joseph is thrown in prison. He rises again because of his God-given ability to interpret dreams, and now he is placed in authority over all Egypt. He distinguishes himself by storing grain in anticipation of a time of famine. When there is famine in the land of Canaan, his brothers come and fulfill his prophecy by bowing down before him, in ignorance of his identity. Joseph tests his brothers, especially with respect to their feelings for their youngest brother, Benjamin, adding to Jacob’s distress in the process. In the end, however, he can no longer control himself and discloses his identity (45:1–3*). He does not reproach his brothers for selling him into Egypt, because “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors” (45:7*). But Joseph is also responsible for causing Jacob and his whole family to go down into Egypt and settle there, as shepherds. Moreover, Joseph is credited with centralizing wealth in the hands of the pharaoh and bringing the people into a state of slavery: “So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them, and the land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he made slaves of them, from one end of Egypt to the other” (47:20–21*). Only the land of the priests was exempt. One-fifth of all crops was to go to Pharaoh. It would seem, then, that even as Joseph saved his family from famine, he set the stage for their future oppression. But that oppression, in turn, would be the occasion of their greatest deliverance.

Many scholars have tried to find a kernel of history in the Joseph story. There was a time (c. 1750–1550 b.c.e.) when people from Syria, known as the Hyksos, ruled Egypt. The main account of these people is found in the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho, who also calls them “Shepherds.” Manetho claims that some of the Hyksos settled in Jerusalem when they were expelled from Egypt. We shall consider the story further in connection with the exodus. The career of Joseph, however, bears little resemblance to anything we know of Hyksos rule in Egypt. The Hyksos were a hostile invading force; Joseph is throughout the faithful servant of Pharaoh, and his people settle peacefully in Goshen, away from the settlements of the native Egyptians, “because all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians” (46:34*). Any historical reminiscences in this story are incidental.

The purpose of the Joseph story has several facets. First, it is an entertaining story in its own right. We have many such stories from ancient Egypt, such as the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor or the Tale of the Two Brothers. Within the Bible, similar complex novellas can be found in the books of Samuel and in later books such as Ruth and Esther. The Joseph story has a clear theological theme, illustrating the role of divine providence in [Page 103] the history of Israel, despite the unworthy conduct of Jacob’s sons. The character of Joseph has an exemplary quality that was often emphasized in later Jewish tradition. It has been suggested that his character is above all that of the ideal courtier, and that he could serve as a model for officials at the royal court in Jerusalem. In the edition of the Pentateuch, the story forms a bridge from the patriarchal narratives to the exodus, by explaining how the Israelites came to be in Egypt.

As noted already, the Joseph story is different in kind from the other stories in Genesis, and for that reason cannot be easily absorbed into one or more of the traditional sources. It has a certain amount of authentic local color. The reforms attributed to Joseph, however, whereby the priests were exempt from the heavy taxation imposed on the people and given an allowance by Pharaoh, fits later Egyptian history rather than earlier. The best parallels are provided by Herodotus and later Greek writers. The Joseph story is unlikely to have been composed as early as the reign of Solomon, as earlier scholars had supposed. The theme of the wise courtier, of which Joseph is the prototype, is especially popular in late Hebrew literature (in the books of Esther and Daniel). It is noteworthy that the heroes of all these stories are Israelites or Jews in the service of foreign kings. Many Jews in fact rose to prominence in the service of foreign kings in the period after the Babylonian exile.

The book of Genesis concludes with the deaths of Jacob and Joseph. Before his death, Jacob blesses his sons. The Blessing of Jacob is an old poem, and is an important early catalogue of the twelve tribes. We shall consider the tribes further in connection with the history of early Israel, in the books of Joshua and Judges. For the present, two aspects of the Blessing of Jacob should be noted. First, the comment on Simeon and Levi is no blessing: they are condemned as men of violence, presumably because of the sack of Shechem, and doomed to be scattered in Israel. The harshness is especially striking in view of the priestly character of the tribe of Levi. Second, Judah is promised a scepter that will never depart from him. The blessing presumably reflects a Judean perspective, even though it affirms an inclusive view of Israel as embracing all twelve tribes.

The Priestly Edition of the Patriarchal Stories

The Priestly source can be detected only in a few places in the patriarchal narratives. Abram is first introduced in a genealogy (P) in Genesis 11, and we are informed that he was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran in 12:4*. The most significant Priestly addition to the Abraham stories is the account of the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17. Unlike the J account in Genesis 15, P requires more than faith of Abraham: “This is my covenant which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised” (17:10*). Any male who remained uncircumcised must be cut off from the people. The practice of circumcision is attested in the [Page 104] Near East long before the rise of Israel. There is no reason to doubt that Israelites practiced it from very early times, but it cannot have been a distinctive marker in early Israel. From the time of the Babylonian exile on, however, it acquires central importance as a marker of Jewish identity. The Priestly account of the covenant with Abraham is unlikely to be older than the Babylonian exile. It is characteristic of the Priestly source that the covenant is identified so closely with a ritual requirement. The association has survived down to modern times. The colloquial Yiddish word for circumcision is bris, a modification of the Hebrew word for covenant, berît.

Elsewhere in Genesis 12–50 the Priestly source is found primarily in genealogical lists, such as the list of the twelve sons of Jacob in 31:22–26*, the descendants of Esau in 36:1–14*, and the list of the descendants of Jacob who came to Egypt in 46:6–27*. These lists bring order to the narrative by positing relationships, but they also convey a sense of historical reliability by their (fictitious) detail.

Further Reading

Commentaries

Coats, George W. Genesis; with an Introduction to Narrative Literature. FOTL 1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983. Useful form-critical analysis.

Fretheim, Terence E. “The Book of Genesis.” In NIB 1:321–673. Thoughtful homiletical commentary.

Rad, Gerhard von. Genesis. Trans. J. H. Marks. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1972. Brief but classic commentary.

Westermann, Claus. Genesis 12–36: A Commentary. Trans. J. J. Scullion. CC. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1985.

———. Genesis 37–50. Trans. J. J. Scullion. CC. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1986. Best full historical-philological commentary.

Other Studies

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic, 1981. Classic literary reading.

Coats, George W. From Canaan to Egypt: Structural and Theological Context for the Joseph Story. CBQMS 4. Washington, D. C.: Catholic Biblical Association, 1975. Discussion of the Joseph story in its literary context.

Cross, Frank Moore. Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973. Discussion of patriarchal religion in the light of the Ugaritic texts.[Page 105]

Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Free Press, 2001 (esp. 27–47). Up-to-date account of the archaeological record, which frustrates the attempt to salvage history from the patriarchal narratives.

Gunkel, Hermann. The Stories of Genesis. Trans. J. J. Scullion. Vallejo: Bibal, 1994. Classic, literate exposition of the form-critical approach.

Hendel, Ronald S. The Epic of the Patriarch: The Jacob Cycle and the Narrative Traditions of Canaan and Israel.HSM42. Atlanta: Scholars, 1988.Good use of Ugaritic analogies.

McCarter, P. Kyle. “The Patriarchal Age.” In Ancient Israel: A Short History from Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple, ed. H. Shanks, 1–29. Washington, D. C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1988. Sober, balanced discussion of the historical background of the stories.

Niditch, Susan. Underdogs and Tricksters: A Prelude to Biblical Folklore. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987. Stimulating treatment of Genesis as folklore.

Redford, Donald B. A Study of the Biblical Story of Joseph (Genesis 37–50). VTSup 20. Leiden: Brill, 1970. Important for its mastery of the Egyptian background.

Trible, Phyllis. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. OBT. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. Powerful literary reading from a feminist perspective.

[Page 106] [Page 107] 5

The Exodus From Egypt

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Study Guide, Chapter 5

The stories in Genesis are essentially family legends. In the book of Exodus we encounter a more extended, continuous story that deals with the birth of a people. This story is linked to Genesis by the story of Joseph, but it draws on traditions of a different kind.

The subject matter of this story is the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This is the most celebrated event in the entire Hebrew Bible, and the event that is most important for the later identity of Israel and of Judaism. The story is told primarily in the first half of the book, proceeding from the slavery in Egypt to the revelation at Mount Sinai in chapter 19. This is followed by a series of laws in chapters 20–24, beginning with the Ten Commandments and continuing with the collection known as the Book of the Covenant. Then follows the lengthy prescription for the making of the tabernacle or desert shrine and its furnishings. There is a narrative interlude in chapters 32–34, including the story of the golden calf. Then the concluding chapters describe the construction and erection of the tabernacle.

It is much more difficult to distinguish the J and E sources in Exodus than it was in Genesis. Most analyses ascribe only scattered verses to E. After Exodus 6, all sources use the proper divine name YHWH for God in any case. The Priestly strand is very prominent in Exodus. It includes the revelation of the divine name in chapter 6, the account of the Passover in chapter 12, the crossing of the sea in chapter 14, the instructions for the tabernacle (chaps. 25–31), and the account of its construction (chaps. 35–40).

[Page 108] Exodus as History

As we have seen in the introductory chapter, the internal chronology of the Bible suggests a date about 1445 b.c.e. for the exodus. There is little evidence, however, that would enable us to corroborate the biblical account by relating it other sources. The exodus, as reported in the Bible, is not attested in any ancient nonbiblical source. While it might be argued that the escape of the Israelites was inconsequential for the Egyptians, and therefore not recorded, in fact the Egyptians kept tight control over their eastern border and kept careful records. If a large group of Israelites had departed, we should expect some mention of it. For an Egyptian account of the origin of Israel, however, we have to wait until the Hellenistic era, when a priest named Manetho wrote a history of Egypt in Greek. Manetho claimed that Jerusalem was built “in the land now called Judea” by the Hyksos, after they were expelled from Egypt. (On the Hyksos see chapter 1 above. They were people of Syrian origin who ruled Egypt for a time and were driven out of Egypt c. 1530 b.c.e.) He goes on to tell a more elaborate tale about an attempt to expel lepers from Egypt. Some eighty thousand of these, we are told, including some learned priests, were assembled and set to work in stone quarries. They rebelled, however, under the leadership of one Osarseph, who summoned the Hyksos from Jerusalem to his aid. They returned and proceeded to commit various outrages and blasphemies in Egypt, but were eventually driven out. Osarseph, we are told, was also called Moses. The account is preserved by the Jewish historian Josephus in Against Apion 1.228–52. Manetho probably did not invent this story. Another, slightly earlier, Hellenistic writer, Hecataeus of Abdera, also says that Jerusalem was built by people, led by Moses, who had been driven out of Egypt. There was a strong folk memory in Egypt of the Hyksos as the hated foreigners from Asia who had once ruled the country. But the idea that Jerusalem had been built by these people is probably a late guess: it provided Egyptians with an explanation of the origin of the strange people just beyond their borders. It is unlikely that Manetho had any reliable tradition about the origin of Israel.

The biblical account itself offers few specific details that might be corroborated by external evidence. The pharaoh is never named: he remains simply “the king” or “Pharaoh” like a character in a folktale. The most specific references in the biblical text are found in Exodus 1, where we are told that a pharaoh “who knew not Joseph” was concerned at the size and power of the Israelites and set them to work building the cities Pithom and Rameses. Rameses is presumably the city of Pi-Ramesse, which was built on the site of the old Hyksos capital of Avaris. It was reoccupied in the time of Ramesses II (1304–1237 b.c.e.). The location of Pithom (Per-Atum) is uncertain. One of the possible sites was also rebuilt in Ramesside times. Because of this, most scholars have favored a date around 1250 b.c.e. for the exodus. All we can really say, however, is that the biblical [Page 109] account was written at some time after the building of Pi-Ramesse and Per-Atum, and possibly that the author was aware of some tradition associating Semitic laborers with these sites. If the story of the exodus has any historical basis, then the thirteenth century b.c.e. provides the most plausible backdrop.

The existence of Semitic slaves in Egypt in the late second millennium is well attested. More specifically, there is evidence that Habiru or ‘Apiru worked on the construction of the capital city of Ramesses II. (Papyrus Leiden 348 contains an order: “Distribute grain rations to the soldiers and to the ’Apiru who transport stones to the great pylon of Rameses.”) The Anastasi Papyri show that access to Egypt was tightly controlled in the thirteenth century b.c.e. One passage records the passage into Egypt of an entire tribe during a drought. Another reports the pursuit of runaway slaves who had escaped to the desert. These documents give circumstantial support to the plausibility of an exodus of slaves from Egypt in that period, but they do not, of course, corroborate the specific story found in the Bible. Again, it has been suggested that the story of the plagues contains a reminiscence of an epidemic in the mid-fourteenth century that is referred to as “the Asiatic illness” (compare the story of the lepers in Manetho). No doubt, plagues were familiar in Egypt, and it is gratuitous to identify the biblical plagues with a specific incident. While parallels such as these suggest that there is a certain amount of Egyptian “local color” in the story, they fall far short of establishing the historicity of the exodus.

Other considerations must be weighed against these elements of local color. The consensus of archaeologists today is that the material culture of early Israel, in the central highlands of Palestine, was essentially Canaanite. If there was an exodus from Egypt, then, it must have been on a small scale. Indeed, the claim in Exod 12:37* that about six hundred thousand men, in addition to children, came out of Egypt is hyperbolic in any case. Some scholars now suppose that the biblical account may have “telescoped” several small exoduses, which took place over centuries, into one dramatic narrative. In any case, the claim that early Israel consisted of people who had escaped from Egypt, and their descendants, is problematic in light of the archaeological evidence.

Further, the genre of the stories in Exodus is legendary and folkloristic. The story is replete with miraculous incidents, from the rescue of Moses from the Nile, to the burning bush, to the contest with the magicians of Egypt, to the crossing of the sea. The story of the baby Moses found in the bulrushes is a common folkloric motif. A similar story was told of King Sargon of Akkad (c. 2300 b.c.e.), whose mother also placed him in a vessel of reeds in a river. The final edition of the book of Exodus is no earlier than the Babylonian exile, some seven hundred years after the events it describes. The story was told for cultic reasons, to remind the people of their obligation to worship their God. It is not an exercise in historiography, even by ancient standards, as can be seen readily from the differences in style between the book of Exodus and the books of Kings.

[Page 110] Nonetheless, it seems likely that some historical memories underlie the tradition of the exodus. The name Moses is of Egyptian origin. The word means “child” and it normally occurs as an element in a longer name, which begins with the name of a god, such as Ptah-mose, Ra-mose, or Thut-mose. It is difficult to imagine why Israelite tradition should give such a prominent role to someone with an Egyptian name if there were no memory of such a person. It is also unlikely that a people would claim that it had experienced the shameful condition of slavery if there were no historical basis for it.

The memory of the exodus seems to have been especially important in the hill country of Ephraim. When Jeroboam I led the revolt of the northern tribes against Rehoboam, son of Solomon, he allegedly set up golden calves in Bethel and Dan, and told the people: “these are your gods who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kgs 12:28*). The account in 1 Kings comes from a southern writer and is hostile to Jeroboam, but the reference to the exodus is all the more remarkable for this reason. There is also a parallel between the career of Jeroboam and the beginning of the book of Exodus. Jeroboam was in charge of the forced labor of the house of Joseph under Solomon (1 Kgs 11:28*). He rebelled and had to flee to Egypt, but he came up from Egypt after Solomon’s death. Moses also encounters a situation of forced labor, and has to flee when he kills an Egyptian. The motif of forced labor, then, had special resonance in the time of Jeroboam. As we shall later see, it is clear from the prophets Amos and Hosea that the exodus was celebrated at Bethel during the period of the monarchy. The exodus has been described, with good reason, as the “charter myth” of the northern kingdom of Israel. In contrast, the exodus does not figure prominently in the southern prophets, such as Isaiah of Jerusalem. Also, there are surprisingly few references to the exodus in the books of Judges and Samuel, although these books were edited by Deuteronomists who certainly had a strong interest in the exodus. Jeroboam would not have taken the exodus as his “charter myth” if there were not already a tradition about it, but the story may not have been as prominent in the life of Israel in the period before the monarchy as it later became.

The Revelation of YHWH

There are two major themes in the story of the exodus: the revelation of YHWH and the liberation from slavery. These themes appear to have been originally independent of each other. Several old poetic passages speak of YHWH as the divine warrior who marches out from Mount Sinai, or from some other location in the region south of Israel:

The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir on us;

he shone forth from Mount Paran.

With him were myriads of holy ones;

At his right a host of his own. (Deut 33:2*)

[Page 111] Or:

Lord, when you went out from Seir,

when you marched from the region of Edom

the earth trembled, and the heavens poured,

the clouds indeed poured water.

The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai,

before the Lord, the God of Israel. (Judg 5:4–5*; see also Ps 68:7–8*)

These passages do not speak of an exodus from Egypt. Conversely, the events at Sinai are usually passed over in summaries of the early history of Israel, even in the Deuteronomistic corpus (Deut 26:5–9*; Josh 24:2–13*). In the poetic passages, Sinai appears to be located south of Israel, in the region of Edom or Midian. It appears that YHWH was associated with a mountain in Midian even before the exodus, and this tradition is also reflected in the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3–4. The oldest poetic passages do not mention the giving of the law in connection with Sinai. In the Elohistic and Deuteronomistic traditions, the mountain where the law is revealed is called Horeb, which means “wilderness”—and may be understood as an unspecified mountain in the wilderness. It appears then that the book of Exodus draws on various old traditions, but it is difficult to say with any confidence when these traditions were combined.

The Burning Bush

There are in fact two revelations on a mountain in Exodus, first in Exodus 3–4 and then in Exodus 19–34. In the first episode, the mountain is called “Horeb, the mountain of God,” but the Hebrew word for “bush” (seneh) is a wordplay on Sinai. The mountain is located in Midian, which was east of the Gulf of Aqaba. The traditional site identified with Mount Sinai, in contrast, is Jebel Musa, in the Sinai Peninsula, west of the Gulf of Aqaba. This identification can be traced back to the early Christian era. The actual location of the site intended in Exodus is disputed. The context of the stories in Exodus would seem to require a location close to Egypt, so in the Sinai Peninsula rather than further east, but the association of Sinai with Midian and Edom requires the location east of Aqaba. It may be that the confusion arises from the combination of traditions that were originally independent, and that the theophanies at Sinai were not originally part of the exodus story.

The opening verses of Exodus 3 at once provide evidence that two sources, J and E, have been combined, and illustrate the difficulty of separating them: “Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb the mountain of God (E). There the angel of the Lord (J) [Page 112] appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush.… When the Lord (J) saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God (E) called to him out of the bush … and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God (E).” It seems that J and E had two similar accounts of this incident, and that an editor spliced them together, but there is little to be gained by trying to pry them apart.

The most celebrated part of this passage is the exchange between Moses and God in 3:13–14*. When Moses asks for God’s name he is told “I am who I am” (Hebrew ˒ehyeh ˒ašer ˒ehyeh). The Greek translators of the Bible rendered this passage as eimi ho o-n, “I am the one who is.” Beginning with Philo of Alexandria, around the time of Christ, countless generations of theologians argued that the God revealed to Moses was identical with absolute Being, in the sense in which that term was understood in Greek philosophy. The Greek translation became the foundation for a theological edifice that assumed that Greek philosophy and biblical revelation could be correlated, and were two ways of getting at the same thing. Historically, however, it is impossible to find this meaning in the Hebrew text. Hebrew simply did not have a concept of Being, in the manner of Greek philosophy. This fact does not invalidate the theological correlation of the Bible with Greek philosophy, but neither does it give it any real support. No such correlation is envisioned in the Hebrew text.

The actual meaning of the Hebrew phrase is enigmatic. The proper Hebrew name for the God of Israel, Yahweh, can be understood as a form of the verb “to be”—specifically the causative (Hiphil) third person singular imperfect. It can be translated “he causes to be.” It has been suggested that this name is a way of referring to a creator God. The Deity is often called “the Lord of hosts” (YHWH Sabaoth), and it has been suggested that this means “he causes the hosts (of heaven) to be” or “creator of the hosts.” Whether the name was originally understood as a verbal form, however, is uncertain. It often appears in Hebrew names in the form yahu or yaho, which would not be so easily parsed. In Exodus 3, in any case, the association with the verb “to be” is assumed. The phrase “I am who I am” in effect changes the verbal form to the first person. The phrase may be taken as a refusal to divulge the divine name, in effect brushing off Moses’ question. In favor of this suggestion is the fact that Jewish tradition is reluctant to pronounce the divine name. Rather, it substitutes Adonai, “the Lord.” But elsewhere in Exodus the name YHWH is used freely, and it is explicitly revealed in the Priestly passage in Exodus 6. It may be that the passage is only an attempt to put the divine name YHWH, understood as a form of the verb “to be,” in the first person.

In any case, Exodus 3 goes on to give a fuller explanation of the identity of the Deity. He is the God of the ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The key element, however, is what he promises to do in the future: “I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the [Page 113] Hivites, and the Jebusites,” in effect fulfilling the promise to Abraham in Genesis 15. The Deity is motivated by the suffering of Israel: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt, I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their suffering and I have come down to deliver them” (Exod 3:7–8*). YHWH may already have been worshiped in Midian as a god who appeared in fire on the mountain, but henceforth he would be worshiped as the God who delivered the Israelites from Egypt.

Exodus 6 contains a parallel account of the revelation of the divine name, from the Priestly source. Here Moses is told explicitly: “I am YHWH. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name YHWH I did not make myself known to them” (6:2*). For the Priestly tradition, as for the Elohist, this God was not known to the patriarchs by his proper name. The passage goes on to link the revelation of the name with the promise of liberation from slavery in Egypt. Again, there is an obvious sociopolitical dimension to this liberation. But it also involves a religious commitment: “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God” (6:7*). The Israelites will no longer serve the Egyptians, but will serve YHWH instead.

The Liberation from Egypt

The Plagues

The process of liberation begins with the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus 7. Chapters 7–11 narrate a struggle between YHWH and Moses on the one side and the pharaoh on the other. YHWH hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that he refuses to let Israel go. Then YHWH smites the Egyptians with a series of plagues. The basic narrative is from the J source, with supplementary additions from P.

The episode of the plagues shows that Exodus is not only the story of the liberation of Israel, but also the story of the defeat and humiliation of the Egyptians. The latter aspect of the story involves nationalistic, ethnic vengeance, which is less than edifying. The plagues affect not only Pharaoh and the taskmasters, but also, even especially, the common Egyptians, who also labored under Pharaoh. The most chilling plague is the slaughter of the firstborn: “Every firstborn son in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill to the firstborn of the livestock” (Exod 11:5*). The demand for the death of the firstborn bespeaks the hungry God, whom we have already encountered in Genesis 22. The idea of a destructive force that can be averted by a sign on the doorpost (Exod 12:23*) is folkloristic. Muslims have a similar rite, called fidya or fedu (redemption). At least Exodus appreciates the depth of grief to which this gives rise, but in the end there is little sympathy for the Egyptians. Underlying this episode is the claim made in Exod 4:22–23* (J): [Page 114] “Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.” The notion that Israel is the son of God is an important one, and we will meet it again. In the present context, however, it implies a stark claim of divine election that makes the Egyptians expendable.

The story of the plagues contains an interesting theological notion in the motif of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. This motif is reflected in both J (Exod 4:21*) and P (7:3*) sources. God could presumably have softened Pharaoh’s heart and had him release the Israelites. The hardening serves to justify the punishments that follow. Pharaoh is held responsible for his hard heart, even though it was the Lord who hardened it. In much of the Hebrew Bible the one Lord is responsible for everything, good and bad. Later we will find that the Lord sends an evil spirit on Saul (1 Sam 16:14*). Yet the fact that the Lord is in control in no way lessens human responsibility.

Another motif with interesting theological implications is found in Exod 7:1* (P), where God tells Moses: “I have made you a god to Pharaoh.” (The NRSV softens the shock of this statement by translating “like a god.”) In the context, the point is that Moses is the mouthpiece of God in his dealings with Pharaoh. Later tradition, however, speculated that Moses enjoyed a status greater than human. For example, the Jewish philosopher Philo, at the turn of the era, wrote that Moses enjoyed a greater partnership with God than other people, “for he was named God and king of the entire nation” (Philo, Life of Moses 1.158). Usually the Hebrew Bible implies a wide gulf between humanity and divinity, but this is not always the case. Hebrew tradition allowed for the possibility that an exceptional person like Moses might be in some sense an ˒elōhîm, “god,” or “divine being.”

The Passover

Before the Israelites depart from Egypt, they celebrate the Passover. This celebration is found only in the Priestly source. Just as P grounded the Sabbath in the story of creation, so it grounds the Passover in the story of the exodus. YHWH, we are told, “passed over” the houses where the Passover was being celebrated, and that were marked by blood on the doorposts and lintels, when he was smiting the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exod 12:23*; the Hebrew verb psḥ, translated as “passed over,” has the same consonants as the name of the festival). The Passover was probably originally a rite of spring, practiced by shepherds, but it was associated with the exodus before the Priestly account was composed. P provides the most detailed and explicit account in the Bible of the supposed origin of the Passover in the context of the exodus.

In early Israel, the Passover was a family festival. It is not included in the pilgrimage feasts in the oldest cultic calendars, in Exodus 23 and 34. It was also distinct from the festival of Unleavened Bread (Maṣṣôt). As we shall see when we discuss Deuteronomy, the [Page 115] celebration was changed by the reform of King Josiah in 621 b.c.e. Then it became a pilgrimage festival, to be celebrated at the central sanctuary (Jerusalem), and was combined with the Festival of Unleavened Bread. It is also combined with Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12. Whether the Exodus account assumes that it is celebrated at a central shrine is more difficult to determine. The story is set in Egypt, long before there was a temple of YHWH in Jerusalem. It would be anachronistic to speak of a pilgrimage to a central shrine. What Exodus says is that the paschal lamb must be sacrificed by “the whole congregation of the assembly of Israel” (Exod 12:6*). This formulation seems to imply that it is not just a family festival, although each family takes its own lamb, but is a collective celebration of the assembled people. It is probable, then, that the Priestly writers have in mind a celebration at a central point. We shall return to this issue when we discuss the relationship between the Priestly and Deuteronomic sources.

The Crossing of the Sea

The story of the exodus reaches its narrative climax in the episode of the crossing of the sea. According to Exod 13:17–18* (usually ascribed to E), when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although it was shorter, but by a roundabout way in the desert, toward a body of water that is known in Hebrew as Yam Sûp. The conventional translation, “Red Sea,” derives from the Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint, which was then adopted by the Latin Vulgate. In modern terms, the Red Sea is the body of water between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, ranging in width from 100 to 175 miles, which splits at its northern end into two gulfs, the Gulf of Suez (20–30 miles wide) between Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, and the Gulf of Aqaba (east of the Sinai Peninsula, 10–20 miles wide). The Hebrew expression Yam Sûp is used several times in the Bible to refer to the Gulf of Aqaba (for example, in 1 Kgs 9:26* it is said to be in the land of Edom) and may refer to the Gulf of Suez on a few occasions (for example, in Exod 10:19*, where God drives the locusts from Egypt into the Yam Sûp). The Hebrew word sûp, however, does not literally mean “red” but “reed,” and some scholars have suggested that in the story of the exodus the Yam Sûp was not a great sea but a reedy marsh or lake. The main route from Egypt to Canaan is called “the way of the land of the Philistines” anachronistically in Exodus 13, since the Philistines moved into the area only around the same time as the emergence of Israel. It is easy enough to see why fugitives would avoid this route, because of the presence of Egyptian patrols and border guards. It is difficult, however, to see why they would go toward the Gulf of Suez, still less the Gulf of Aqaba. For this reason, many people have found the suggestion of “the Sea of Reeds” attractive. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the sea of the exodus seems to be distinguished from the Yam Sûp in Num 33:8–10* (which is part of the Priestly source, but seems to use an old list).

[Page 116] The prose account of the crossing of the sea in Exodus 14 does not identify the sea in question. In 15:4*, however, we are told that Pharaoh’s officers were sunk in the Yam Sûp. Exodus 15:1–18* is a hymn, which is generally believed to contain some of the oldest poetry in the Bible, and to be older than the J and E sources. (The argument is based on the use of archaic expressions, and similarity to Ugaritic poetry.) A summary form of the hymn is attributed to Moses’ sister Miriam in 15:21*. The hymn was evidently known in more than one form.

The basic hymn is found in 15:1–12*, 18*. Verses 13–17* are a later expansion, probably by a Deuteronomic editor, and change the focus of the hymn from the victory over Pharaoh to the triumphal march of Israel into the promised land. The hymn does not actually speak of people crossing through the sea, and makes no mention of dry land. The central theme is how YHWH, the Lord, cast Pharaoh and his army into the depths of the sea. It is important to remember, however, that this is a hymn, not a ballad, and that its purpose is to praise God, not to describe a historical event. The imagery of sinking in water is used elsewhere in Hebrew poetry as a metaphor for a situation of distress. In Psalm 69 the psalmist prays:

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold

I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me.

As the psalm goes on, however, it becomes clear that drowning is not the problem at all. Rather:

More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause;

many are those who would destroy me, my enemies who accuse me falsely.

Similarly, a psalm found in Jonah 3 says: “The waters closed in over me; weeds [Hebrew sûp!] were wrapped around my head at the roots of the mountains.” (Jonah is supposedly in the belly of the fish, but the psalm was not composed for that context.) In these cases, sinking in the depths is not a description of a physical condition, but simply a metaphor for distress. By analogy, we might suppose that the hymn in Exodus 15 is simply celebrating the defeat of Pharaoh. To say that he and his army sank in the depths like a stone is a metaphorical way of saying that they were completely defeated and destroyed. We do not actually know what defeat of Pharaoh was originally in question, or whether the hymn was composed to celebrate the exodus. It may have been a celebration of the withdrawal of Egypt from Canaan, or it may have had a specific battle in mind. It is poetic language, and it does not lend itself to the reconstruction of historical events.

[Page 117] The biblical prose writers, however, wanted to describe the overthrow of Pharaoh in more concrete, specific terms. The account in Exodus 14 is largely from the Priestly source, but a J account can be reconstructed (only a few verses are attributed to E). The J account reads as follows.

14:5b*. The minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?” 6*. So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him. 9*. The Egyptians pursued them. 10*. The Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them, and they were in great fear. 13*. But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. 14*. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

19b*. And the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. 20*. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. 21*. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land. 24*. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. 25b*. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.” 27*. And at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. 30*. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31*. Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Here again we are not told that the Israelites crossed the sea. We are left with the impression of a tidal wave, which returned and engulfed the Egyptians. One can imagine how this account might have been inferred from the poetry of Exodus 15. The Yahwist adds a few distinctive touches, such as the role of the pillar of cloud.

The Priestly account adds further embellishment to the story. Moses is told to stretch out his hand over the sea so that the waters are divided (cf. Gen 1:6–10*, where God separates the waters, and gathers the waters under the sky in one place, so that dry land appears). The Israelites pass through, but then Moses again stretches out his hand and causes the waters to return on the pursuing Egyptians. This vivid account is the culmination of a long process. It should not be viewed as a historical memory but as one of a [Page 118] series of imaginative attempts to give concrete expression to the belief that YHWH had rescued his people and overthrown the Egyptians.

The sea imagery continues to exercise a powerful effect on the religious imagination of ancient Israel. As we saw in chapter 1, other ancient Near Eastern peoples had stories of combat between a god and the sea, or a sea monster. The Ugaritic myth of Baal and Yamm is the one closest to the context of Israel. The battle between Marduk and Tiamat in the Babylonian Enuma Elish is also relevant. In the biblical psalms, too, we often find that YHWH is said to do battle with the sea. In Psalm 114 we are told that the sea looked and fled before the Lord. Psalm 77 also says that the waters were afraid, in view of the thunder and lightning of the Lord, as he led his people. One of the most vivid passages is found in Isa 51:9–11*, where the prophet asks: “Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?” Rahab and the dragon were sea monsters, supposedly defeated and slain by YHWH in the process of creation (although this story is never narrated in the Bible). The exodus, in the view of the prophet, was an event of the same type. It would not be too much to say that the exodus was the creation myth of Israel, and that the sea imagery provided a powerful way to give expression to its mythic character. Just as the ancient Near Eastern myths provided paradigms through which various events could be viewed and endowed with meaning, so the exodus became the paradigm for understanding later events in the history of Israel. We shall find that the prophets imagined a new exodus, as a way in which Israel might start over, and renew its relationship with its God. This motif becomes especially important after the Babylonian exile, in the form either of return from exile or of a final, eschatological deliverance.

One other theme in the accounts of the episode at the sea requires comment. The hymn in Exodus 15 declares: “YHWH is a warrior, YHWH is his name!” The idea that gods are warriors was a common one in the ancient Near East. A major reason why the early Israelites worshiped YHWH was that they believed that he was a powerful warrior, who could help them defeat their enemies (or simply defeat them on their behalf). Implicit in this image of God is an agonistic view of life, as an arena of constant conflict between competing forces. The book of Exodus makes no pretense that we should love our enemies. This view of God and of life was qualified in the later tradition to a considerable extent, but it has never been fully disavowed. It persists in the last book of the Christian Bible, the book of Revelation, where Jesus comes as a warrior from heaven to kill the wicked with the sword of his mouth (Revelation 19). Some people in the modern world may find the violence of such imagery repellent, but its power cannot be denied. In the context of the exodus, it is the power of God as warrior that gives hope to people [Page 119] in slavery, and has continued to give hope to people suffering oppression down through the centuries. Warrior-gods were also thought to act on behalf of the powerful, and in that case the imagery can support an oppressive view of the world. In Exodus, however, the warrior God is on the side of the weak, and this imagery has continued to inspire and support liberation movements down to modern times.

Conclusion

In the end, very little can be said about the exodus as history. It is likely that some historical memory underlies the story, but the narrative as we have it is full of legendary details and lacks supporting evidence from archaeology or from nonbiblical sources. The story of the crossing of the sea seems to have arisen from attempts to fill out the allusions in the hymn preserved in Exodus 15. That hymn celebrates some defeat of a pharaoh, but the references to drowning are poetic, and cannot be pressed for historical information.

Regardless of its historical origin, however, the exodus story became the founding myth of Israel (especially in the northern kingdom) and of later Judaism. It is more important than any other biblical story for establishing Israelite and Jewish identity. It is repeatedly invoked as a point of reference in the Prophets, later in the Writings, and in the New Testament. It has served as a paradigm of liberation for numerous movements throughout Western history, from the Puritans to Latin America. It can fairly be regarded as one of the most influential, and greatest, stories in world literature.

Further Reading

Commentaries

Childs, Brevard S. The Book of Exodus. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974. Excellent discussion of form and redaction criticism. Also contains extensive discussion of history of interpretation and theological significance.

Coats, George W. Exodus 1–18. FOTL 2A. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999. Technical form-critical commentary. Good for elucidating the structure of passages.

Greenberg, Moshe. Understanding Exodus. New York: Behrman, 1969. Sensitive commentary from a Jewish perspective.

Noth, Martin. Exodus. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962. Classic commentary on the history of the traditions.

Propp, William H. C. Exodus 1–18. AB 2. New York: Doubleday, 1998. Philological commentary. Exceptional for assigning much of Exodus to the E source.

[Page 120] Homiletically Oriented Commentaries

Brueggemann, Walter. “The Book of Exodus.” In NIB 1.677–981.

Fretheim, Terence E. Exodus. IBC. Louisville: Westminster, 1991.

Historical Issues

Assmann, Jan. Moses the Egyptian. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1997. Discussion of the Akhenaten tradition as the background for Moses.

Finkelstein, Israel, and Neil Asher Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: Free Press, 2001 (48–71). Skeptical view of the evidence for the historicity of the exodus.

Frerichs, Ernest S., and Leonard H. Lesko, eds. Exodus: The Egyptian Evidence. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1991. Useful discussion of the Egyptian background.

Hoffmeier, James K. Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. A conservative view of the historical evidence.

Shanks, Hershel, William G. Dever, Baruch Halpern, and P. Kyle McCarter. The Rise of Ancient Israel. Washington, D. C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1992. Useful presentation of the historical issues.

Religious and Literary Themes

Batto, Bernard F. Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition. Louisville: Westminster, 1992 (102–52). Exodus as myth.

Cross, Frank Moore. Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973 (112–44). Classic discussion of the Song of the Sea in light of Canaanite myth.

Dozeman, Thomas B. God at War: A Study of Power in the Exodus Tradition. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996. Good analysis of Exodus 15.

Influence of the Exodus Story on Puritans and Others

Walzer, Michael. Exodus and Revolution. New York: Basic, 1984.

[Page 121] 6

The Revelation At Sinai

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Study Guide, Chapter 6

As the story of the exodus is told in the book of Exodus, the episode at the sea is followed shortly by another manifestation of God’s power at Mount Sinai. It is likely, as we have seen, that the traditions of Sinai and exodus were originally distinct, but in the Bible as we have it they are integrally related. Liberation, or salvation, has its fulfillment in the giving of the law, and the motivation for keeping the law is supplied by the memory of the exodus. This combination of history and law is essential to what we call the Sinai, or Mosaic, covenant. Unlike the covenant of God with Abraham, which was a free grant that required only faith on Abraham’s part, the covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai is conditional. The blessings of the covenant are contingent on the observance of the law.

Treaty and Covenant

Much light has been thrown on the structure of the Sinai covenant by analogies with ancient Near Eastern treaties. A large corpus of such treaties, dating over a span of more than a thousand years, has come to light during the last century. Two clusters of these treaties are especially important: a group of Hittite treaties from the period 1500 to 1200 b.c.e. and a group of Assyrian treaties from the eighth century. These treaties are called vassal or suzerainty treaties. They are not made between equal partners, but involve the submission of one party (the vassal) to the other (the suzerain). While the individual treaties differ from each other in various ways, certain elements remain typical across the centuries.

[Page 122] The typical pattern in the Hittite treaties is as follows:

1.     The preamble, in which the suzerain identifies himself (“I am Mursilis, the Sun, King of Hatti”).

2.     The historical prologue, or history that led up to the making of the treaty. In one such treaty the Hittite king Mursilis tells how he put his vassal, Duppi-Tessub, on his throne, despite his illness, and forced his brothers and subjects to take an oath of loyalty. Another recalls how the Hittites had conquered the land of Wilusa, and how it had never rebelled after that (ANET 203–5).

3.     The stipulations, requirements, or terms of the treaty. These are often couched in highly personal terms. Hittite treaties demand that the subjects “protect the Sun [the Hittite king] as a friend” and report any “unfriendly” words that they hear about him. An Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, demands loyalty to his son Ashurbanipal by telling his subjects “you will love as yourselves Ashurbanipal.” It is essential to these treaties that the vassal “recognize no other lord” or not turn his eyes to anyone else.

4.     There is provision for the deposition or display of the text of the treaty, and sometimes for its periodic recitation.

5.     There is a list of witnesses, consisting of the gods before whom the treaty oath is sworn.

6.     Finally, there is a list of curses and blessings that indicate the consequences of observing or breaking the treaty.

The essential logic of the treaty is found in the second, third, and sixth elements. The heart of the treaty lies in the stipulations. These are supported by the recollection of the sequence of events that led up to the making of the treaty and by the prospect of blessings or curses to follow. The historical prologue is a distinctive feature of the Hittite treaties. The Assyrian treaties are distinguished by the prominence of the curses.

All the elements of this treaty form are paralleled in the Hebrew Bible, but they are scattered in various books. The most complete parallels are found in Deuteronomy, which also parallels the Assyrian treaties in matters of detail, as we shall see later in chapter 8. In the case of Exodus, the beginning of chapter 20 (“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt”) combines the introductory preamble with a very brief historical prologue (in a sense, the whole story of the exodus is the historical prologue). The stipulations are amply represented by the Ten Commandments and other laws. Exodus, however, does not address the deposition of the document, the witnesses, or the curses and blessings. (All these elements are found in Deuteronomy.) It does not appear, then, that the Sinai revelation in Exodus follows the full form of the vassal treaties, although it resembles them in some respects.

[Page 123] The parallels with the Hittite treaties have been especially controversial, since they have potential implications for the date at which the covenant was conceived. The Hittites lived in Asia Minor, in what is now eastern Turkey. They were active in the area of Syria only in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500–1200 b.c.e.), precisely the time in which Israel is thought to have emerged. At that time they challenged Egypt for control of this region. If it could be shown that the Israelite conception of the covenant was modeled specifically on the Hittite treaties, then it would follow that the covenant was indeed a very early element in the religion of Israel. This argument was especially attractive to American scholars of the Albright school. Against this, the tradition of German scholarship viewed the covenant as a late development, fully articulated only in Deuteronomy and later writings.

When I, the Sun, sought after you in accordance with your father’s word and put you in your father’s place, I took you in oath for the king of the Hatti land, and for my sons and grandsons, So honor the oath (of loyalty) to the king and the king’s kin! And I the king will be loyal toward you, Duppi-Tessub. When you take a wife, and when you beget an heir, he shall be king in the Amurru land likewise. And just as I shall be loyal toward you, even so shall I be loyal toward your son. But you, Duppi-Tessub, remain loyal toward the king of the Hatti land, my sons (and) my grandsons forever! The tribute which was imposed upon your grandfather and your father—they presented 300 shekels of good, refined first-class gold weighed with standard weights—you shall present them likewise. Do not turn your eyes to anyone else! Your fathers presented tribute to Egypt; you [shall not do that!]


(Treaty between Hittite king Mursilis and Duppi-Tessub of Amurru, trans. A. Goetze,
ANET, 204).

The argument for Hittite influence rests primarily on the role of history in both Hittite and Israelite texts. Nothing is more characteristic of the Hebrew Bible than the repeated summaries of “salvation history.” The primary examples of these summaries, however, are found in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic texts (see, for example, Deut 6:21–25*; 26:5–9*; Josh 24:2–13*) that are no earlier than the late seventh century b.c.e. Moreover, Deuteronomy has several clear parallels with Assyrian treaties of the eighth century b.c.e. It is possible that Israel developed its interest in the recitation of history independently of the Hittite treaties, and that the similarity in this respect is coincidental. At stake here is the choice between two very different views of the development of Israelite religion. On the account found in the Bible itself, the law was revealed to Moses [Page 124] at the beginning of Israel’s history, in the course of the exodus from Egypt. Later generations of Israelites fell away from this Mosaic revelation, but it was recovered at the time of the Deuteronomic reform and became the basis for Second Temple Judaism. On the other view, which is held by many scholars, especially in the German tradition, the exodus was originally celebrated in itself as proof of God’s election of Israel. Later, the prophets argued that election should entail responsibility, and this eventually led to the linking of exodus and law, and the idea that God had made a conditional covenant with Israel. The choice between these two views of Israelite religion will make a difference in our reading of the prophetic books, where the issue is whether the prophets were appealing to an old tradition or were innovators in trying to focus the religion on ethical issues.

The treaty analogies throw some light on the Sinai covenant in any case. The demand for exclusive allegiance in Exod 20:3*, “you shall have no other gods before me,” is directly comparable to the demands that Hittite and Assyrian sovereigns made on their subjects. Also, the link between exodus and Sinai in the existing text of Exodus is clear. The Israelites are obligated to obey the law because of what God has done for them in bringing them out of Egypt. The goal of liberation is not individual autonomy but a society regulated by the law revealed to Moses. The treaty analogies serve to underline the political and social character of biblical religion. The parallels between Exodus and the Hittite treaties are not so close, however, as to guarantee that this understanding of the relation between history and law was present already in the time of Moses, or in the beginnings of Israelite history.

The Sinai Theophany

In fact, the immediate prologue to the giving of the law in Exodus is not a recitation of history but a description of a theophany (or manifestation of God) on Mount Sinai. We have seen already that Sinai was associated with theophany before it became the mountain of the law. The account in Exodus 19 exploits the old tradition of YHWH appearing in fire on the mountain, and uses it as the backdrop for the giving of the law.

Exodus 19 is clearly composite. Even a cursory reading of the text shows that Moses spends an undue amount of time going up and down the mountain. The separation of sources, however, has proven difficult. Verses 3–8* are generally agreed to be a Deuteronomic insertion. Only here is the word covenant used to characterize what happens at Sinai in Exodus 19. (Verse 6*, which speaks of a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, may derive from the P source.) It is also agreed that v. 2*, which gives the stages of the journey to Sinai, is from P. Otherwise there is little agreement about the disposition of the sources. It should be noted, however, that much of the narrative has a cultic character. Much of it has to do with setting limits for the people. They are not to touch the [Page 125] mountain or go near a woman. Moses assumes the role of mediator, but at the end he is invited to bring up his brother Aaron, the priest. The emphasis on the holiness of the mountain and the need for the people to observe limits is a typical concern of the P tradition (we shall find similar Priestly regulations later in Ezekiel 44). It seems likely that Priestly redactors have made a greater imprint on this material than was recognized by the traditional source critics. Of course, an interest in holiness and cultic restrictions was not unique to the P source, and the attribution of sources remains uncertain. It is more important for our purpose to recognize the cultic character of this material. This is no eyewitness account of events at Sinai, but a narrative about how people should behave in the presence of the divine that is constructed on the basis of cultic experience.

The revelation on Sinai is framed by another cultic passage in Exodus 24. Here again there are manifold signs of different hands; witness how often Moses is said to ascend the mountain. Some of the ritual is priestly, and the description of the glory (Hebrew kābôd) of YHWH in vv. 15–18* is usually assigned to the P source. The reference to the “book of the covenant” in v. 7* is Deuteronomic. Verses 9–11*, however, which say that seventy elders, as well as Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, went up on the mountain and saw the God of Israel, is an old tradition. It is remarkable for its blunt statement that “they saw the God of Israel” and yet lived. The usual biblical position is that humans cannot see God and live, but there are several notable exceptions in the prophetic literature (Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; the story of Micaiah ben Imlah in 1 Kings 22). All these texts, including Exodus 24, are important for the later development of Jewish mysticism. It is not clear here whether the elders are thought to have a meal in the presence of the Lord, in effect cementing the covenant by a communion ritual. The phrase “and they ate and drank” may be a way of saying that they continued to live. The composite text as it stands, in any case, tells how the covenant was sealed with a sacrifice. The blood of the covenant, splashed on the people and on the altar, signifies that the people are joined to God in a solemn agreement. The idea of the blood of the covenant becomes important in the New Testament in connection with the interpretation of the death of Jesus as a sacrifice.

The Laws of the Covenant

In between the theophany on the mountain in chapter 19 and the sacrifices in chapter 24 are two bodies of laws, which constitute, in effect, the stipulations of the covenant. First, there is the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, in Exodus 20, and this is followed by the so-called Book of the Covenant in chapters 21–23. These two groups of laws are different in kind. The Decalogue is apodictic law: it consists of absolute commandments or (more often) prohibitions, with no conditional qualifications: “you shall not murder, steal,” and so on. The Book of the Covenant, in contrast, is casuistic law, of the type “if x, then y.” [Page 126] There was a long-standing legal tradition in the ancient Near East, reaching back to the end of the third millennium b.c.e. Famous law codes were associated with the names of the Mesopotamian kings Ur-Nammu (twenty-first century b.c.e.), Lipit-Ishtar (twentieth century), and Hammurabi (eighteenth century). These great law codes are made up primarily of casuistic laws. At one time it was thought that apodictic law was distinctively Israelite, but this position cannot be maintained. The apodictic form seems to be well suited to proclamation in a cultic setting. The casuistic law is more indicative of the actual practice of law.

… Anum and Enlil named me

to promote the welfare of the people,

me, Hammurabi, the devout, god-fearing prince,

to cause justice to prevail in the land,

to destroy the wicked and the evil,

that the strong might not oppress the weak,

to rise like the sun over the black-headed (people),

and to light up the land.


(Prologue to the laws of Hammurabbi, trans. T. J. Meek,
ANET, 164).

The Decalogue

The Ten Commandments as found in Exodus 20 are usually attributed to the E source of the Pentateuch. Another series of laws in Exod 34:11–26* is called “the Yahwist Decalogue,” although it is clearly not a decalogue. The closest parallel to Exodus 20 is found in Deut 5:6–21*. Other lists of commandments that partially overlap the Decalogue are found in Lev 19:1–18* and Deut 27:15–26*. The requirements of the covenant are said to be “ten words” in Exod 34:28*; Deut 4:13*; 10:4*. In fact, there is some variation in the way that the commandments are counted. Jewish tradition distinguishes five positive commandments (down to honoring parents) and five negative. Christians generally distinguish between obligations to God and obligations to one’s neighbor. In some Christian traditions (Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran) the obligations to God are counted as three. (The prohibition of idolatry is subsumed under the first commandment.) A distinction is made between coveting one’s neighbor’s wife and coveting other property. The Reformed tradition groups the commandments as four and six, distinguishing the prohibition of idolatry and regarding the prohibition of coveting as a single commandment. This division of the commandments seems to be most in line with the text of Exodus.

[Page 127] The first four Commandments, then, deal with Israel’s obligations to YHWH. The first forbids the worship of any other gods. This is not yet monotheism: the existence of other gods is not denied. (The biblical demand that only one god be worshiped is sometimes called henotheism.) Around the time of the Babylonian exile we shall find stronger assertions that YHWH is the only true God, in the prophet we call Second Isaiah, but strict monotheism is developed only in the Hellenistic period, under the influence of Greek philosophy. The prohibition is directly analogous to the requirement in the treaty texts that the vassals serve no other overlord. The restriction of worship to one god was exceptional in the ancient world. The only analogy is found in the so-called Aten heresy in Egypt, when Pharaoh Akhenaten suppressed the worship of all gods except Aten, the Sun Disk (see chapter 1 above). Many people have supposed that Moses was influenced by the tradition of Akhenaten, but the influence is difficult to demonstrate. Solar imagery is sometimes used for YHWH, but he is not identified with the sun in the way that Aten was. The imagery of YHWH’s manifestation on Mount Sinai is much closer to the tradition of the Canaanite god Baal than to that of the Egyptian deity. Egyptian influence on the idea of monotheism cannot be ruled out, but it does not explain very much of the Israelite conception of God.

The rejection of all gods except YHWH was a revolutionary move, whether in the context of ancient Egypt or that of ancient Canaan, all the more so because it forbade the worship of any goddess in Israel. Historically, it served to distinguish Israel most immediately from its Canaanite neighbors. It is clear from the Bible that this distinction was not easy to maintain. Other deities besides YHWH were in fact worshiped in ancient Israel. The prophets and Deuteronomistic History repeatedly condemn the Israelites for worshiping the Canaanite Baal, the god of fertility. The biblical texts usually imply that there was a clear choice between Baal and YHWH, but in fact many people may have seen no problem in worshiping both. Moreover, we now know that the well-known Canaanite goddess Asherah was worshiped in Judah in connection with YHWH. An inscription found in a tomb at Khirbet el-Qom, near Hebron, south of Jerusalem, in 1968 reads as follows:

Uriyahu the Prince; this is his inscription.

May Uriyahu be blessed by YHWH,

From his enemies he has saved him by his Asherah.

The inscription dates from the eighth century b.c.e. A similar inscription was found at Kuntillet Ajrud, a stopover for caravans in the Sinai Desert, in 1978. This one is on a storage jar and also dates from the eighth century b.c.e. It is a blessing formula, ending with the words “by YHWH of Samaria and his Asherah.” Many scholars deny that Asherah in these inscriptions is the name of a goddess, since the possessive pronoun is [Page 128] not normally used with a proper name. They suggest that the reference is to a wooden image of some kind, a pole or tree, that is mentioned some forty times in the Hebrew Bible. But the wooden image was a symbol of the goddess Asherah, and so the inscriptions testify to the veneration of the goddess in any case. Moreover, more than two thousand figurines of a nude female figure, presumably a fertility goddess, have been found throughout the land of Israel by archaeologists. We also know that a goddess called Anat-Yahu (YHWH’s Anat) was venerated by a Jewish community in Elephantine in southern Egypt in the fifth century b.c.e. There can be little doubt that these Jews preserved a cult that they had already practiced in the land of Israel before they immigrated to Egypt.

In light of this evidence, there is some doubt as to whether the demand that Israel worship only YHWH really goes back to the beginning of Israel in the time of Moses. The prophets in the ninth and eighth centuries who demanded the worship of YHWH alone seem to have been a minority. It is possible that the restriction of worship to one god was the result of the preaching of these prophets, and so a relatively late development. But there is no hard evidence for the date of this commandment.

Neither is there any hard evidence for the date of the Second Commandment, which forbids the making of idols or images. This commandment complements the previous one, since images played an essential part in the worship of pagan deities. Worshipers in the ancient world did not think that the image was actually a god or goddess, although biblical writers often caricature them in this way (see especially Isa 44:9–20*). The Deuteronomistic History in 1 Kings 12 accuses Jeroboam I, the king who seceded from Jerusalem and founded the kingdom of northern Israel, of idolatry by setting up golden calves at the temples at Bethel and Dan, and telling the people: “here is your god who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kgs 12:28*). It is unlikely, however, that Jeroboam wanted his people to worship the statues. Rather, as was usual in the ancient Near East, the statue was where the god manifested his presence. In the cult in Jerusalem in the period of the kingdoms there were statues of cherubim, the mythical creatures of Near Eastern art, part human, part animal, part bird. YHWH was thought to be enthroned above the cherubim. The golden calves set up by Jeroboam may also have been supposed to be the thrones of YHWH, rather than the Deity himself. The existence of the golden calves, and of the cherubim, shows that neither Israelite nor Judahite religion completely renounced the making of images. Animal-like figures are portrayed on the jar from Kuntillet Ajrud that carries the inscription referring to YHWH and his Asherah. The prohibition in Exod 20:4* refers in the first instance to an image carved from wood or stone. Exodus 20:23* forbids the making of gods of silver and gold. It has been suggested that the origin of this opposition to images lay in an old tradition whereby the deity was represented by standing stones, which were not carved [Page 129] or sculpted. Later, the commandment is even extended metaphorically to exclude overly specific interpretations of the divine being.

Verses 5–6* reinforce the prohibition of images: “for I the Lord am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.” The jealousy of YHWH is a recurring motif in the Hebrew Bible. The idea that God might punish children for the sins of their parents would later be called into question by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18).

The Third Commandment, prohibiting wrongful use of YHWH’s name, refers especially to false or frivolous oaths, considered as an affront to the Deity.

The Fourth Commandment requires observance of the Sabbath day. The name is derived from a Hebrew verb meaning “to rest.” The weekly day of rest would become a distinctive characteristic of Judaism, and a subject of mockery among some pagans in antiquity, who thought it a sign of laziness. The origin of the custom is unknown. In ancient Babylon, the Akkadian word šappatu designated the middle day of the month, the festival of the full moon. The Sabbath is associated with the festival of the new moon in Amos 8:5* and Isa 1:13*. It may be that the Sabbath was originally linked to the waxing and waning of the moon, but in the Bible it is independent of the lunar calendar. The rationale given for the observance of the Sabbath in Exodus 20 derives from the Priestly source and links it to the account of creation in Genesis 1.

The remaining commandments concern relations in human society. All societies have laws governing such matters as these. The Bible is distinctive only in the solemnity with which they are proclaimed.

The command to honor father and mother is a staple element of Near Eastern wisdom literature, as we shall see in Proverbs and Ben Sira.

The Sixth Commandment is usually translated “you shall not kill,” but it is clear from the following chapters that a blanket prohibition on all forms of killing is not intended. The Hebrew verb rāṣaḥ is often used for murder, but also sometimes for unintentional killing. The effect of this law is not to prevent all killing, but to regulate the taking of life and to make it subject to community control.

The prohibition of adultery is concerned with violations of marriage; it does not encompass other kinds of fornication, and is distinguished from them elsewhere in biblical law. One should keep in mind that polygamy was permitted in ancient Israel (Solomon was the most famous practitioner). Either men or women could be guilty of adultery, but the man offended against the husband of his partner in sin, while the woman offended against her own husband. Adultery is the subject of several biblical stories. Recall the shock of Abimelech that he might have inadvertently committed adultery [Page 130] against Isaac, and Joseph’s virtuous rejection of Potiphar’s wife. Warnings against adultery figure prominently in the Wisdom literature, especially in Proverbs 1–9.

The commandment against stealing does not offer any specification of what is stolen. Some scholars have argued that it was originally concerned with stealing persons (kidnapping), but the commandment as it stands is more general.

The importance of truth in witnessing is illustrated by those cases where someone is put to death on the basis of false witness (e.g., the story of Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21). Later laws warn that no one should be put to death on the word of just one witness (Num 35:30*; Deut 19:15*).

Finally, the Tenth Commandment supplements the injunctions against adultery and stealing by forbidding even the coveting of another’s goods. The most notable aspect of this commandment is surely the inclusion of the neighbor’s wife along with his slaves and his ox and donkey. We need not conclude from this that adultery was considered only a property offense. It was also regarded as shameful, and an offense against God. But there is no doubt that it was also regarded as a property offense.

The Book of the Covenant

The sweeping, general prohibitions of the Decalogue are followed by a collection of casuistic laws, known as “the book of the covenant” (cf. Exod 24:7*). (There are also some apodictic laws in this section.) These laws are more indicative than the Decalogue of the ways in which law was actually practiced in ancient Israel. They qualify the apparent absolute character of the apodictic laws. For example, we are given several cases where killing is permissible, or even commanded, despite the apparent finality of the Sixth Commandment. It is apparent that these laws were formulated in a settled, agrarian, community; they are not the laws of nomads wandering in the wilderness. We do not know exactly when they were formulated. They are clearly presupposed in Deuteronomy, but could have originated either in the premonarchic tribes or in the early monarchy. Various scholars have argued that these laws should be associated with the setting up of the northern kingdom by Jeroboam I in the late tenth century b.c.e., or with the reform of King Hezekiah of Judah in the late eighth, but such suggestions, however plausible they may seem, are only conjectures.

It is not my purpose to comment on all these laws, but to discuss a few illustrative cases. The first issue raised may surprise the reader in the context of the exodus: “when you buy a Hebrew slave.… ” If Israel had its origin in liberation from slavery, how could buying a Hebrew slave be condoned? But in fact slavery is taken for granted, and remains a problem in varying degrees right through the biblical corpus, including the New Testament (see the Epistle to Philemon). The most common cause of enslavement in the [Page 131] ancient world was debt: people who could not pay their debts were forced to sell their children, or themselves, into slavery. Prisoners taken in battle were also often sold into slavery. From early times, people in the ancient Near East saw the need to set some limits to debt slavery. Babylonian kings traditionally proclaimed an act of “justice” or “equity” (mīšarum) at the beginning of their reigns, and at intervals of seven or more years thereafter, remitting debts and causing landholdings to revert to their original owners. We have an example of such a proclamation in the Edict of Ammisaduqa, a king of Babylon in the seventeenth century b.c.e. (ANET, 526–28). It includes a provision for the release of slaves who had sold themselves or their families into slavery. It goes on to state that this does not apply to people who were born in servitude. The law in Exodus is more systematic, insofar as it is not a one time liberation at the pleasure of the king, but provides that the service of Hebrew slaves be always limited to six years. No such limit is imposed in the case of foreign slaves. Moreover, if the master gives the slave a wife, she and her children remain the master’s property, and the slave may decline his liberty because of his family ties. The biblical law, then, is only a modest advance over the Near Eastern precedent. Moreover, women who have been sold into slavery are not granted the same right of liberation after six years. They are granted rights, however, and are entitled to their freedom if these rights are denied. These laws on slavery are revised and liberalized somewhat in Deuteronomy 15 (the distinction between men and women is erased), but the institution of slavery is not questioned.

The rights of slaves are again at issue in Exod 21:20*. An owner who beats a slave to death is liable to punishment, but only if the slave dies immediately. Here, as in the laws just discussed, there seems to be an attempt to balance the rights of the slave with the interests of the slave owners. The casuistic form of the laws suggests that they resulted from a process of negotiation. There is an evident concern for the rights of slaves and other people who are vulnerable in society, but there are also compromises with the conventions of society. We do not know how far these laws were enforced, but they are designed to be realistic and practical in the society of their time; they are not purely idealistic.

In general, the laws of Exodus stand in the legal tradition of the ancient Near East. The classic example is the case of the ox that gores (Exod 21:28*). Laws on this subject are found in the codes of Eshnunna (§§ 53–54) and Hammurabi (§§250–51) in the early second millennium b.c.e. The Mesopotamian codes differ from the biblical one in placing greater emphasis on monetary compensation. The biblical law requires that an ox that kills a person be stoned and its flesh not eaten, as if the action of the animal had made it taboo. If an ox kills another ox, the price of the live ox and the meat of the dead ox must be divided (Exod 21:35*). This prescription corresponds exactly to the Code of Eshnunna §53.

[Page 132] Several laws in this collection deal with the consequences of violence. The most famous is undoubtedly that found in Exod 21:22–25*. The first part of this law relates to the case where people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that she suffers a miscarriage. This law was later interpreted as prohibiting abortion, a subject that is not otherwise addressed in the biblical laws. The discussion in Exodus goes on to enunciate a general principle: “if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” This law has often been derided for inculcating a spirit of vengefulness. In the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus cites this law as an example of the old order that he is superseding: “But I say to you, Do not resist any evildoer, but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” (Matt 5:38–39*). But Jesus was enunciating a moral ideal; he was not legislating for a community. Taken in context, “an eye for an eye” is not vengefulness, but moderation. The point is that you may not kill someone who knocks out your eye. In the words of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, the object all sublime is to make the punishment fit the crime.

The modern reader cannot fail to be struck by the frequency with which the death penalty is prescribed in these laws. Examples include striking father or mother, or cursing them. It is unlikely that the death penalty was enforced in all these cases, but the laws project a sense of severity. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing at the end of the first century c.e., was proud of this severity, and claimed that it showed the superiority of Jewish law to that of the Greeks. Modern reformers who reject the death penalty find no support here, but this is only one of many examples that could be given of the gulf that divides ancient and modern sensibilities on ethical issues.

Several other laws require a brief comment. Exodus 22:16* stipulates that if a man seduces a virgin, he must pay the bride-price for her and make her his wife. The woman is not consulted as to her feelings. The issue is primarily an economic one. A woman who has been defiled would not be able to find another husband (compare the story of the rape of Dinah in Genesis 34).

Exodus 22:21* forbids Israelites to oppress a resident alien, “for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (so also 23:9*). The appeal to the experience in Egypt is exceptional in the Book of the Covenant, but is typical of Deuteronomy. The law protecting the poor from their creditors (22:21*) is also similar in spirit to Deuteronomy, but there is no reason why such sentiments could not also be found in the older law code. Compare the commands to help the animal of one’s enemy in Exod 23:4–5*.

Exodus 22:28*, “you shall not revile god,” uses the Hebrew word ˒elōhîm, which is a plural form, for “God.” The Greek translators rendered it by the plural “gods.” The philosopher Philo of Alexandria, writing in the first half of the first century c.e., inferred [Page 133] from this that Israelites were forbidden to revile the gods of other peoples, lest the Gentiles be incited to revile the God of Israel in return.

We have already commented on 22:29*, “the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me,” in connection with the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22. The context is the need to give thanks to God, by offering the firstfruits, whether of the harvest or of the womb. In Exod 34:20* this commandment is qualified; the firstborn son must be redeemed by offering something else in his place. This qualification is not found in Exodus 22. It is difficult to believe that any society would systematically require the sacrifice of the firstborn sons, but it may have been proposed as an ideal in early Israel.

The need to give thanks by giving back to God underlies the cultic regulations in Exodus 23. The Sabbath law is spelled out in 23:12*. The motivation that is given is practical: so that people and livestock may be refreshed. Similarly, the land is to be allowed to rest every seventh year. It is possible that the law in Exodus could be interpreted in terms of rotation of fields—not all the land need lie fallow at the same time. Later, however, this law is clearly taken to refer to a general practice in fixed years.

The cultic calendar in 23:14–17* specifies three major feasts. These were occasions when the males were to “appear before the Lord” by going to a sanctuary. The Hebrew word for such a pilgrimage feast is ḥag, which is related to the Arabic name for the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the ḥaj. The first is the Festival of Unleavened Bread (maṣṣôt), which marked the beginning of the barley harvest. The new bread was eaten without leaven, that is, without anything from the harvest of the previous year. It should be noted that this festival was not yet linked with the Passover in the Book of the Covenant. Passover was not a pilgrimage festival, but was celebrated in the home. The second festival is here called the harvest festival, and is related to the wheat harvest. It is later known as the Feast of Weeks. Finally, the third festival was that of Tabernacles or Sukkoth at the end of the year (in ancient Israel, the year began and ended in the fall). This was the most important and joyful of the three festivals. In Leviticus it is called simply “the feast of YHWH.” In Exodus 23 it is called the festival of ingathering. This was the celebration when all the produce of the fields had been gathered in, including the grapes that were used to make wine.

This cultic calendar will be developed and modified in later biblical law codes. Here we need note only the preponderantly agricultural character of the festivals. Each of them is an occasion for giving thanks to God after a harvest. This is not the calendar of tribes wandering in the desert, but of an agricultural people, settled in their land.

One final law must be noted, because of its far-reaching effect on later Jewish life: “you shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” (23:19*). It is because of this law that Jews do not combine meat and dairy products in the same meal. No reason is given for the [Page 134] prohibition. Some scholars have speculated that it was intended to reject a Canaanite ritual. There is a very fragmentary text from Ugarit that says “cook a kid in milk, a lamb in butter.” But the Canaanite text does not say that the kid should be cooked in its mother’s milk. The most plausible explanation of the commandment is the intuitive one: to cook a kid in its mother’s milk is unnatural, and violates the life-giving character of mother’s milk. In this case, as in the laws protecting aliens and the poor, the Covenant Code shows a humane spirit that we will find amplified later in Deuteronomy.

The Golden Calf and the Second Giving of the Law

Another formulation of the laws given at Sinai is found in Exodus 34, especially in vv. 17–26*. This passage is sometimes called the J Decalogue, although it is plainly not a decalogue (despite the reference to “ten words” in 34:28*). It is also sometimes called the ritual decalogue, because of the prominence of laws concerning cult and sacrifice. It clearly duplicates the laws of Exodus 20–23 at some points, and represents another tradition that the editors of the Pentateuch wished to incorporate.

The occasion for the second giving of the law is provided by the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32. The division of sources in this chapter is problematic. It is agreed that 32:7–14* is a Deuteronomic addition, but this passage does not concern the main story line. The remainder of the narrative is variously attributed to J or E, and the confusion springs from conflicting indications in the text. On the one hand, it is extraordinary that Aaron, brother of Moses and high priest, is said to take the lead in making an idol for the people. Aaron was regarded in later tradition as the ancestor of the priestly line that officiated in the Jerusalem temple. The story implicating him in idolatry can only have been composed as a polemic against the Jerusalem temple and its priesthood. This points to a northern origin for this part of the story, and would make good sense as part of the E narrative. On the other hand, the golden calf recalls the foundation of the northern kingdom by Jeroboam, after the death of Solomon. In 1 Kgs 12:28–29* we are told that the king “made two calves of gold” and said to the people: “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” This is exactly how the people acclaim the golden calf in Exod 32:4*. (Neither story actually involves the worship of any god other than YHWH. The plural “gods” reflects the Hebrew word ˒elōhîm, which has a plural form but is also used for God in the singular.) The calves set up by Jeroboam were probably thought of as pedestals, on which the invisible Deity stood, but they are derided as idols in the Deuteronomistic History. Since the golden calf is regarded as an idol in Exodus 32 as well, this story also throws a negative light on the cult established by Jeroboam. Polemic against the northern cult points to an origin in the southern kingdom of Judah. Most probably, the story has been edited more [Page 135] than once. Perhaps a story that was originally intended to condemn the golden calf was revised by a northern editor so as to place the original blame on Aaron, who was revered in the south. As the story now stands, it implies criticism both of the cult that developed in the northern kingdom and of the Aaronic priesthood that flourished in Jerusalem.

The story is also remarkably severe in its tone. The statement that “the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play” is cited in the New Testament (1 Cor 10:7*) as a paradigm of dissolute behavior that leads to judgment. Even though the celebration is said to be “a festival to the Lord” (Exod 32:5*), Moses is enraged by the reveling as well as by the golden calf. The Levites rally to his support, and put out the celebration by killing “brother, friend, and neighbor” (32:27*). The Levites were the country clergy, who served the rural shrines especially in northern Israel. As we shall see when we discuss Deuteronomy, they were later displaced when the country shrines were suppressed and worship was centralized in Jerusalem, and they were made subordinate to the Aaronide priesthood. Exodus 32 can be read in part as the revenge of the Levites on the line of Aaron. Here the Levites are the true followers of YHWH, and Aaron is the apostate. Indeed, there is little doubt that the Levites were traditionally zealous supporters of the cult of YHWH. The kind of zeal that they exhibit here will be illustrated in Numbers 25, where a priest named Phinehas takes the lead in killing Israelites who have participated in the cult of Baal. YHWH, as we are told in Exod 20:5*, is a jealous God. Intolerance of deviant behavior is deeply ingrained in the religion of ancient Israel and in the Hebrew Scriptures that were accepted as the Old Testament by Christianity.

But there is also a different side of this God, and it is emphasized in Exod 34:6–7*, where Moses addresses him as: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” This formula is often repeated in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Num 14:18*; Ps 86:15*; Neh 9:17*) and is one of the central affirmations about God in the biblical tradition. It does not negate the “jealous” character of God, but it qualifies it. It should be noted that the biblical portrayal of God is not unique in the ancient world. A Babylonian prayer to Marduk addresses him as “warrior Marduk, whose anger is the deluge, whose relenting is that of a merciful father” (B. R. Foster, From Distant Days [Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 1995] 247).

Yet another aspect of the deity is addressed in Exodus 33. This is the elusiveness of the divine presence. In 33:7* we are told that Moses pitched the tent of meeting outside the camp, and that everyone who sought the Lord would go out to it. This is surprising, since much of the second half of the book of Exodus is concerned with the setting up of “the tabernacle of the tent of meeting,” but this is not finally set up until chapter 40. The passage in chapter 33 evidently reflects an older tradition, which involved a less elaborate tent. That it is removed from the camp is significant, as the narrative puts some distance [Page 136] between God and the Israelites. They are told that God will not go with them on their journey to the promised land (33:1–3*), but in v. 15* this is qualified, so that his “presence” will go with them. Again, Moses is permitted to see God from behind, but not his face, for no one can see God and live. (We shall find, nonetheless, that some prophets, such as Isaiah, claim boldly to have seen the Lord.) In traditional theological language, the narrative is trying to balance the transcendence and immanence of God—to affirm that God is present while keeping in mind the mysterious nature of that presence. In the narratives about Sinai, God’s presence is usually indicated by a cloud. We shall find further refinements of this problem in the Priestly and Deuteronomic writings.

The laws in Exodus 34 duplicate some items from Exodus 20–23, but also modify them at some points. The commandments are interspersed with the cultic calendar. The most significant variation from the earlier laws is that 34:20* says explicitly that “the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.” Unlike 22:29*, it does not leave open the question of child sacrifice.

Much of the second half of Exodus is taken up with the account of the tabernacle. Since this material is an integral part of the Priestly cultic system described in Leviticus, we shall discuss it in the following chapter.

Further Reading

Commentaries

See chapter 5

Other Studies

Sinai pericope

Cross, Frank Moore. Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973 (145–94). Rich use of Canaanite parallels.

Crüsemann, Frank. The Torah: Theology and Social History of Old Testament Law. Trans. A. W. Mahnke. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996 (27–57). Analysis of literary strata in Exodus 19–24. Posits ultimate shaping by Deuteronomists.

Dozeman, Thomas B. God on the Mountain: A Study of Redaction, Theology, and Canon in Exodus 19–24. SBLMS ;37. Atlanta: Scholars, 1989. Careful discussion of the various traditions in Exodus 19–24.

[Page 137] Covenant

Beckman, Gary. Hittite Diplomatic Texts. SBLWAW 7. Atlanta: Scholars, 1996 (11–118). Extensive collection of Hittite treaties.

Levenson, Jon D. Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. Minneapolis: Winston, 1985 (15–86). Lucid exposition of the analogy between treaty and covenant.

McCarthy, Dennis J. Treaty and Covenant: A Study in Form in the Ancient Oriental Documents and in the Old Testament. 2d ed. AnBib 21A. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981. Balanced discussion of Hittite and Assyrian treaties.

Mendenhall, George E. Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East. Pittsburgh: Presbyterian Board of Colportage of Western Pennsylvania, 1955. Influential, pioneering demonstration of the parallels between the Mosaic covenant and the Hittite treaties.

Near Eastern Law Codes

ANET, 159–201.

Roth, Martha T. Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. SBLWAW 6. Atlanta: SBL, 1997.

Biblical Law

Alt, Albrecht. “The Origins of Israelite Law.” In idem, Essays on Old Testament History and Religion. Trans. R. A. Wilson. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1968 (101–71). Influential distinction between apodictic and casuistic law.

Crüsemann, Frank. The Torah: Theology and Social History of Old Testament Law. Trans. A. W. Mahnke. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996. Detailed discussion of biblical law codes in historical context. Pp. 109–200 deal with the Book of the Covenant.

Greengus, Samuel. “Law.” In ABD 4.242–52. Overview, with attention to Ancient Near Eastern parallels.

Harrelson, Walter The Ten Commandments and Human Rights. OBT. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980 (reprinted: Macon, Ga.: Macon Univ. Press, 1997). Discussion of the lasting significance of the Ten Commandments.

Levinson, Bernard M., ed. Theory and Method in Biblical and Cuneiform Law. JSOTSup 181. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994. Collection of essays on various aspects of biblical law.

Patrick, Dale. Old Testament Law. Atlanta: John Knox, 1985. Good introductory survey. Pp. 35–61 deal with the Ten Commandments; pp. 63–96 with the Book of the Covenant.

[Page 138] [Page 139] 7

The Priestly Theology
Exodus 25–40, Leviticus and Numbers

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Study Guide, Chapter 7

In Genesis and in Exodus 1–24, the Priestly strand consists mainly of editorial .additions that link the narrative episodes together by providing dates and genealogies. Longer additions are often related to the inauguration of a ritual (the Sabbath in Genesis 1; the prohibition of eating meat with the blood in it in Genesis 9; circumcision in Genesis 17). There are Priestly narratives of some key episodes in the narrative (the flood, the crossing of the sea), but there does not appear to have been a separate Priestly narrative of the whole story of Israel’s origins. Rather, the Priestly writers accepted the narrative found in the J and E strands, and supplemented it at several points to address their own concerns.

The core of the Priestly source is found in the corpus of laws and cultic regulations that begins in Exodus 25 and runs through the book of Leviticus, up to Numbers 10, where the Israelites are finally said to set out from the wilderness of Sinai. In this block of material, Moses is given instructions about the sanctuary, the sacrificial system, the consecration of priests, the distinction between pure and impure, and the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 17–26 stands out as a distinct section within the Priestly tradition, and is known as the Holiness Code. The early chapters of Numbers provide instructions for the arrangement of the camp in the wilderness, and regulations for various matters, such as suspicion of adultery, the nazirite vow, the Levites or minor clergy, and the celebration of Passover. Taken together, these laws constitute a symbolic system, which embodies a distinct theology within the biblical corpus. The antiquity of this system and the extent of its influence in ancient Israel are highly controversial. In this chapter we focus on the description of the system. We shall return to the controversial questions of antiquity and importance after we have discussed the book of Deuteronomy in the following chapter.

[Page 140] The Tabernacle (Exodus 25–31; 35–40)

The corpus of Priestly laws begins with the account of the tabernacle in the second half of the book of Exodus. Tent-shrines for deities are attested in the Semitic world. The god El, in the Ugaritic myths, had a tent. The ancient Phoenicians had tent-shrines that they carried into battle. Pre-Islamic Arabs had a tent-shrine called the qubbah, a leather tent carried around by nomadic tribes. Such tent-shrines have survived down to modern times. Most scholars, however, have felt that the tabernacle described in Exodus 26–40 is too elaborate to have been transported in the wilderness, and so that the account of its construction in the time of Moses is anachronistic. It may reflect a later, settled shrine, possibly at Shiloh, where the tabernacle is allegedly set up in Josh 18:1* (Shiloh is the site of “the house of the Lord” in the time of Samuel, before the rise of the monarchy and the building of Solomon’s temple). Alternatively, it may be an ideal construction, imagined by later Priestly writers. It does not correspond to what we know of the Jerusalem temple, although it incorporates some of its features, notably the statues of winged cherubim guarding the mercy seat (Exod 25:21*).

The significance of the tabernacle in the Priestly source is that it provides a way of imagining a central sanctuary even while Israel was wandering in the wilderness. The presence of God is associated with the Ark of the Covenant, which is housed within the tabernacle. God is manifested over the mercy seat, between the cherubim that are on the ark (Exod 25:22*). The centralization of worship was a major innovation in the reform of King Josiah in 621 b.c.e., and is associated with the promulgation of the laws of Deuteronomy. The Priestly source, as reflected in Exodus 26–40, seems to presuppose this centralization. While there may well have been a tent-shrine in ancient Israel, it is unlikely that it ever served as the focus for the cult of all Israel in the way that the tabernacle does in the Priestly source.

Leviticus

The Sacrificial System (Leviticus 1–7)

Sacrifice is one of the oldest and most basic ways in which people have tried to communicate with the gods. A sacrifice is something that is made sacred by being offered to a god. In the case of animals, and sometimes of human beings, the offering requires that they be killed, and so made to pass over into the world of spirit. There is also provision for offerings of inanimate objects, such as cereal.

Various kinds of sacrifices are distinguished in Leviticus 1–7. The burnt offering (˓ôlāh) literally means “that which ascends.” The equivalent Greek term is “holocaust,” [Page 141] which means “wholly burned.” In such a sacrifice, the victim is given completely to God, as “a pleasing odor.” In contrast, the sacrifice of well-being (šelāmîm) was a communion sacrifice, where the victim was eaten by the worshipers. Since the slaughter of animals was permitted only in the context of sacrifice in early Israel (except for blemished animals and game), these sacrifices were the occasions on which people could eat meat. For most people these occasions were rare and had the character of a celebration. The fat, like the blood, could not be eaten, but was deemed to belong to the deity. (The blood was given to God by being sprinkled on the altar.) The fact that meat was eaten after it had been “made sacred” suggests some form of communion with the Deity, but the biblical texts do not attribute any mystical character to the sacrificial meal.

The cereal or grain offerings (Leviticus 2) were less expensive than the meat sacrifices and so could be offered more frequently. In early Israel these sacrifices were burned. According to Leviticus 2, however, only part of the offering was burned, and the rest belonged to the priests. The livelihood of the priests derived from the offerings of the worshipers. This sometimes led to abuses. A colorful story in 1 Samuel 2 tells how the sons of Eli, the priest at Shiloh, would send their servants to seize portions of the meat that was being offered. The laws in Leviticus regulate the role of the priest in all these sacrifices carefully. Undoubtedly, in ancient times people thought of sacrifices as a way of feeding the gods. This idea is reflected in the Atrahasis myth from Mesopotamia, where the gods are distressed when they are deprived of their offerings. It is also parodied in the story of Bel and the Dragon, which is one of the additions to the book of Daniel in the Greek Bible. In Leviticus, however, there is no suggestion that God needs the offerings in any way. Rather, the sacrificial system provides a symbolic means for people to express their gratitude and indebtedness to God, or to make amends for their sins.

Leviticus prescribes special sacrifices for sin and purification (chaps. 4–7). Leviticus 4 prescribes rituals to be followed in cases where people have committed inadvertent sin. Sin is regarded as an objective fact—it must be atoned for even if it was not committed intentionally. Leviticus also legislates for cases of intentional sin. In some cases, such as robbery or fraud, the sin entails damage done to other human beings, and restitution must be made (6:5*). The main emphasis of Leviticus, however, is on atoning for the offense against the Lord by means of a ritual offering.

The Day of Atonement

Perhaps the most vivid example of ritual atonement in Leviticus is found in the ritual for the Day of Atonement in chapter 16. This ritual requires the sacrifice of a young bull and the offering of two goats. The high priest (Aaron) casts lots over the goats and designates one for the Lord, and offers it in sacrifice. The other goat is designated “for Azazel” and is driven away into the wilderness. Azazel is not attested elsewhere, but is evidently a [Page 142] demon of some sort. In the ancient Near East, all sorts of problems were explained as being due to angry demons that had to be appeased by offerings or other means. In contrast, there are scarcely any references to demons in the biblical writings. (They do appear, however, in Jewish writings of the Hellenistic period, such as the books of Tobit and 1 Enoch.) Azazel, then, is probably a relic of a stage of Israelite religion when demons were given a more prominent role. It may be that demons were more important in popular Israelite religion than in the writings that are preserved in the Bible. Little is said about Azazel here, and it is difficult to know just what role he ever played in Israelite religion. He was apparently important enough at some point that he had to be appeased by the offering of a goat. The goat is not killed, but is simply sent out into the wilderness, where Azazel presumably lived.

Our purpose in considering Leviticus 16 here is not to speculate on the origin of Azazel, but to reflect on the way in which the ritual works. The priest “shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat.… The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities” (16:21–22*). Iniquities (sins) are not material objects that can be packaged and put on an animal’s head. They are deeds that people have done (murder, for example), and in many cases they cannot be undone. The action of the priest, then, is symbolic, and the effectiveness of his action depends on the belief of everyone involved. When the ritual is performed correctly, the sins of the people are deemed to be carried away into the wilderness. Just as a judge in a court has the power to declare someone guilty or innocent, the priest has the power to declare sin forgiven. The legitimacy of a court depends on the consensus of a society. Similarly, the effectiveness of a ritual depends on its acceptance within a society. It is assumed in Leviticus that these rituals are prescribed by God, and that sin is forgiven because God so declares it. God, however, speaks through the priest.

While we cannot verify the divine acceptance of the ritual, we can assess its effect on the people who practiced it. We can imagine that people who approached the Day of Atonement burdened by a sense of sin would feel a great sense of relief as they watched the goat bearing their sins disappear into the wilderness. Such people might well resolve to avoid sinful conduct in the future, although this is not necessarily the case. We can also understand that an individual who made an offering for sin would be pardoned not only by God but by the society that acknowledged the validity of the ritual. The efficacy of the ritual, however, depends on its acceptance. A person who did not believe that the goat carried the sin of the people into the wilderness could hardly feel any relief when it went out of sight.

The Priestly laws in Leviticus may give the impression that the sacrifices work automatically, but elsewhere in the Bible we often find an awareness that rituals are only [Page 143] effective when they give expression to genuine human intentions. We shall find that the prophets are often very critical of the sacrificial cult, when it was not accompanied by the practice of justice (see especially Amos 5). The psalmists also were aware of the limits of ritual. “For you have no delight in sacrifice,” says Ps 51:16–17*, “if I were to give a burnt offering you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Leviticus, however, assumes that God is pleased by burnt offerings and that the ritual is effective when it is performed properly.

The Consecration of Priests

The instructions for the building of the tabernacle included directions for the consecration of the sons of Aaron as priests in Exodus 29. The actual consecration is described in Leviticus 8–10. Aaron is given a special tunic, and a breastplate equipped with Urim and Thummim, which were used to consult the Lord. We do not know exactly what the Urim and Thummim were. Scholars have speculated that they were some form of dice that could be rolled so as to get either a positive or a negative answer to a question. In any case, it is of interest that the high priest was equipped to engage in divination, which is a function that we associate more usually with prophets. It is also noteworthy that the priests are anointed with oil. Anointing was widely used in the ancient Near East to indicate a rise in status. In Israel the king was anointed. The Hebrew verb for “to anoint” is māšaḥ. An anointed one is a māsîaḥ, the word commonly rendered in English as “messiah.” After the Babylonian exile, when there no longer was a king in Israel, the term “messiah” (māšîaḥ) came to designate a future king. But a priest could also be called māšîaḥ, and messianic hope for the future sometimes involved the expectation of an ideal priest as well as an ideal king (e.g., in the Dead Sea Scrolls).

Leviticus is at pains to emphasize that the consecration of the priests is stamped with divine approval. At the end of Leviticus 8 we are told that when Moses and Aaron came out from the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. (The glory, or kābôd, is the standard way in which God manifests himself in the Priestly writings. It may be imagined as a luminous cloud.) Conversely, any improper use of the priesthood is presented as highly dangerous. When Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu “offered unholy fire” before the Lord (10:1–2*), they were consumed by fire. We are not told what made their fire unholy. The point is that any neglect of proper ritual may prove fatal.

Leviticus 8–10 is concerned with the consecration of the sons of Aaron as priests. There was, however, another class of priests in ancient Israel, the Levites. The Priestly account of the consecration of the Levites is found in Numbers 8. According to that account, the Levites (that is, the descendants of the patriarch Levi, son of Jacob) are set aside from other Israelites and consecrated to the Lord, but their position is subordinate to that of the Aaronide priests. They serve in the tent of meeting in attendance on Aaron [Page 144] and his sons. (The relationship between the Aaronide priests and the Levites is spelled out further in Numbers 18.) The account in Numbers 8 suggests that this was a harmonious arrangement, but there are indications that it was not always so. In Numbers 16 we are told that a descendant of Levi named Korah, supported by descendants of Reuben named Dathan and Abiram, rebelled against Moses and Aaron, saying: “You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt yourselves against the assembly of the Lord?” Moses responds: “Hear now, you Levites! Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to allow you to approach him in order to perform the duties of the Lord’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation and serve them? He has allowed you to approach him, and all your brother Levites with you; yet you seek the priesthood as well!” The dispute is resolved when the earth opens and swallows Korah and his followers. Here again the Priestly writers claim absolute, divine authority for the cultic order, and specifically they claim that the Aaronide priesthood is divinely ordained to a higher rank than the Levites. In effect, God has created, and insists upon, a hierarchical order in the regulation of the cult, so that some people are designated as holier than others. We can hardly doubt that the authors of the Priestly source were themselves members of the Aaronide priesthood, the holiest of the holy.

In fact, the relationship between the Aaronide priests and the Levites was considerably more complicated than these passages in the book of Numbers suggest. As we shall see in the book of Deuteronomy, another tradition claimed that the Levites were priests. When King Josiah forbade sacrificial worship outside Jerusalem in the Deuteronomic reform of 621 b.c.e., however, the priests who served shrines outside Jerusalem lost their livelihood. They were permitted to go up to Jerusalem, but there the Aaronide priesthood was firmly established. It was at this point that a controversy developed as to whether the Levites were legitimate priests. We shall consider the history of the Levites further in connection with Deuteronomy, and in connection with the relationship between Deuteronomy and the Priestly source. For the present it is sufficient to note that the Priestly writings assume that the Aaronide priesthood takes precedence over the Levites.

The stories of Nadab and Abihu, and of Korah and his followers, bring to mind one other story of instantaneous divine judgment in the book of Numbers. This is found in Numbers 12, and concerns a challenge to the authority of Moses by Aaron and Miriam, “because of the Cushite woman whom he had married.” In the postexilic period, marriage to foreign women was a controversial issue in Judah. The book of Ezra reports that Ezra forced the Jewish men who had married foreign wives to divorce them and send them away. It is not surprising, then, that some people would have found the marriage of Moses to a foreign woman to be an embarrassment. The story in Numbers makes the point that no one should question the authority of Moses, regardless of what he may [Page 145] have done. The point is made all the more forcefully by the fact that the people who are rebuked are Aaron and Miriam, sister of Moses (only Miriam is actually punished for her grumbling). There is no suggestion, however, that Moses’ marriage to a foreign woman sets a precedent for anyone else.

Each of these stories, where God rebukes Nadab and Abihu, Miriam and Aaron, and Korah and his followers, serves to assert not only the authority of God but also that of God’s human surrogates, Moses and Aaron. Religious leaders throughout history have often claimed such divine endorsement, as indeed have political leaders (as we shall see when we discuss the monarchy in Israel and Judah). We shall find in the prophetic literature that there were also good reasons to question such claims, as they served all too neatly the interests of the people who made them.

The Impurity Laws

Leviticus 11–15 deals with various matters that can cause impurity. Impurity, or uncleanness, is not in itself a sinful state, but it renders a person unfit to approach the altar. Accordingly, purity is of great concern for priests. Moreover, the people as a whole is expected to aspire to purity. Some defilement is unavoidable, but it can be removed by ritual action. There is a tendency in Second Temple Judaism for some groups to insist on stricter standards of purity in everyday life, not just in the context of worship. This is the case with the Pharisees and with the sect known from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The prominence given to matters of purity in the book of Leviticus, and the inclusion of Leviticus in the Torah, contributed powerfully to this tendency.

No aspect of these laws has left a more indelible mark on Jewish life through the centuries than the dietary laws that declare some foods kosher or pure and some unclean. We have already encountered the prohibition against cooking a kid in its mother’s milk in the Book of the Covenant (Exod 23:19*). In the same context, the Israelites are forbidden to eat any meat that is mangled in the field, because “you shall be a people consecrated to me” (23:31*). Such concerns are found in the oldest stratum of Israelite laws. More elaborate laws are found in Leviticus 11. Among land animals, those that have divided hooves and chew the cud are permitted. Those that lack either of these characteristics are not. Fish that lack fins and scales are prohibited, as are a list of twenty wild birds (without any stated criteria). All winged insects are “detestable.”

These laws have baffled interpreters and embarrassed apologists from ancient to modern times. The traditional, orthodox view is that they reflect the inscrutable will of God, so that no explanation should be sought. Already in the Middle Ages Jewish interpreters such as Maimonides argued that the forbidden animals were carriers of disease—the pig, for example, carries trichinosis. This kind of explanation is still defended in some quarters, but it is not very convincing. It cannot be shown to apply to all the forbidden [Page 146] creatures, and other peoples ate pork without serious consequences. Others have tried to find symbolic explanations for the prohibitions. The Letter of Aristeas, written in Alexandria in the second century b.c.e., suggested that chewing the cud was symbolic of recollection, while birds of prey were symbols of injustice. This kind of allegorization is too arbitrary to be convincing. Others have sought an ethical explanation, arguing that the restriction of what humans may eat arises from reverence for life. Some have suggested that the law was meant to limit Israel’s access to animals. Only cattle, sheep, and goats, which are bred for the purpose, may be eaten. The pig is excluded because it is disgusting. This kind of explanation makes some sense in the case of the kid in its mother’s milk, or in the prohibition of eating meat with the blood. It is difficult to see, however, how reverence for life could lead to classifying animals as abominations, or warrant a distinction between fish that have fins and scales and those that do not. In fact, ethical considerations (concern for the effect of actions on other human beings or on animals) are singularly absent from the Priestly code. We shall see that the purpose of the Holiness Code in Leviticus 17–26 was largely to remedy this lack in the older laws.

The only rationale given in Leviticus is that the Israelites should not defile themselves, but be holy, because the Lord is holy (Lev 11:44–45*). Holiness is primarily the attribute of God. Human beings are holy insofar as they come close to God. The opposite state is “profane.” While the positive character of holiness is difficult to grasp, negatively it implies a contrast with the normal human condition. Holy people and places are set apart and consecrated. Observance of a distinct set of laws makes the Israelites holy insofar as it sets them apart from the rest of humanity. But the concept of holiness in itself does not explain why sheep may be eaten, but not pigs.

While any explanation of these laws is hypothetical, many people have found useful the interpretation offered by the anthropologist Mary Douglas. For Douglas, these laws are an attempt to bring order to experience. The problem with animals that have divided hooves but do not chew the cud is that they are anomalous: they deviate from the state that is perceived as normal. The decision as to what is normal is based on observation, but draws a line that is arbitrary to a degree. It is characteristic of the Priestly authors that they like clear and distinct dividing lines. By categorizing things in this manner they impose a sense of order on experience, and this in turn gives people a sense of security, which is especially attractive in times of crisis and uncertainty. Such a system can have unfortunate consequences, however, for people who are deemed to deviate from what is considered normal in their society. One of the ways in which a person was seen to be abnormal was by bodily defects. A priest who was blind or lame, or had a mutilated face or other deformity, was disqualified from service at the altar (Lev 21:16*). Animals that were blemished were not acceptable for sacrifice (chap. 22). [Page 147] Anyone who was leprous or had a discharge, or was impure from contact with a corpse, was to be excluded from the camp (Num 5:1–5*), and so, presumably, from the cultic assembly.

Some scholars have also sought to give an ethical character to other impurity laws by arguing that the sources of impurity symbolize the forces of death. Three sources of impurity are discussed in Leviticus 11–15: dead bodies, bodily emissions, and scale diseases. In the case of dead bodies, the association with death is obvious. It is also arguable in the case of scale diseases. We should note, however, that not all diseases are so categorized. Rather, the concern is with leprosy and skin diseases, which involve obvious abnormalities. Moreover, the law also applies to the leprosy of a house—mildew or mold, causing green or reddish spots (14:34–57*). Such a house must be scraped and the unclean stones replaced, but this is done under the supervision of a priest. The concern is not only for hygiene but for purity, and the focus is on abnormal growth or coloring, whether in a human being or in a building. Even the defilement of corpses can be understood as distaste for the abnormal, since unburied corpses are in an in-between state, and are anomalous in the land of the living.

The attempt to relate impurity to death breaks down most obviously in Leviticus 12, which discusses the impurity caused by childbirth. A woman who bears a male child is ceremonially unclean for seven days, and her time of blood purification is thirty-three days. She is impure for double that length of time if she gives birth to a female. The uncleanness here is caused by bodily emissions, which are messy and do not fit in neatly distinct categories. Compare the discussion of bodily discharges, male and female, in Leviticus 15. Neither the birth of a child nor a discharge of semen can be said to symbolize death. The concern is for an abnormal state or occurrence, but loss of control over the human body may also be a factor. At least, the inclusion of childbirth and of bodily discharges shows that the concern is not with death in a narrow sense, but rather with the edges of life. We are reminded of the limits of human control.

There is no obvious reason why a woman should be impure longer after the birth of a girl than that of a boy. The monetary value placed on a man in Lev 27:1–8* is roughly double that of a woman. It is not unreasonable, then, to suspect that the difference implies that females are inferior in some sense. But greater impurity does not necessarily imply lesser value. A human corpse defiles more than the carcass of an animal. Fear of defilement is very widespread in the ancient world, and may indeed be universal. It does not always admit of rational explanation. Impurity laws preserve vestiges of old taboos, based on the fear of the unknown. They have more to do with primal fears about life and death, and loss of human control over the body, than with ethical principles in the modern sense.

[Page 148] The Holiness Code

Leviticus 17–26 is recognized as a distinct block of material within the Priestly corpus. These chapters, called the Holiness Code (H), have a distinctive style and vocabulary. Although the various units are still introduced by the formula “the Lord spoke to Moses saying,” they have the character of a direct address by God to Israel, with frequent interjections of the formula “I am the Lord your God.” Most importantly, these chapters attempt to integrate ethical commandments of the type found in the Decalogue, and emphasized in Deuteronomy and the Prophets, with the more specific cultic and ritual laws of the Priestly tradition.

Slaughter and Sacrifice

Leviticus 17 opens with a remarkable command: “if any Israelite slaughters an animal and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting as an offering to the Lord, he is guilty of bloodshed” (v. 4*). The precise significance of this commandment is controversial. One of the great turning points in the history of the religion of Israel was the Deuteronomic reform of King Josiah in 621 b.c.e., which forbade sacrifice outside the one place that the Lord had chosen (Jerusalem). Since many Israelites lived at some distance from Jerusalem, Deuteronomy allowed that animals could be slaughtered for meat without being sacrificed, that is, it permitted profane slaughter. Leviticus 17 is presented as a law for Israel in the wilderness. It is generally assumed that the law really addresses a much later situation. Since there is only one tent of meeting, most scholars have assumed that H is insisting on the centralization of sacrificial worship, but unlike Deuteronomy it refuses to allow profane slaughter. Such a law would have been difficult to implement. It has been suggested, however, that the tent of meeting here stands for any sanctuary, and that H presupposed the existence of multiple shrines. This would remove the practical difficulty of implementing the law, but the only evidence for multiple sanctuaries in H is the curse in Lev 26:31*, where God threatens to lay “your sanctuaries” waste. One can hardly infer from this that H approved of multiple sanctuaries. We shall return to the relevance of Leviticus 17 for the centralization of the cult when we discuss the relationship between the Priestly tradition and Deuteronomy. For the present it is sufficient to note that H takes a purist position on the sacrality of the slaughter of animals. The reason given is to prevent Israelites from offering sacrifices to demons (such as Azazel). H also reiterates emphatically the prohibition against eating meat with the blood in it.

[Page 149] Improper Relations

The next issue raised in the Holiness Code is the distinction of Israel from the nations: “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you” (Lev 18:3*). Most of the points at issue involve improper sexual relations. We should not assume that the Canaanites and the Egyptians indulged in all the behavior forbidden to the Israelites. The passage is probably referring to the story in Genesis 9, where Ham, father of both Canaan and Egypt, saw the nakedness of his father, Noah, who cursed Canaan when he awoke. Many of the laws in Leviticus 18 forbid sexual relations between close relatives. Typically Priestly is the prohibition of relations during a woman’s menstrual period (18:19*). In modern times the only one of these laws that has been controversial is the statement in 18:22*: “you shall not lie with a male as with a woman” (literally, “the lyings of a woman”). The penalties for various offenses listed in chapter 18 are given in chapter 20. Leviticus 18:13* specifies that if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both men have committed an abomination and must be put to death. All of these “abominations” are said to defile the land.

The biblical prohibition of male homosexual intercourse is unique in the ancient world. The Greek philosopher Plato declared that homosexuality was contrary to nature in his dialogue The Laws, but here he was going against the consensus of Greek society, and even Plato himself expressed a more positive view of the subject in his earlier dialogue The Symposium. The contrast between Jewish and Greek mores in this matter was frequently noted by Jewish writers in the Hellenistic period. Leviticus does not give an argument for the prohibition. It simply declares such intercourse to be an abomination. These are the only passages in the Hebrew Bible where homosexual intercourse is explicitly prohibited, but it also figures in two narratives. In Genesis 19 Lot offers the men of Sodom his two daughters, if only they will refrain from abusing his male guests, but he seems to be concerned over the violation of hospitality and his honor as host. A similar situation recurs in Judges 19, where the master of the house gives over his concubine to a mob, to protect his male guest. In the New Testament, St. Paul draws a contrast between the “shameless acts” of men with each other and natural intercourse with women (Rom 1:27*). Homosexuality is also denounced in several lists of vices in the New Testament (1 Cor 6:9*; Gal 5:19*; 1 Tim 1:10*).

In the context of Leviticus, a number of factors should be noted. There is a deliberate contrast with the ways of other peoples, but this in itself does not explain the specific issues that are chosen. All the issues in Leviticus 18 are sexual, except one. Verse 21* explicitly prohibits child sacrifice, and 20:2–5* prescribes death by stoning as the punishment for this offense. (Chapter 20 also mentions some other offenses such [Page 150] as consulting mediums and wizards.) Because of this it has been suggested that procreation is the common theme of chapter 18. Waste of reproductive seed is an issue here, although not every form of nonreproductive intercourse is addressed (for example, intercourse with a wife after menopause is not forbidden). Concern for the waste of reproductive seed was not peculiar to P or H—compare the story of Onan in Genesis 38. The book of Proverbs cautions men to “drink water from your own cistern … why should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?” (Prov 5:15–16*). There is no prohibition of sex between women (lesbianism) in Leviticus. This omission cannot be explained by the male-centered focus of these laws. The following verse carefully indicates that the prohibition of sex with animals applies to women as well as to men (Lev 18:23*; cf. 20:16*). Presumably, sex between women did not concern the Priestly legislators because there was no loss of semen involved. In contrast, Rom 1:26–27* condemns “unnatural intercourse” on the part of both males and females.

Procreation, however, is not the only issue here. There is also an intolerable degree of defilement. Not only is the passive male partner condemned to death in Lev 20:13*, but also animals with which humans have sexual relations must be killed, although there can be no question of responsibility on the part of the animals. The juxtaposition of the prohibition of male homosexuality with that of bestiality and the fact that the death penalty is prescribed for all parties in both cases shows that the issue is not exploitation of the weak by the strong. Neither can the prohibition of male homosexuality be limited to relations with close relatives (the kind of situation addressed in the laws on heterosexual relations). It would be absurd to suggest that the law on bestiality only applied when the animals were part of the extended family!

One other passage in the Holiness Code may throw some light on the prohibition of male homosexuality: “You shall not let our animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials” (Lev 19:19*; cf. Deut 22:9–11*). Certain combinations are deemed improper. In Lev 19:19* the concern is with combinations of pairs of different materials; in the prohibition of homosexuality, the issue is combining two of the same kind. In all these cases, however, there is a preoccupation with order, with clear definitions of what is permitted and what is not. The prohibition of male homosexuality must be understood in this context.

Finally, some comment must be made on the relevance of these laws for the modern world. The laws are addressed only to Israelites, and are intended to distinguish Israel from other peoples. They seem to be quite unequivocal, however, in their condemnation of male homosexuality. Attempts to restrict their application (e.g., to intercourse with close relatives) seem misguided. Whether one considers any of these laws still binding is another [Page 151] matter. Few people in the modern world worry as to whether their garments are made of different materials. Many other factors besides the teaching of Leviticus would have to be considered in a discussion of the morality of homosexuality in the modern world.

Ethics and Holiness

The strategy of the Holiness Code in revising the Priestly tradition is most clearly evident in Leviticus 19. The chapter begins with the programmatic assertion: “You must be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” In the Priestly source, holiness was defined primarily by ritual requirements, although reverence for life was certainly implied. In Leviticus 19, however, we find ritual regulations interspersed with ethical commandments of the type familiar from the Decalogue (note the echoes of the Decalogue in 19:2–3*, 11–13*). Leviticus 19:10* echoes Deuteronomy when it says that the edges and gleanings of the harvest must be left for the poor. Also characteristically Deuteronomic is the reason why one should not oppress the alien: “for you were aliens in the land of Egypt” (19:36*). The code does not lessen the importance of ritual and purity regulations, but it puts them in perspective by alternating them with ethical commandments. Holiness is not only a matter of being separated from the nations. It also requires ethical behavior toward one’s fellow human beings.

The Cultic Calendar (Leviticus 23)

The cultic calendar in Leviticus 23 differs from those found in Exodus in several significant respects. The older calendars had only three celebrations—Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles. Leviticus lists these three, but includes the Passover as a “holy convocation.” As we shall see, the Passover was originally a family celebration and became a pilgrimage festival only in the context of the Deuteronomic reform of King Josiah. Two new festivals are mentioned in the seventh month: the celebration that would become known as Rosh Hashanah (the fall New Year’s festival) on the first day of the month, and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) on the tenth day. The Priestly calendar gives precise dates for each of the festivals, using the Babylonian calendar that began in the spring. It also stipulates sacrifices and rituals for the celebrations. The fixed dates for the festivals indicate that they are less closely connected to the rhythm of the agricultural year than was the case in the older calendars.

This is a more developed calendar than we find even in Deuteronomy. It cannot have reached its present form until a relatively late date, long after the exile. The book of Nehemiah, which cannot have been written before the late fifth century b.c.e., has an account of the festivals in the seventh month in chapter 8. There is one on the first of the month, but this followed by the Festival of Tabernacles or Sukkoth. There is no mention [Page 152] of a Day of Atonement on the tenth day. In Nehemiah 9, however, we find that on the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month the people were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth. It may be that the Day of Atonement was celebrated after Sukkoth, but in any case this account of the festivals in the Second Temple period does not conform to what we find in Leviticus.

Another distinctive observance is added in Leviticus 25. This is the institution of the Jubilee Year. The idea of a sabbatical year was old in Israel. We have already met it in the Book of the Covenant, which stipulated that Hebrew slaves must be emancipated after six years, and that fields and vineyards were to lie fallow every seventh year. The law in Exodus is unclear as to whether all fields were to lie fallow in the same year, or whether they could be rotated. We shall find that the year was fixed, according to Deuteronomy 15. It is also fixed in Leviticus 25. Leviticus adds a further observance in the fiftieth year (after seven weeks of years). There would be general emancipation and the land would lie fallow. This would require that the land lie fallow for two consecutive years, as the forty-ninth year was a sabbatical year. This would seem to involve considerable practical problems. There is no evidence that the Jubilee Year was ever actually observed. The original practice of the sabbatical year was probably a way to avoid overuse of the land and allow it to recover. The laws in Leviticus, however, have a strictly religious rationale: they are a reminder that the land belongs not to the people, but to YHWH.

Blessings and Curses

The Holiness Code concludes with the promise of blessings if the Israelites abide by the laws, and the threat of curses if they do not. Here again there is notable similarity to Deuteronomy. Curses and blessings were an integral part of treaties in the ancient Near East. Curses were especially prominent in Assyrian treaties. We shall discuss the influence of these treaties on the biblical notion of covenant in more detail in connection with Deuteronomy. The blessings in Leviticus 26 are given briefly. They promise a utopian condition of prosperity and peace. Distinctively Priestly is the promise that God will place his dwelling in the midst of the people. The curses are given in more detail, and entail war, famine, and pestilence. People will be reduced to eating the flesh of sons and daughters. Again, there is a distinctively Priestly nuance in the prediction that “the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate” (26:34*). The passage concludes, however, with the assurance that if the people confess their sin and make amends, then God will remember his covenant. “Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God; but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt” (26:44–45*). The reference here to the time “when they are in the land of their enemies” clearly presupposes the Babylonian exile.

[Page 153] The Book of Numbers

After the insertion of the Holiness Code, the P source continues in Leviticus 27 (a discussion of vows) and in Num 1:1–10:28*. The book of Numbers begins with “a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses” (1:2*). In the context, this census is part of the preparation for the journey from Sinai to the promised land. Among other things, it determines the number of males who are twenty years or more, and able to go to war. Later we will find that King David takes a census of Israel, and this appears to be an innovation in his time. According to the account in 2 Samuel 4, it resulted in a plague. First Chronicles 21:1* says that it was Satan who incited David to take the census. The Priestly writers, however, have no hesitation on the subject. List making and genealogies are among the favorite activities of P. These lists impose order on reality, and the genealogies establish relationships and places in society. The genealogies became especially important after the Babylonian exile, when Israelite society had been disrupted. According to Ezra 2:59–63*, several families were excluded from the priesthood because they could not prove their descent from the genealogical records. The Priestly account retrojects this concern for genealogies and census taking into the wilderness period as part of its construction of an ideal Israel. The journey from Sinai to Canaan is described as an orderly procession, in which the Ark of the Covenant was the focus of attention. According to P, the Israelites were given precise instructions on the cult and ritual to be observed in the wilderness, and in fact observed them. (In contrast, the prophet Amos asks: “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?” [Amos 5:25*], with the obvious implication that they did not.) The Priestly account of the wilderness period was evidently not generally known or accepted when Amos prophesied in the eighth century b.c.e.

Non-Priestly Elements in Numbers

There were, however, older traditions about the wilderness period that can still be found in the book of Numbers, beginning in 10:29*. The formula in Num 10:35*, “Arise, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered,” may reflect the ancient custom of taking one’s god into battle (a custom illustrated in 1 Samuel 4–6).

Rebellion in the Wilderness

Numbers 11–12 picks up the theme of rebellion in the wilderness, which was found already in Exodus 16–17 (J). The stories of miraculous food in the wilderness (quails and manna) and the water from the rock (Exodus 17) illustrate Israel’s ingratitude for deliverance from Egypt and its complete dependence on divine providence. In the Prophets (e.g., Hosea 2) the wilderness period is recalled as an idyllic period when Israel was alone [Page 154] with its God in the desert. It does not appear so idyllic in the account in Exodus and Numbers. It does, however, dramatize vividly human dependence on the Creator, and the persistent human failure to appreciate this. The stories in Numbers also use this theme to reinforce the authority of Moses, especially in the story in Numbers 12, to which we have already referred.

Balaam

The colorful character of the Yahwist narrative, in contrast to the rather dry Priestly regulations, is nicely illustrated in the story of Balaam in Numbers 22–24. Balaam is one of the few examples in the Bible of a non-Israelite prophet or seer (24:16* suggests that he falls into ecstasy: “who falls down, but with his eye uncovered”). Balaam is now also known from a pagan source—a plaster inscription discovered in 1967 at Tell Deir ‘Alla in the East Jordan Valley that dates from the eighth century b.c.e. The inscription describes Balaam as “a seer of the gods” and attributes to him a prediction that the heavens would be darkened and the ways of birds and animals would be disturbed. The content of this prophecy has no relation to the Balaam texts in Numbers, but bears a general similarity to the prophecies of “the Day of the Lord” that we will find in the biblical prophets (e.g., Amos 5:18*).

The stories in Numbers 22–24 tell how Balaam was summoned by the king of Moab to curse Israel. (The setting here may throw some light on the oracles against foreign nations that often appear in the biblical prophets, and which may also have originated as curses. We shall return to this phenomenon when we discuss the story of Micaiah son of Imlah in 1 Kings 22, and again in connection with Amos.) Balaam, however, is prevented from performing the task. First, God speaks to him in the night and forbids him to do so (this part of the story is usually attributed to E). Then the angel of the Lord blocks his path. Balaam’s donkey sees the angel before Balaam does. This episode is vintage J storytelling (cf. the talking snake in the garden of Eden). The outcome of the story is that the prophet cannot curse Israel because YHWH has not cursed them. The blessing of Israel seems all the more sure because it is put on the lips of a pagan prophet. Balaam is acknowledged as a man of God—indeed, he acknowledges YHWH as his God, although he is not an Israelite. The Hebrew Bible seldom appeals to the testimony of Gentiles in this way. (Another example is found in 2 Kings 5, in the story of Naaman the Syrian.) In the Hellenistic period, however, Jewish writers often attributed praises of Israel and its God to Gentile writers. There is a whole corpus of Jewish oracles attributed to the pagan prophetess, the Sibyl. The oracles of Balaam in the book of Numbers provide a precedent for these later Jewish pseudepigrapha (that is, writings attributed to someone who was not their real author).

One of the oracles attributed to Balaam was especially important in later times: “A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the borderlands [Page 155] of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites” (Num 24:17*). In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, this oracle was taken as a messianic prediction. In the Dead Sea Scrolls the star was taken to be a priest, who would restore the legitimate priesthood, and the scepter as the king who would defeat the enemies of the Jews. Other texts take the star and the scepter as the same figure. The leader of the last Jewish revolt against Rome, in 132–135 c.e., Simon Bar Kosiba, was hailed by Rabbi Akiba as the messiah foretold in this oracle. Because of this, he is known in Jewish tradition as Bar Kokhba (literally, “son of the star”).

Phinehas and the Ideal of Zealotry

The older JE narrative may also have included a brief notice about an incident at Shittim in Moab where the Israelites engaged in the worship of the god Baal (Numbers 25). As this story now stands in Numbers, it bears the distinct stamp of the Priestly writers. The source of the problem is that the Israelites engage in sexual relations with foreign (Moabite) women. In the Priestly edition of the story, the figure who takes the lead in stamping out the apostasy is a priest, Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron. When he sees an Israelite man take a Midianite woman into his tent, Phinehas follows them and pierces the two of them with his spear. He did this “because he was zealous for the Lord,” and his action is reported as making atonement, and stopping a plague among the Israelites. For this God gives him a covenant of peace and an eternal priesthood.

Several points should be noted in this story. The woman is Midianite, although in the context we should expect a Moabite. The significance of a Midianite woman is clear: Moses had married one. The Priestly author wants to make clear that the precedent of Moses does not apply to anyone else. The zeal of Phinehas represents a particular kind of religious ideal that had a long and fateful history in Israel. While it is endorsed by the Priestly source, it was certainly not peculiar to the priests. We shall meet it again in the book of Joshua, in the story of the slaughter of the Canaanites. Much later, in the second century b.c.e., the Maccabees would invoke the model of Phinehas as inspiration for their militant resistance to persecution by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes. The rebels against Rome in the first century c.e. take their name, Zealots, from the same source. Finally, P adds an interesting notice in Num 31:8*, 16*. The Moabite women, we are told, acted on the advice of none other than Balaam, and the Israelites accordingly killed Balaam with the sword. The Priestly writers were evidently uncomfortable with the idea of a “good” pagan prophet, and undermine the older JE account of Balaam by this notice. It is also axiomatic for the Priestly writer that the women who tempted the Israelites must not be allowed to live.

The Phinehas story underlines some of the fundamental tensions in the Priestly tradition. On the one hand, that tradition was characterized by respect for life, human and animal, as is shown by the prohibition against eating meat with the blood. On the other [Page 156] hand, the violence of Phinehas, like the summary executions of dissidents like Korah, shows an attitude of intolerance, where the demands of purity and holiness take precedence over human life. No doubt the Priestly writers would protest that the laws of purity and holiness are themselves in the service of human life, and are intended to make it better. The intolerance shown in this story has its root in the certitude of Phinehas and those he represents that their way is God’s way. Where people are convinced that they speak for God, there is no need to compromise or to consider other points of view. Many modern people, religious as well as secular, react to the story of Phinehas with revulsion. At the very least, we must acknowledge that the theology of the Priestly writers (and of other biblical writers besides) is fundamentally at odds with modern democratic and pluralistic sensibilities on this issue. The same is true, to a lesser extent, of the Priestly preoccupation with purity. There are also many people, however, who continue to find the orderly world of the Priestly writers attractive, and who find comfort in its sharp dichotomies between sacred and profane, pure and impure, Israelite and Gentile.

Further Reading

Commentaries

Budd, Philip J. Numbers. WBC 5. Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984. Good review of history of interpretation.

Dozeman, Thomas B. “The Book of Numbers.” In NIB 2.3–268. Well-informed theological commentary.

Gerstenberger, Erhard S. Leviticus. Trans. D. W. Stott. OTL. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996. Major commentary on Leviticus by a Christian scholar.

Levine, Baruch A. Leviticus. JPSTC. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989. Less technical commentary, from a Jewish perspective.

———. Numbers 1–20. AB 4. New York: Doubleday, 1993; Numbers 21–36. AB 4A. New York: Doubleday, 2000. Thorough philological commentary.

Milgrom, Jacob. Leviticus 1–16. AB 3. New York: Doubleday, 1991; Leviticus 17–22. AB 3A. New York: Doubleday, 2000; Leviticus 23–27. AB 3B. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Exhaustive commentary, informed both by Near Eastern parallels and rabbinic tradition.

———. Leviticus: A Book of Ritual and Ethics. CC. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004.

Noth, Martin. Leviticus: A Commentary. Trans. J. E. Anderson. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965. Long the standard historical-critical commentary in English.

———. Numbers. Trans. J. D. Martin. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968. Classic historical-critical commentary.[Page 157]

Olson, Dennis T. Numbers. IBC. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996. Popular, homiletical commentary.

Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob. Journeying with God: A Commentary on the Book of Numbers. ITC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. Theological commentary, with focus on issues of purity and impurity.

Studies

Anderson, Gary A. Sacrifices and Offerings in Ancient Israel: Studies in Their Social and Political Importance. HSM 41. Atlanta: Scholars, 1987. An analysis of the sacrificial system and its social function.

Crüsemann, Frank. The Torah: Theology and Social History of Old Testament Law. Trans. A. W. Mahnke. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996 (277–327). Literary and theological analysis of P and H.

Douglas, Mary. Leviticus as Literature. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999. Application of Douglas’s anthropological approach to all of Leviticus.

———. Purity and Danger. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966 (41–57). Groundbreaking analysis of the dietary laws.

Friedman, Richard Elliott. “Tabernacle.” In ABD 6:292–300.

Gammie, John G. Holiness in Israel. OBT. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989. Thorough study of holiness by a Christian scholar.

Haran, Menahem. Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978 (reprinted: Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1985). Major study of Priestly traditions by an Israeli scholar.

Knohl, Israel The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995. Illuminating study of the Holiness Code.

Levine. Baruch A. “Leviticus, Book of.” In ABD 4:311–21.

Lohfink, Norbert. Theology of the Pentateuch: Themes of the Priestly Narrative and Deuteronomy. Trans. L. M. Maloney. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994. Seminal essays on the Priestly tradition can be found in chapters 1, 4, and 6.

Olyan, Saul M. Rites and Rank: Hierarchy in Biblical Representations of Cult. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2000. Analysis of basic polarities in the Priestly tradition: holy/common, clean/unclean, self/other.

Rehm, Merlin Dale. “Levites and Priests.” In ABD 4:297–310.

Rendtorff Rolf, and Robert A. Kugler, eds. The Book of Leviticus: Composition and Reception. VTSup 93. Leiden: Brill, 2003.Wide-ranging essays on all aspects of Leviticus.

Wright, David P.“Holiness (OT).” In ABD 3:237–49.

[Page 158] [Page 159] 8

Deuteronomy

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible: Study Guide, Chapter 8

The book of Deuteronomy takes its name from the Greek translation of a phrase in Deut 17:18*, which prescribes that the king should have “a copy of the law” written for him by the Levitical priests. The Greek expression, deuteros nomos, means rather “a second law,” but this designation of the book is not inappropriate. Deuteronomy is in fact a second formulation of the law, after the one that was given in Exodus. The more usual Hebrew name for the book is taken, as is customary, from the opening phrase: “These are the words.… ”

Deuteronomy is presented as the farewell address of Moses, before the Israelites crossed the Jordan to enter the promised land. Moses recalls the giving of the law on the mountain of revelation, which in Deuteronomy is consistently called Horeb. There are two introductions, which probably reflect two stages in the composition of the book. The first, in 1:1*, says “these are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel.” The second, in 4:44–49*, says “this is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.” The word for “law,” tôrāh, can also mean “instruction,” but the translation “law” is justified in the case of Deuteronomy. The two introductions nicely capture the composite character of the book. It is a collection of laws (primarily in chaps. 12–26), but it also has a strongly homiletical character, especially in the long introductory section in chapters 1–11. Accordingly, it has often been characterized as “preached law.” It lends itself readily to use in a context of worship.

The book also contains other kinds of material. Chapters 27–28 describe a ceremony in which half the tribes of Israel stand on Mount Gerizim and recite blessings, while the other half stand on Mount Ebal and recite curses. (The two mountains overlook the town of Shechem. Joshua 24 describes a covenant renewal ceremony at Shechem after the Israelites had occupied the land.) Deuteronomy 29:1* marks the beginning of a new speech of Moses: “These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make [Page 160] with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.” After he has completed this speech, he informs the Israelites that he will not cross the Jordan with them, and appoints Joshua, son of Nun, as his successor. Deuteronomy 32 contains a lengthy song of Moses, which summarizes the Deuteronomic view of Israel’s early history. Deuteronomy 33, which is formally introduced as “the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death,” is an old poem, about the tribes, comparable to the Blessing of Jacob in Genesis 49. Deuteronomy closes with a brief account of the death of Moses in chapter 34, which is sometimes attributed to the Elohist source.

The structure of Deuteronomy as a whole may be summarized as follows:

1. Motivational speeches, including some recollection of Israel’s history (1–11)

2. The laws (12–26)

3. Curses and blessings (27–28)

4. Concluding materials, some of which have the character of appendices (29–34)

Apart from the closing chapters, the book has a far more consistent and distinctive style than the other books of the Pentateuch. Even if it was composed in stages, the scribes who contributed to its growth must have come from the same school or tradition. The style is distinctive in the use of direct address, and a highly personal tone. There is vacillation between the use of the second person singular and the second person plural (a good example can be found in chap. 12). This has sometimes been taken as a sign of composite authorship, but this is not necessarily so. The variation may be for stylistic reasons, to heighten the sense of personal address in some sections.

The Treaty Model

More clearly than any other biblical book, Deuteronomy is influenced by ancient Near Eastern treaties. We have already noted the debate about the relevance of Hittite treaties from the second millennium to the biblical idea of covenant, in connection with the revelation at Sinai in the book of Exodus. In the case of Deuteronomy, however, much closer parallels are found in the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon (VTE), an Assyrian king who ruled in the seventh century b.c.e. (681–669), that were discovered in 1956. (Vassal treaties are those between a superior power and its subjects.) Assyria was the dominant power in the Near East in this era. Esarhaddon’s father, Sennacherib, had ravaged Judah and taken tribute, and there is some evidence that Judah was still a vassal of Assyria in Esarhaddon’s time.

[Page 161] The influence of the treaty model can be seen on various levels in Deuteronomy. The basic structure of Deuteronomy, which draws on history as a motivational tool and reinforces the commandments with curses and blessings, corresponds to that of the ancient vassal treaties. The recollection of history is not as prominent in the Assyrian treaties as in the older Hittite examples, but it is not entirely absent. Perhaps the most distinctive element of these treaties is that great emphasis is placed on curses. The Assyrian treaties were essentially loyalty oaths imposed by the king of Assyria to ensure submission to his successor. (In Esarhaddon’s case, this was his son Ashurbanipal.) Deuteronomy is similar, in that Moses is handing on authority to Joshua, but the biblical text differs in that the loyalty of the people is pledged to their God, YHWH. Other elements in Deuteronomy that recall the treaty form include the invocation of heaven and earth as witnesses (4:26*; 30:19*; 31:28*; cf. VTE §3 [line 25]: “you are adjured by the gods of heaven and earth,” ANET, 534); the deposition of the document (Deut 10:1–5*; 31:24–26*) and provision for periodic reading (31:9–13*) and the making of copies (17:18–19*).

The most striking correspondences between Deuteronomy and the treaties concern vocabulary and idiom. In both documents, the word love means loyalty, and subjects are commanded to love their lord with all their heart and soul (cf. VTE paragraph 24 [line 266]: “If you do not love the crown prince designate Ashurbanipal … as you do your own lives …”). Other standard terms for loyalty, both in Deuteronomy and in the treaties, are “to go after,” “to fear,” and “to listen to the voice of.… ”

There are further correspondences in detail. VTE §10 (108) warns of seditious talk by “a prophet, an ecstatic, a dream interpreter,” among other people. Deuteronomy 13 warns against “prophets or those who divine by dreams” who try to induce people “to go after” other gods. The series of curses in Deut 28:23–35* is paralleled in VTE §§39–42 (419–30). Even the order of the curses of leprosy and blindness is the same in both. In the Assyrian texts this order is determined by the hierarchy of the responsible deities, Sin and Shamash respectively. Since this hierarchy is irrelevant in the Israelite context, it is clear that Deuteronomy is directly influenced by the treaty texts.

It would not be correct to say that Deuteronomy is formally structured as a treaty text. Rather, it is an address, or homily, that is informed by the treaty analogy and contains many elements of the treaty form. It appeals to history as a motivating factor more often than is the case in the Assyrian treaties. The appeal to history is typified by a passage in chapter 26 that is supposed to be recited in connection with the offering of firstfruits of the land: “My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt and lived there as an alien.… The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty arm and an outstretched hand … and he brought us into this place, and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” An earlier generation of scholars, typified by Gerhard von Rad, regarded this [Page 162] passage as the credo, or confession of faith, of early Israel, and thought it was a cultic recitation from an early period. More recent scholarship, however, recognizes this passage as typically Deuteronomic, and assumes that it was composed for its present context in Deuteronomy.

It has been suggested, quite plausibly, that Deuteronomy is meant to provide an alternative to the Assyrian loyalty oaths: the people of Judah are being told to pledge their loyalty and “love,” not to the king of Assyria but to YHWH. Hence the key formulation in Deut 6:4–5*: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This is not a theoretical assertion of monotheism. It is an assertion of allegiance. Other gods may exist, but the loyalty of the Israelite is pledged to YHWH alone.

The Date of Deuteronomy

The parallels with the Assyrian vassal treaties constitute a powerful argument that the book of Deuteronomy was not formulated in the time of Moses but in the seventh century b.c.e. In fact, the date of Deuteronomy had become apparent long before the Vassal Treaties were discovered. In 1805 a young German scholar, W. M. L. de Wette, revolutionized scholarship by pointing out the correspondence between Deuteronomy and the “book of the law” that was allegedly found in the temple in 621 b.c.e., in the reign of King Josiah of Judah. The incident is described as follows in 2 Kings 22–23. In the course of repairs that were being carried out on the temple, the high priest Hilkiah reported: “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” When this book was read to the king, he tore his clothes as a sign of distress, and made inquiry of a prophetess named Huldah, “for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” Huldah confirmed the authenticity of the book, and prophesied, moreover: “I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words that the king of Judah has read.” From this much we may infer that the book contained curses, or threats of destruction.

Further indication of the contents of “the book of the law of the Lord” can be found in the actions taken by Josiah in 2 Kings 23. We are told that he assembled the people and “read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.” All the people subscribed to this covenant. Then he proceeded to purge the temple of the vessels made for Baal and Asherah, and to tear down the “high places” or rural shrines all over the country, where priests had traditionally offered sacrifice. Then the king celebrated the Passover “as prescribed in this book of the covenant. No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, even [Page 163] during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.” The novelty of this Passover is that it was not a family observance in the home, but a pilgrimage festival celebrated in Jerusalem.

The drift of Josiah’s reforms is clear enough. Not only did he prohibit the worship of deities other than YHWH, but he banned sacrificial worship, even sacrifices offered to YHWH, outside Jerusalem, by tearing down the “high places.” In effect, he centralized worship in Jerusalem. According to 2 Kgs 18:4*, a similar reform had been tried unsuccessfully by King Hezekiah about a hundred years before the time of Josiah. Hezekiah apparently did not have a book to lend divine authority to his reform (2 Chronicles 29–31 attributes a much more elaborate reform to Hezekiah, but its historicity is doubtful).

It was the contribution of de Wette to recognize that the book that was allegedly found in Josiah’s time was Deuteronomy, or at least a part thereof. According to Deuteronomy 12: “You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods on the mountain heights, on the hills and under every leafy tree. Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods.” This was the program of Josiah’s reform. Moreover, the Israelites are told: “You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, for you have not yet come into the rest and possession that the Lord your God is giving you. When you cross the Jordan … then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name; your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord.” Eventually, the place that the Lord would choose was identified as Jerusalem, a site not occupied by the Israelites until the time of David, some two centuries after Moses, according to the biblical account. De Wette inferred that the restriction of sacrificial worship to a single location was an innovation in the time of Josiah (except for the alleged but unsuccessful attempt of Hezekiah).

The account of Josiah’s reform in 2 Kings is part of what we call the Deuteronomistic History, which runs through the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. According to the books of Kings, the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam, sinned by setting up royal temples in opposition to Jerusalem, one at Bethel and one at Dan. This action is called “the sin of Jeroboam,” and it is treated as the original sin of the northern kingdom of Israel. In this Deuteronomistic History, Josiah and Hezekiah (to a lesser extent) are heroes. Accordingly, the account of Josiah’s reform must be suspected of being tendentious: it is told to glorify Josiah, with no consideration for other points of view. But the insistence of this history that the law of centralization had not been observed before Josiah’s reform is highly significant. It strongly suggests that Deuteronomic law was not an old law that was now rediscovered, but was an innovation in the [Page 164] late seventh century b.c.e. This suspicion is supported by the observation of the close parallels between Deuteronomy and the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon. It is possible, of course, that Deuteronomy also includes some older laws, but if so they were reformulated in Deuteronomic idiom. It should also be noted that Deut 29:28* (“the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath”) presupposes the exile of the northern tribes to Assyria in 722 b.c.e.

The law of centralization makes good sense in the political context of the late seventh century b.c.e. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrians a hundred years before. At that time Hezekiah had tried, with only partial success, to unify the people who worshiped YHWH around the temple in Jerusalem. By the time Josiah came of age, the Assyrian Empire was in decline, and the young king felt free to try to expand his control. The centralization of worship in Jerusalem was part of a wider effort to centralize control, and this is reflected in the laws of Deuteronomy. In one respect, the promulgation of the law of Deuteronomy was an exercise in the politics of control.

The Laws of Deuteronomy

The Recollection of Horeb

As in Exodus, the laws in Deuteronomy are presented as divine revelation, originally received by Moses on the mountain. In this case the mountain is called Horeb, which means simply “the wilderness.” This name is sometimes used in Exodus (3:1*; 17:6*; 33:6*). Traditional source criticism ascribed these passages to the E source, with the implication that the mountain of the law was not identified with Sinai in northern tradition. Some recent scholars, however, argue that all references to Horeb are Deuteronomic. It would seem, in any case, that the identification of the mountain of the law with Sinai was not yet universally accepted when Deuteronomy was written.

In Deuteronomy Moses reminds the Israelites of the original revelation: “how you once stood before the Lord God at Horeb” (4:10*). The direct address in Deuteronomy is an attempt to re-create the experience of the original revelation. Moses recalls that the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, but the primary emphasis of this account is on the verbal character of the revelation: “you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice” (4:12*). The content is summarized as “his covenant,” “the ten words,” and “statutes and ordinances” that Moses should give them to observe when they enter the land. The Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy correspond closely to the formulation in Exodus 20. One significant variation concerns the motivation for keeping the Sabbath day. Where Exod 20:11* grounded this commandment by recalling how God rested on the seventh day of creation, Deuteronomy puts the emphasis on compassion. Not only should the Israelites rest, but so also their slaves and their livestock, for [Page 165] “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.” The recollection of the experience of slavery as a reason to be compassionate is typical of the rhetoric of Deuteronomy.

The Statutes and Ordinances

The reform of Josiah seems to have been predominantly concerned with the suppression of non-Yahwistic cults and of all sacrificial worship outside Jerusalem. The book of Deuteronomy as we have it, however, has much broader concerns. We might infer from this that Josiah too was engaged in wider social reform, or we might suppose that the book was expanded subsequently by scribes who had broader concerns. One significant aspect of Deuteronomy is the revision of the older code of laws known as the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21–23). Some of the distinctive emphases of Deuteronomy can be appreciated by comparison with the older code.

Deuteronomy 15:1–11* picks up the laws of sabbatical release. It does not mention the commandment that the land should lie fallow every seventh year. The humanitarian concern for the poor that is cited as a reason for this law in Exod 23:10–11* is addressed elsewhere in Deuteronomy: 24:19–22* commands that something be left for “the alien, the orphan, and the widow” at harvest and grape gleaning. Deuteronomy 15 makes every seventh year an occasion of remission of debts. There were precedents for such amnesties in the ancient Near East. Mesopotamian kings proclaimed acts of “justice” or “equity” (Akkadian mīšarum) involving the remission of debt and other obligations, especially at the beginning of their reigns (see the Edict of Ammisaduqa from Babylon, seventeenth century b.c.e.; ANET, 526–28). Deuteronomy makes this a law, to take effect at seven-year intervals, and so makes it independent of royal policy. The remission of debts did not apply to foreigners, who might otherwise take advantage of it. It is primarily a way of reinforcing the cohesion of the people of Israel, but Deuteronomy urges an open and generous attitude.

A more direct comparison with the Book of the Covenant is provided by the law for the release of slaves in Deut 15:12–18*. Exodus 21 prescribed that male Hebrew slaves must be set free after six years. Deuteronomy applies this law to all slaves, whether male or female. It retains the provision that a slave may elect to stay with his master, “because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,” but the slave is no longer faced with the choice between his own freedom and remaining with his wife and children, as was the case in Exodus. Deuteronomy also goes beyond the older code in its homiletical exhortation to “provide liberally” for the liberated slave, and it adds the typical Deuteronomic motivation: “remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.”

The laws about the remission of debt and the release of slaves underline one of the prominent features of Deuteronomy—humanitarian concern for the poor and the marginal. This kind of concern appears in several other laws. Chapter 19 requires the Israelites to designate cities of refuge, where people might flee to avoid revenge for unintentional [Page 166] homicide. Verse 15* requires the word of two or three witnesses for conviction of a crime, in order to protect people who might be wrongfully accused. The humane tendency is further in evidence in the provision that the corpse of an executed criminal must not be left all night on a gibbet (21:22–23*), and laws concerning a neighbor’s livestock and the prohibition against taking a mother bird with its young (22:6*). Deuteronomy 23:6* says that slaves who have escaped from their owners should not be given back to them. Deuteronomy 24 contains provisions protecting the rights of poor wage earners, aliens, and orphans. Some of these concerns are already found in the Book of the Covenant in Exodus, but they are more developed in Deuteronomy.

Chapter 20 sets humanitarian restraints on war. People may be exempted from service if they are engaged but not married (or if they are newly wed, 24:5*), or if they have built a new house, or even if they are afraid. There may be some practical rationale for these exemptions. Halfhearted soldiers might undermine the morale of an army. The laws also require restraint in the conduct of war. People besieging a town should not cut down its trees. And yet the laws for treating conquered people sound barbarically harsh to modern ears. In “the towns of these peoples that the Lord you God is giving you as an inheritance” the Israelites must not let anything that breathes remain alive. In cities outside the promised land, people who submit peacefully are to be enslaved. If they resist, the males must be put to the sword and the women and children and livestock taken as plunder. Yet again, in 21:10–14* we find a more humane discussion of the treatment of captive women. If a man takes such a woman for himself, he may not sell her thereafter, but must let her go free if he no longer wants her. Ancient warfare was savage, and little mercy was shown to captives. Nonetheless, the Deuteronomic insistence that the Canaanites be annihilated is in jarring conflict with the generally humane attitudes of the book. We shall discuss the Deuteronomic ideal of warfare and the alleged annihilation of the Canaanites further in the following chapter.

The Effects of Centralization

Some of the legal innovations of Deuteronomy result directly from the law of centralization of the cult. Most immediately, the prohibition of sacrificial worship outside Jerusalem radically changed the nature of Israelite religion. On the one hand, the account of Josiah’s reform in 2 Kings 23 makes clear that up to this time there was widespread worship of Baal and Asherah, and that there were various cultic practices that Deuteronomy now deemed improper. This picture is now confirmed by archaeology, which has brought to light inscriptions mentioning YHWH’s Asherah (which is variously interpreted as a goddess or as a cultic object associated with the goddess) and over two thousand terra-cotta figurines depicting a nude female figure (presumably a fertility [Page 167] goddess). Some of the practices suppressed by Josiah had venerable histories. The patriarchs in Genesis had consecrated places of worship that were now torn down (e.g., Bethel) and had set up pillars and planted trees by them. Objects consecrated to the sun had allegedly been set up by “the kings of Judah” (2 Kgs 23:11*). Even human sacrifice could be justified by appeal to Exod 22:29* (“the firstborn of your sons you shall give to me”) and had also been practiced by Judean kings.

The Deuteronomic reform, then, entailed a purge of Judean religion that brought it much closer to monotheism than it had previously been. On the other hand, the worship of YHWH was also transformed. People who lived at a distance from Jerusalem could now offer sacrifice only on the rare occasions when they made a pilgrimage to the temple. Prior to this time, meat was eaten only when it had been sacrificed (except in the case of some wild animals). In light of the difficulties created by the centralization of the cult, Deuteronomy allowed that “whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns” (12:15*). This change is often described as a “secularization” of Israelite religion. The term is not quite appropriate; society as envisioned by Deuteronomic law would still be permeated by religion. But it is true that some activities that had hitherto been sacral were now treated as profane, and that cultic rituals would henceforth play a much smaller role in the lives of most of the people.

The centralization of the cult also led to the transformation of the festival of Passover. In the Book of the Covenant, Passover was not listed among the pilgrimage feasts, as it was a family festival, to be celebrated at home. Deuteronomy 16:2*, however, requires that the Passover lamb be sacrificed “at the place that the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his name,” and it is clearly combined with the festival of Unleavened Bread. In 2 Kgs 23:21–23* we are told that King Josiah commanded the people to observe the Passover in accordance with the book of the covenant (that is, Deuteronomic law, not the Book of the Covenant in Exodus) and that they did so in Jerusalem, although no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges.

The place of the Levites in Israelite society was also affected by centralization. The Levites at the country shrines were practically put out of business by the centralization of the cult. Their situation is addressed in Deut 18:6–8*, which says that any Levite who chose to go up to Jerusalem could minister at the temple there and share in the priestly offerings. This provision inevitably made for tensions between the Jerusalem priesthood and the newly arrived Levites. According to 2 Kgs 23:9*, “the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred.” Nonetheless, we shall find in Ezekiel 44 that relations between priests and Levites in Jerusalem remained controversial after the Babylonian exile.

[Page 168] Centralization and Control

The centralization of the cult is the most obvious way in which Deuteronomy brings about a concentration of power in Jerusalem, but it also tends toward a more centrally controlled society in other respects. Chapter 13 contains a warning against prophets and other diviners who might offer rival claims about the will of God. Deuteronomy 18:15–22* allows that there are legitimate prophets, who are prophets like Moses. (The singular form, “a prophet like me,” is clearly meant to indicate a type, although it was later understood to refer to an individual who would come at the end of days.) A prophet who speaks in the name of gods other than YHWH is false, but Deuteronomy also recognizes that a prophet may speak falsely in the name of the Lord. The distinction between true and false prophecy would eventually become a major problem, as we shall later see. Deuteronomy 18 offers one simple criterion: a prophecy that is not fulfilled is thereby shown to be false. But prophets did much more than make predictions. The more far-reaching implication of Deuteronomy 18 is that a true prophet is “a prophet like Moses.” The book of Deuteronomy was an attempt to express revelation in written, definitive form, so that it would be the standard against which all other forms of revelation would be measured.

A number of laws in Deuteronomy curtail the power of the father over the affairs of his family. If a man had two wives, and came to dislike one of them, he was not free to disinherit her children (21:15–17*). If he had a rebellious son, who was not amenable to discipline, he must bring him before the elders at the city gate. They may put him to death, but the father does not have the right to do so. Similarly, disputes about the virginity of a bride must be settled in public, by the elders. In all of this Deuteronomy seeks to limit arbitrary action by the heads of families and impose standard judicial procedures on the society.

Perhaps the most remarkable assertion of control in Deuteronomy, however, concerns the king, in 17:14–20*. Deuteronomy makes clear that kingship is something that develops from the people’s desire to be like the neighboring peoples. Nonetheless, it is legitimate, within certain limitations. The king may not be a foreigner. He must not “acquire many horses,” which would be necessary for building up an army, nor acquire many wives (as Solomon would do), nor acquire much gold and silver. Instead, he should have a copy of this book of the law, and read it all the days of his life. Even the king must be subject to the law. Even though Josiah was very young when he began to reign, and was presumably subject to his advisers for a time, it is difficult to believe that he would have promulgated such a restrictive law of the kingship. Most probably, this passage was added later to the book, after the kingship had definitively failed in the Babylonian crisis. It is, however, in accordance with the general tendency of Deuteronomy to bring everything under the influence of the book of the law.

[Page 169] Purity Concerns in Deuteronomy

In contrast to Leviticus and the Priestly Code, purity concerns are not prominent in Deuteronomy. But they are not entirely absent either. Deuteronomy 14 gives a list of forbidden foods that is very similar to what we find in Leviticus 11. In chapter 22 there are prohibitions against cross-dressing (22:5*), and against plowing with an ox and an ass, or combining wool and linen in a garment (22:10–11*).

Purity is also a consideration in laws concerning marriage and sexual relations. Adultery (sex with the wife of another man) is punishable by death, for both partners. Whether this law was actually implemented we do not know. The prophet Hosea, a century before Deuteronomy, describes a quite different way of dealing with an adulterous wife, by shaming and divorcing her. The law recognizes that a woman is not at fault in case of rape, but if she is unmarried, the penalty for the man is that he has to marry her and cannot divorce her. In this case, the motivation is the woman’s well-being, since she would find it difficult to find a husband if she had been defiled. The discussion of divorce in Deuteronomy 24, however, seems to be concerned more with purity. If a man divorces his wife, and she becomes the wife of another but is divorced a second time, then the first husband may not marry her again. It should be noted that there is no legislation concerning divorce in the Hebrew Bible. The practice is simply assumed. Verses 1–4* became the focal text for discussions of divorce in later tradition. Verse 1* envisions the case of a man who divorces a woman “because he finds something objectionable about her.” Later tradition inferred that divorce was permitted if a man found “something objectionable” about his wife. (Normally, wives were not permitted to initiate divorce in ancient Judaism. An exception to this rule is found among Jews in the south of Egypt in the Persian period, and possibly again in the region of the Dead Sea early in the common era, but the latter case is disputed.) In Deuteronomy “something objectionable” most probably implied impurity or sexual misconduct. There was a famous debate about the meaning of the phrase between the rabbinic schools of Shammai and Hillel in the first century b.c.e. The Shammaites attempted to restrict the man’s power of divorce to cases of adultery, but the school of Hillel ruled that divorce was permitted “even if she spoiled a dish for him” (Mishnah Giṭṭin 9–10). Rabbi Akiba went further: “Even if he found another fairer than she.”

The Authors of Deuteronomy

According to the account in 2 Kings 22, the law book promulgated by Josiah had been found in the Jerusalem temple and was presumably ancient. In light of the preceding discussion, there is good reason to regard the finding of the book as a fiction, designed to ensure its ready acceptance by the people. The language of the book, which is influenced [Page 170] by the Assyrian treaties, does not permit a date much earlier than the time of Josiah. Moreover, the policy of centralization, which is central to the book, was Josiah’s policy, and the book seems to have been either composed or edited to support it. The elements that deal with centralization, either of the cult or of authority, were surely the work of Josiah’s scribes. Other elements in the book, however, such as the discussion of divorce, are not obviously related to centralization. These elements too have been edited, since the book has a uniform style, but they suggest that the scribes drew on a legal tradition, which included, but was not limited to, the Book of the Covenant that is now found in Exodus 21–23. The description of a covenant ceremony at Shechem in Deuteronomy 27–28 is also independent of Josiah’s policies, and can hardly have been composed by people who wanted to centralize worship in Jerusalem. The provenance of these pre-Josianic traditions has been the subject of much scholarly discussion.

That the covenantal ceremony is located at Shechem strongly suggests that some of these traditions had their origin in northern Israel, more precisely in the central highlands of Ephraim. Despite the fact that the place that the Lord has chosen to centralize the cult is certainly Jerusalem, there are no allusions in Deuteronomy to Mount Zion or to traditions that can be associated with Jerusalem. In many respects, Deuteronomy recalls the northern eighth-century prophet Hosea. Hosea also took the exodus as his primary point of reference and referred to Moses as a prophet. He vehemently rejected the worship of deities other than YHWH, especially Baal. He also used the language of love for the relationship between God and Israel, although he spoke of God’s love for Israel more than of Israel’s obligation to love God. In contrast, there are few points of contact between Deuteronomy and the Jerusalem prophet Isaiah. There was a huge influx of northerners into Jerusalem after the fall of the northern kingdom. (We know from archaeological evidence that the size of the city more than doubled at that time.) It is not unreasonable, then, to suppose that some of the traditions found in Deuteronomy had originated in the north. Besides prophetic circles, of which Hosea might be representative, Levitical priests have been suggested as the carriers of these traditions. The Levites figure prominently in the covenant ceremony in chapters 27–28 and are mentioned frequently throughout the book. It is unlikely that northern Levites would have promoted the idea that the sacrificial cult should be restricted to Jerusalem, but they may have preserved traditions about a covenant at Shechem, and laws that had circulated in northern Israel. These traditions may have been brought south by refugees after the fall of Samaria. It is conceivable that a book containing such material was hidden in the Jerusalem temple and found in the time of Josiah, but this is not a necessary hypothesis.

There can be little doubt, however, that the primary authors of Deuteronomy were Jerusalem scribes, initially in the service of Josiah. The editing of the book presumably went on for some time after Josiah’s reign. The historical books of Joshua through Kings [Page 171] were also edited from a Deuteronomic perspective, and so we should imagine a Deuteronomic school, whose activity continued even after the Babylonian exile. Josiah’s scribes would presumably have been familiar with the Assyrian treaties that provide a model for the book in some respects.

Deuteronomy and Wisdom

One other aspect of Deuteronomy suggests a scribal origin. This is the extensive affinity with Wisdom literature. We shall discuss wisdom literature in some detail later in this book. The classic biblical example is provided by the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is essentially instructional material, which incorporates traditional proverbs and sayings and has some more lengthy didactic compositions. It was an international genre. Biblical Wisdom literature is very similar to Egyptian instructions, and there are examples of similar literature from Mesopotamia. These instructions are often addressed to the student in the second person. Typically, they are not presented as divine revelation but as the distillation of human experience. The typical Wisdom formula is: , my son, to your father’s teaching.” We know that in Egypt these instructions were used in the training of courtiers and bureaucrats for the royal court. They were probably used in a similar context in Israel. King Solomon was traditionally regarded as the great patron and exponent of wisdom (see especially 1 Kgs 4:29–34* = 5:9–14* in MT). One section of the book of Proverbs is said to have been copied by “the men of Hezekiah,” who was king of Judah about a hundred years before Josiah (Prov 25:1*).

The parallels between Deuteronomy and Wisdom teachings are of various kinds. The “statutes and ordinances” are presented as a kind of wisdom: “You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people’ ” (Deut 4:6*). The Torah is to be Israel’s counterpart to the Wisdom teachings of other peoples. Similarly, the judges appointed by Moses in Deut 1:13* are described as “wise, discerning, and reputable.”

Several ordinances found in Deuteronomy are paralleled in Wisdom writings. Injunctions against removing boundaries (Deut 19:14*; 27:17*) and falsifying weights and measures (25:13–16*) are found not only in Proverbs (20:10*, 23; 22:28*; 23:10*) but also in the Egyptian Wisdom of Amenemope. Both biblical books declare such actions “an abomination to the Lord”; Amenemope declares them an abomination to the Egyptian god Re. Deuteronomy 23:21–23* warns that a person who makes a vow should not postpone fulfilling it, and adds: “but if you refrain from vowing you will not incur guilt.” This attitude contrasts sharply with the positive legislation about vows in Leviticus 27. The Wisdom book of Qoheleth similarly warns against postponing the fulfillment of a vow, and says that “it is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not [Page 172] fulfill it” (Qoh 5:5*). Deuteronomy 23:15*, which prohibits sending a runaway slave back to his master, corresponds to Prov 30:10* (“do not slander a slave to his master”). In contrast, the Laws of Hammurabi declared that sheltering a runaway slave was punishable by death (Code of Hammurabi §15; ANET, 166–67).

Despite these Wisdom influences, Deuteronomy is unmistakably a law code, which frequently invokes the death penalty as sanction for its ordinances. It is also presented as revealed law rather than as the fruit of human experience, and it appeals to the distinctively Israelite experience of the exodus rather than to common human nature, as is customary in the older Wisdom literature. Nonetheless, it is quite emphatic that the wisdom it presents has a human, earthly character: “Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us, so that we may hear it and observe it?’ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe” (Deut 30:11–14*). While the law itself is revealed, no further revelation is necessary in order to understand it. Deuteronomy leaves little space for prophecy or for other forms of revelation such as we will find later in the apocalyptic literature.

The Effects of the Deuteronomic Reform

We have already noted that the centralization of the cult brought about a profound change in the practice of Israelite religion outside Jerusalem. The long-term effects of the reform, however, were more profound than anyone could have anticipated in 621 b.c.e. Less than a generation later, Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed and the leading citizens were taken into exile in Babylon. The Babylonians changed Judean society in ways that Josiah never could. The exiles in Babylon had to live without their temple, but they had “the book of the law,” which acquired new importance in this setting. Henceforth, Judaism would be to a great degree a religion of the book. Study of the law would take the place of sacrifice. The synagogue would gradually emerge as the place of worship, first for Jews outside the land of Israel, later even within Israel itself. These changes took place gradually, over centuries, but they had their origin in the Deuteronomic reform, which put a book at the center of religious observance for the first time.

The increasing emphasis on the written law brought the class of scribes to the fore as important religious personnel. They were the people who could copy the book of the law, and edit it, and make insertions on occasion. They were also the people who could read and interpret it. The role of the scribes would increase gradually over the centuries, but, again, it had its root in the importance accorded to the book of the law in Josiah’s reform.

[Page 173] We do not know when Deuteronomy was combined with the material found in Genesis through Leviticus. Scholars generally agree that Deuteronomy was originally joined to the historical books, Joshua through Kings. Some time after the Babylonian exile, the book of the law was detached from the historical books and linked with the other accounts of revelation at Mount Sinai and the presentations of the laws. Some Deuteronomic phrases found their way into the earlier books, but the evidence for Deuteronomic redaction of these books is not clear, and is much less obvious than the evidence for Priestly editorial work. It would seem, in short, that the books of Genesis through Leviticus were edited by Priestly writers. Deuteronomy was added to this corpus, but there was relatively little Deuteronomic editing in the first four books.

Together with the Priestly edition of the Torah, Deuteronomy was a major influence on Jewish theology in the Second Temple period. The main emphasis of that theology was on the observance of the law. Those who kept the law would prosper and live long in the land. Those who did not keep the law would come to grief. This theology did not go unquestioned in Second Temple Judaism. We find a major critique of it in the book of Job. But Deuteronomic theology should not be construed too narrowly as a legalistic religion. At the heart of it stood the command to love the Lord God with all one’s heart and soul. The ordinances and commandments were concerned with human relations, with a strong emphasis on compassion for the disadvantaged in society. Jewish teachers in the Hellenistic period sometimes taught that the whole law could be summed up under two headings, love of God and love of one’s neighbor. The saying attributed to Jesus in the Gospels (Matt 22:34–40*; Mark 12:28–31*; Luke 10:25–28*), on the twofold greatest commandment, sums up at least one strand of Deuteronomic theology as it developed in the Second Temple period.

Appendix:
The Relationship Between Deuteronomy (D) and the Priestly Code (P)

D and P obviously represent two contrasting kinds of theology. The relationship between them, and specifically the chronological relationship, has often been controversial. Up to the mid-nineteenth century, scholars usually assumed that P was the Grundschrift, or basic document, the oldest stratum of the Pentateuch. The classic work of Graf and Wellhausen in the second half of the nineteenth century reversed the order, and argued that P presupposes Deuteronomy and is the latest stage in the development of the Torah. This order was accepted as standard through most of the twentieth century. In Wellhausen’s view, the Priestly theology reflected the decline of Israelite religion, from the spiritual heights of the prophets to the legalism of “Late Judaism.” The late dating thus became associated with a negative value judgment. Jewish scholars understandably took exception to this view. The [Page 174] classic Jewish response to Wellhausen’s approach was that of Yehezkel Kaufmann, who not only defended the spiritual value of the Priestly source but also its early date. The dating remains controversial, more than a century after Wellhausen wrote.

Insofar as the dispute about dating entails value judgments about the spiritual value of the Priestly source or any other material, it is misplaced. The earlier is not superior and the later is not inferior. One could as well argue that the later material represents a higher stage of development, but this again is not logically necessary. The question of chronological order is unrelated to the assessment of value.

Regardless of his prejudice against ritualistic forms of religion (Catholic as well as Jewish), Wellhausen offered serious arguments for the late date of P:

The centralization of the cult was an innovation in the time of Josiah. Deuteronomy reflects this innovation, and addresses the question of centralization directly. In contrast, centralization is taken for granted in P.

Related to this is the question of profane slaughter. Deuteronomy allows the slaughter of animals for food apart from sacrifice, and this permission is clearly related to the restriction of sacrifice to Jerusalem. Profane slaughter is taken for granted in P, but is explicitly forbidden in H (Leviticus 17). Wellhausen reasoned that the acceptance of profane slaughter in P presupposed the Deuteronomic reform.

Deuteronomy does not distinguish clearly between priests and Levites, and often refers to “Levitical priests.” In the Priestly source, however, the Levites are clearly subordinated to the priests.

Finally, the cultic calendar in Leviticus is more developed than that of Deuteronomy.

On the other side of the debate, various arguments have been offered for the antiquity of P. There has been a vast increase in knowledge about the ancient Near East since Wellhausen’s time, and it is now clear that laws dealing with ritual and purity, sin and sanction, were an integral part of Near Eastern religion in the second millennium b.c.e. Consequently, interest in such matters can no longer be relegated to a late, supposedly decadent, period of Israelite or Jewish religion. It is now readily admitted that P is a repository of ancient traditions. But this does not require that the document itself be ancient.

The primary argument that has been offered for the antiquity of P is based on the development of the Hebrew language. Several key terms in P either fall out of use in the postexilic period or acquire a different meaning. For example, the Priestly word for the assembly is ˓ēdāḥ In postexilic books (Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles) the Deuteronomic term qāhāl is used instead. The word ˓abōdāh means “physical labor” in P; in [Page 175] Chronicles it means “worship.” Some have argued that the book of Ezekiel, from the time of the exile, marks a watershed in this regard. Although it shares many of the concerns of P, it often uses different terminology. (For a concise exposition of the linguistic evidence, see Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 3–13.) All of this shows that the language of P was not invented in the exilic or postexilic period. But Priestly, liturgical language is often archaic, and terminology is often preserved in ritual contexts long after it has fallen out of use in popular speech. (Compare the use of Latin in the Roman Catholic Mass up until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.) So the retention of archaic language in P does not necessarily prove that the composition is ancient. Indeed, some scholars have argued that P deliberately used archaic or archaizing language. For example, there is no good evidence that Israelites still worshiped at a tabernacle or tent-shrine (miškān) during the monarchy, at any time that P could plausibly have been composed. Also the word nāśî˒, “prince,” was meant to evoke an earlier time, before the monarchy. It should be granted that the language of P is indeed old and not an artificial construct of the postexilic period, but this in itself does not settle the date at which the Priestly laws as now found in the Pentateuch were formulated.

Some scholars have argued that while there is no clear case of Deuteronomic influence on P, there are several cases of Priestly influence on D. For example, Deuteronomy sometimes tells the Israelites to do “as I have commanded them” when the relevant commands are found in Leviticus (e.g., Deut 24:8*, with reference to scale disease, which is the subject of Leviticus 13–14). Also the dietary laws in Deuteronomy 14 are said to be adapted from Leviticus 11 (such laws are typical of Leviticus, but exceptional in Deuteronomy). But this issue too is not as straightforward as it might appear. The presence of some elements of Priestly tradition, such as dietary laws, in Deuteronomy can be explained in various ways. On the one hand, it is possible that these laws were known in Israel apart from the book of Leviticus, even before the Priestly laws were written down. On the other hand, it has often been suggested that these elements were introduced into Deuteronomy by editors who were influenced by P, but that they were not part of the original Deuteronomic code.

This latter point highlights an ambiguity in the entire discussion. It is generally granted that Deuteronomy was not complete in its present form at the time of Josiah’s reform, but was edited and expanded by scribes for many decades thereafter. It is also likely that the Priestly Code evolved over a period of time. Even if we can show that one book, or tradition, depends on the other at a specific point, this does not necessarily mean that the entire book or tradition is later. Wellhausen, in fact, was not so much concerned with the book of Deuteronomy as with the underlying historical event of Josiah’s reform and the changes it brought about in Israelite religion.

[Page 176] Even if one grants that P is a repository of ancient tradition and uses archaic language, and that the book of Deuteronomy is influenced by Priestly tradition at some points, Wellhausen’s primary arguments remain to be addressed. The central issue has always been whether P presupposes the centralization of the cult. Neither P nor H ever explicitly demands that sacrificial worship be confined to one place, in the manner of Deuteronomy 12. Since the Priestly legislation is presented in the context of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness, it speaks of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting as one central place of worship. The question is, did the Priestly authors imply that Israel should also have one central place of worship when they came into the land? In the discussion of Leviticus 17 in the previous chapter we saw that H required that anyone offering sacrifice bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting. It has been suggested that this only means that sacrifice must be offered at a sanctuary, not necessarily at one central shrine. There is little other indication in P or H, however, that they condoned sacrifice at multiple shrines. Another interesting test case is provided by the prescriptions for the celebration of the Passover in Exodus 12. There we are told that the lamb should be sacrificed by “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel” (Exod 12:6*; the words for “assembly,” qāhāl, and “congregation,” ˓ēdāh, are roughly equivalent; it may be that two variant formulations were combined into one). The language here is most easily taken to mean that the lamb is sacrificed in a cultic assembly. But we have seen that Passover was a family celebration down to the time of Josiah’s reform. It would seem then that P presupposes the Deuteronomic transformation of Passover into a pilgrimage festival. Nonetheless, the text is not so explicit as to settle the issue beyond doubt. If indeed P was compiled after Josiah’s reform, then the attempt of H to forbid profane slaughter must be seen as a reactionary move in rejection of one of the major changes brought about by Deuteronomy. The stricter Holiness Code was idealistic, but it is unlikely that it was ever enforced.

The changing relations between priests and Levites are also more easily explained if the Priestly legislation is later than Josiah’s reforms. Deuteronomy refers to the Levites as “Levitical priests.” In Deut 18:1* we are told that the tribe of Levi has no allotment within Israel, but that they may eat the sacrifices that are the Lord’s. After Josiah’s reforms, however, there were (or were supposed to be) no sacrifices to eat outside Jerusalem. Consequently, Deuteronomy decreed that any Levite could go to “the place that the Lord will choose” whenever he wished and minister there, and receive an equal portion to eat with the other priests (Deut 17:6–8*). This arrangement could hardly fail to cause tensions between the priests who were already in Jerusalem and those who came in from the countryside.

According to Deuteronomy, the Levitical priests could serve at the central sanctuary on an equal basis with other priests. The Priestly legislation, however, in Num 3:6–9* and [Page 177] again in Num 18:1–7*, is quite explicit: the tribe of Levi is set before Aaron the priest to assist him, but the priesthood belongs only to Aaron and his descendants. The subordinate role of the Levites is also emphasized in Ezek 44:10–14*. This text, from the exilic or early postexilic period, blames the Levites for “going astray from me after their idols” and, as punishment, makes them hewers of wood and drawers of water. Ezekiel redefines the “Levitical priests” as the Zadokites, the traditional Jerusalem priesthood. Ezekiel’s understanding of the relationship between priests and Levites is essentially in agreement with that of P. The relationship was still problematic at the time of the restoration of Jerusalem after the exile. It is apparent that the Zadokite priests did not welcome the Levites from the country shrines as their equals in ministry, but they did make a place for them in Jerusalem, even if it was a subordinate one.

Finally, Wellhausen was indisputably right that the Priestly calendar in Leviticus 23 is the most developed such calendar in the Hebrew Bible. Not only does it include the Passover among the pilgrimage feasts, but it includes two important festivals that are not found even in Deuteronomy. “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts” (Lev 23:24*). This is the festival that would be known to posterity as Rosh Hashanah, the New Year’s celebration, when the year was deemed to begin in the fall. Then, “the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement” or Yom Kippur (23:27*). It is inconceivable that Deuteronomy would have omitted these festivals if they were celebrated when it was composed. Moreover, the book of Nehemiah, written no earlier than the end of the fifth century b.c.e., describes the observances of the seventh month in the time of Ezra (probably a little after the mid-fifth century). According to Nehemiah, there was a holy day, marked by a solemn assembly, on the first day of the month, but the next observance was the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, which Leviticus dates to the fifteenth of the month. There is no mention of Yom Kippur on the tenth of the month, although there is a day of fasting on the twenty-fourth. From this it would seem that the cultic calendar of Leviticus 23 had not yet been finalized in the mid-fifth century b.c.e.

It would be too simple, however, to say that the Priestly source is later than Deuteronomy, without qualification. Both of these sources contain ancient traditions, and both went through extensive redaction over a lengthy period of time. Some of the traditions contained in the Priestly source may be quite old. It seems, however, that the Priestly strand of the Pentateuch was edited after Josiah’s reform, and was influenced by the centralization of the sacrificial cult and the changes it entailed.

Finally, the Priestly material was integrated with the older pentateuchal traditions (traditionally known as J and E) to a much greater extent than was Deuteronomy. There [Page 178] is good reason to think that the books of Genesis through Numbers were edited by Priestly writers. Deuteronomy, in contrast, was originally linked with the historical books that follow it. We do not know when it was detached from the history and integrated into the Torah, as the fifth book of Moses. While some Deuteronomic glosses can be identified in the first four books, there does not seem to have been a Deuteronomic redaction of the Torah on the same scale as the Priestly one. Nonetheless, the climactic position eventually accorded to Deuteronomy ensured that for many people it would provide the lens through which the Pentateuch would be interpreted in later tradition.

Further Reading

Commentaries

Clements, Ronald E. “The Book of Deuteronomy.” In NIB 2.268–538. Theological and homiletical commentary.

Mayes, A. D. H. Deuteronomy. NCB. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981. Careful, reliable commentary.

Miller, Patrick D. Deuteronomy. IBC. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1990. Well-informed homiletical commentary.

Rad, Gerhard von. Deuteronomy. Trans. D. Barton. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966. Influential, but now dated.

Weinfeld, Moshe. Deuteronomy 1–11. AB 5. New York: Doubleday, 1991. The best English-language commentary. Unfortunately incomplete.

Studies

Braulik, Georg. The Theology of Deuteronomy: Collected Essays of Georg Braulik OSB. Trans. U. Lindblad. Bibal Collected Essays 2. N. Richland Hills, Tex.: Bibal, 1996. Essays on Deuteronomy by a major European interpreter.

Brenner, Athalya. A Feminist Companion to Exodus to Deuteronomy. FCB 1/6. Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994. Collection of essays from a feminist perspective.

Christensen, Duane L., ed. A Song of Power and the Power of Song: Essays on the Book of Deuteronomy. SBTS 3. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1993. Wide-ranging collection of essays on Deuteronomy by American and European authors.

Crüsemann, Frank. The Torah: Theology and Social History of Old Testament Law. Trans. A. W. Mahnke. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996 (201–75). Theological analysis of the laws of Deuteronomy.

Kaufmann, Yehezkel. The Religion of Israel: From Its Beginnings to the Babylonian Exile. Trans. and abridged by M. Greenberg. New York: Schocken, 1977. Classic Jewish counterpoint to Wellhausen.[Page 179]

Levinson, Bernard M. Deuteronomy and the Hermeneutics of Legal Innovation. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997. Study of the adaptation of the Book of the Covenant in Deuteronomy.

Lohfink, Norbert. Theology of the Pentateuch: Themes of the Priestly Narrative and Deuteronomy. Trans. L. M. Maloney. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994. Chapters 8–11 are theologically sensitive essays on Deuteronomy.

Nicholson, E. W. Deuteronomy and Tradition. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967. The use of northern tradition in Deuteronomy.

Rad, Gerhard von. Studies in Deuteronomy. Trans. D. Stalker. SBT 1/9. Chicago: Regnery, 1953. Emphasizes the role of the Levites.

Rofé, Alexander. Deuteronomy: Issues and Interpretation. London: Clark, 2002. A collection of previously published essays on Deuteronomy by the author, with several items on law.

Weinfeld, Moshe. Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972 (reprinted: Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1992). Explores links with wisdom and with Assyrian treaties.

Wellhausen, Julius. Prolegomena to the History of Israel. Trans. J. S. Black and A. Menzies. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, 1885 (reprinted: Atlanta: Scholars, 1994). The classic treatment of the relationship between P and D.













J Narrative source in the Pentateuch.
P Priestly strand in the Pentateuch.
*

1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,

2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.

8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so.

12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.

13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,

15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Genesis 1:1–2:4 (NRSV)

*

3 For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Isaiah 51:3 (NRSV)

*

35 And they will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined towns are now inhabited and fortified.”

Ezekiel 36:35 (NRSV)

*

3 Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.

Joel 2:3 (NRSV)

*

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, chrysolite, and moonstone, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald; and worked in gold were your settingsand your engravings. On the day that you were createdthey were prepared.

14 With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the stones of fire.

15 You were blameless in your waysfrom the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you.

16 In the abundance of your tradeyou were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you outfrom among the stones of fire.

Ezekiel 28:13–16 (NRSV)

Dead Sea Texts found near Qumran by the Dead Sea, beginning in 1947.
YHWH The God of Israel, pronounced Yahweh. Traditionally, Jews do not pronounce the divine name and do not insert the vowels. Instead they say Adonai (the Lord) or ha-Shem (the name).
myth Sacred story.
Atrahasis One of the Babylonian accounts of creation.
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by J. B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969
restoration Return of Judean exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, after the Babylonian exile.
*

15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

Isaiah 7:15–16 (NRSV)

*

8 Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

9 Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.

1 Corinthians 11:8–9 (NRSV)

*

13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve;

1 Timothy 2:13 (NRSV)

*

12 For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from God.

1 Corinthians 11:12 (NRSV)

*

11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman.

1 Corinthians 11:11 (NRSV)

*

23 Then the man said,“This at last is bone of my bonesand flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”

24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Genesis 2:23–24 (NRSV)

*

1 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.”

Genesis 4:1 (NRSV)

*

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:1 (NRSV)

canon The corpus of biblical books, viewed as Sacred Scripture.
Apocrypha Books that are included in the Catholic Bible, but are not found in the Hebrew Bible or in the Protestant canon.
*

24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.

Wisdom of Solomon 2:24 (NRSV)

*

9 The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation 12:9 (NRSV)

Epic Story of human heroes, involving actions of the gods.
Gilgamesh Hero of popular Mesopotamian epic.
Shamash The sun, or sun-god.
*

16 To the woman he said,“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

Genesis 3:16 (NRSV)

*

19 By the sweat of your faceyou shall eat breaduntil you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:19 (NRSV)

*

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,“Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animalsand among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eatall the days of your life.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to the man he said,“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the treeabout which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your faceyou shall eat breaduntil you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:14–19 (NRSV)

etiology A story that explains the cause of something.
*

13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve;

14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

1 Timothy 2:13–14 (NRSV)

Sheol Hebrew name for the netherworld. Like Greek Hades.
Hades Greek name for the netherworld.
*

18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.

19 For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Romans 5:18–19 (NRSV)

*

48 For an evil heart has grown up in us, which has alienated us from God, and has brought us into corruption and the ways of death, and has shown us the paths of perdition and removed us far from life—and that not merely for a few but for almost all who have been created.”

2 Esdras 7:48 (NRSV)

*

118 O Adam, what have you done? For though it was you who sinned, the fall was not yours alone, but ours also who are your descendants.

2 Esdras 7:118 (NRSV)

RSV Revised Standard Version
apocalypse Literary genre of revelations about the end.
*

24 From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die.

Sirach 25:24 (NRSV)

*

14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

1 Timothy 2:14 (NRSV)

Pit A term for the netherworld (Sheol).
*

12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

13 You said in your heart,“I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throneabove the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of assemblyon the heights of Zaphon;

14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.”

Isaiah 14:12–14 (NRSV)

*

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord

5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground;

6 but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground—

7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides and becomes four branches.

11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.

13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Cush.

14 The name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Genesis 2:4–3:24 (NRSV)

Elohim The Hebrew word for God. Can be understood as either singular or plural.
Pentateuch The first five books of the Bible, also called “the books of Moses.”
*

30 But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.”

Exodus 9:30 (NRSV)

Hellenistic Adjective referring to the Greek-speaking world after the conquests of Alexander the Great (died 323 b.c.e.).
*

1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,

Genesis 1:1 (NRSV)

Enuma Babylonian account of creation.
*

2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:2 (NRSV)

Tiamat The mother goddess in the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish.
*

2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:2 (NRSV)

*

23 I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.

Jeremiah 4:23 (NRSV)

*

1 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

2 the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.

3 Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

Genesis 6:1–4 (NRSV)

*

3 Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”

Genesis 6:3 (NRSV)

Theogony Story about the birth of the gods.
*

1 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

2 the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.

3 Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

Genesis 6:1–4 (NRSV)

Aramaic Language of Syria. Closely related to Hebrew. Standard language of diplomacy under the Persians.
*

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.

Genesis 6:5 (NRSV)

Midrash Rabbinic commentaries on biblical texts.
rabbinic Judaism in the period c. 150–650 c.e.
*

3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

Genesis 9:3 (NRSV)

*

4 Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Genesis 9:4 (NRSV)

*

6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own imageGod made humankind.

Genesis 9:6 (NRSV)

covenant A solemn agreement. Used especially of agreements between God and Israel.
*

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.

6 And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

7 Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

9 Therefore it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:1–9 (NRSV)

NIB New Interpreter’s Bible
OTL Old Testament Library
CC Continental Commentaries
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
CHANE Culture and History of the Ancient Near East
OBT Overtures to Biblical Theology
*

5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 17:5 (NRSV)

*

15 God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

Genesis 17:15 (NRSV)

*

31 Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 11:31 (NRSV)

Canaan Area including Palestine, Lebanon, and part of Syria, in the second millennium b.c.e.
*

7 Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”

Genesis 15:7 (NRSV)

Aram Syria.
*

7 Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”

Genesis 15:7 (NRSV)

patriarchal Relating to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).
Akkadian The language of ancient Babylon and Assyria.
Mari Place on the Euphrates, where important texts from the second millennium were discovered.
*

13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram.

Genesis 14:13 (NRSV)

Habiru People on the fringes of society in the second millennium b.c.e. Possibly related to Hebrews.
*

32 When they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.

34 And Abraham resided as an alien many days in the land of the Philistines.

Genesis 21:32–34 (NRSV)

*

1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to King Abimelech of the Philistines.

Genesis 26:1 (NRSV)

*

8 When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah.

Genesis 26:8 (NRSV)

*

14 He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.

15 (Now the Philistines had stopped up and filled with earth all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.)

Genesis 26:14–15 (NRSV)

Sea People who invaded the area of Palestine around 1200 b.c.e., and became the Philistines.
Arameans People from ancient Syria.
*

31 Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba; because there both of them swore an oath.

Genesis 21:31 (NRSV)

*

33 He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-shebato this day.

Genesis 26:33 (NRSV)

Sitz im German for “setting in life.” Technical term in form criticism.
E Narrative source in the Pentateuch.
*

24 And that very night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you and make your offspring numerous for my servant Abraham’s sake.”

Genesis 26:24 (NRSV)

*

13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;

Genesis 28:13 (NRSV)

*

1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

Genesis 15:1 (NRSV)

*

53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor”—the God of their father—“judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,

Genesis 31:53 (NRSV)

*

42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

Genesis 31:42 (NRSV)

*

24 Yet his bow remained taut, and his arms were made agileby the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,

Genesis 49:24 (NRSV)

El Canaanite high god. The word El is a generic name for “god” in Biblical Hebrew.
Ugarit Modern Ras Shamra, in northern Syria, where important tablets were discovered in 1929.
Baal Canaanite storm-god.
*

13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”

Genesis 16:13 (NRSV)

*

1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.

Genesis 17:1 (NRSV)

*

3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and numerous, that you may become a company of peoples.

Genesis 28:3 (NRSV)

*

16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!”

Genesis 28:16 (NRSV)

*

2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

3 Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.

Deuteronomy 12:2–3 (NRSV)

*

25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and resided there; he went out from there and built Penuel.

26 Then Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom may well revert to the house of David.

27 If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”

28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

30 And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan.

31 He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites.

32 Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the festival that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

33 He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he alone had devised; he appointed a festival for the people of Israel, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

1 Kings 12:25–33 (NRSV)

*

17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Genesis 28:17 (NRSV)

*

11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.

12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring;

14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring.

15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!”

Genesis 28:11–16 (NRSV)

*

25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and resided there; he went out from there and built Penuel.

1 Kings 12:25 (NRSV)

Deuteronomic Reform of King Josiah, 621 b.c.e. Centralized the cult in accordance with Deuteronomy 12.
*

18 And those who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make like the calf when they cut it in two and passed between its parts:

Jeremiah 34:18 (NRSV)

*

6 And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 15:6 (NRSV)

*

6 Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”

Galatians 3:6 (NRSV)

*

3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 12:3 (NRSV)

*

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.

11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance;

12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

13 Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.”

14 When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18 So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.”

20 And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.

Genesis 12:10–20 (NRSV)

*

1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While residing in Gerar as an alien,

2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” And King Abimelech of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman.”

4 Now Abimelech had not approached her; so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent people?

5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”

6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

7 Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.”

Genesis 20:1–7 (NRSV)

*

6 So Isaac settled in Gerar.

7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “My wife,” thinking, “or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.”

8 When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah.

9 So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, “So she is your wife! Why then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might die because of her.”

10 Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.”

Genesis 26:6–11 (NRSV)

*

10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to reside there as an alien, for the famine was severe in the land.

11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know well that you are a woman beautiful in appearance;

12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife’; then they will kill me, but they will let you live.

13 Say you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared on your account.”

14 When Abram entered Egypt the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

15 When the officials of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

16 And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.

17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

18 So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?

19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her, and be gone.”

20 And Pharaoh gave his men orders concerning him; and they set him on the way, with his wife and all that he had.

Genesis 12:10–20 (NRSV)

*

6 So Isaac settled in Gerar.

7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “My wife,” thinking, “or else the men of the place might kill me for the sake of Rebekah, because she is attractive in appearance.”

8 When Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw him fondling his wife Rebekah.

9 So Abimelech called for Isaac, and said, “So she is your wife! Why then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might die because of her.”

10 Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.”

Genesis 26:6–11 (NRSV)

*

1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While residing in Gerar as an alien,

2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” And King Abimelech of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman.”

4 Now Abimelech had not approached her; so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent people?

5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.”

6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart; furthermore it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

7 Now then, return the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all that are yours.”

Genesis 20:1–7 (NRSV)

*

12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year reaped a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him,

Genesis 26:12 (NRSV)

*

2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

Genesis 15:2 (NRSV)

*

1 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him.

4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.

5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Genesis 22:1–14 (NRSV)

*

19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.

Genesis 22:19 (NRSV)

*

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.

16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”

Genesis 21:15–18 (NRSV)

*

11 The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.

Genesis 21:11 (NRSV)

*

14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

Genesis 21:14 (NRSV)

*

12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.

Genesis 21:12 (NRSV)

*

16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”

Genesis 21:16–18 (NRSV)

*

8 The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Genesis 21:8 (NRSV)

*

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.

16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

18 Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”

Genesis 21:15–18 (NRSV)

*

3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

2 Kings 16:3 (NRSV)

*

6 He made his son pass through fire; he practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

2 Kings 21:6 (NRSV)

*

10 He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech.

2 Kings 23:10 (NRSV)

*

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:6–8 (NRSV)

*

28 You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people.

29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Exodus 22:28–29 (NRSV)

*

29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Exodus 22:29 (NRSV)

*

29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Exodus 22:29 (NRSV)

*

19 All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

Exodus 34:19–20 (NRSV)

*

25 Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.

26 I defiled them through their very gifts, in their offering up all their firstborn, in order that I might horrify them, so that they might know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 20:25–26 (NRSV)

*

32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—

33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,

34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Hebrews 11:32–34 (NRSV)

*

20 But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

21 Then the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel occupied all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.

Judges 11:20–21 (NRSV)

Targum Paraphrastic Aramaic translation of biblical texts.
Immanuel “God with us.” Name of child foretold in Isaiah 7.
*

3 In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God.

Hosea 12:3 (NRSV)

*

29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.

30 He returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?”

31 Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.

32 They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.”

33 He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”

34 Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

35 All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father bewailed him.

Genesis 37:29–35 (NRSV)

*

28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act,

Deuteronomy 22:28 (NRSV)

*

9 Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

10 You shall live with us; and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it, and get property in it.”

Genesis 34:9–10 (NRSV)

*

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

Genesis 34:30 (NRSV)

*

31 But they said, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?”

Genesis 34:31 (NRSV)

Samaritans People who lived around Shechem in Second Temple period. Had temple on Mt. Gerizim. Rejected by Jerusalem as descendants of Assyrian settlers, but worshiped God of Israel.
Second Temple The period after the Babylonian exile, down to the first century c.e. (539 b.c.e. –70 c.e.).
levirate Law requiring the brother of a deceased man to marry his widow.
*

5 When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her,

6 and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

7 But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.”

8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, “I have no desire to marry her,”

9 then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.”

10 Throughout Israel his family shall be known as “the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.”

Deuteronomy 25:5–10 (NRSV)

*

24 you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Deuteronomy 22:24 (NRSV)

*

36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

Genesis 37:36 (NRSV)

*

1 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.

Genesis 39:1 (NRSV)

*

7 If someone is caught kidnaping another Israelite, enslaving or selling the Israelite, then that kidnaper shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Deuteronomy 24:7 (NRSV)

*

4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

Genesis 45:4 (NRSV)

*

1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Genesis 45:1–3 (NRSV)

*

7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

Genesis 45:7 (NRSV)

*

20 So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. All the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s.

21 As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.

Genesis 47:20–21 (NRSV)

Hyksos People from Syria who ruled Egypt for about a century (1650–1550 b.c.e.).
*

34 you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our ancestors’—in order that you may settle in the land of Goshen, because all shepherds are abhorrent to the Egyptians.”

Genesis 46:34 (NRSV)

*

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Genesis 12:4 (NRSV)

*

10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

Genesis 17:10 (NRSV)

*

22 On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.

23 So he took his kinsfolk with him and pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, “Take heed that you say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad.”

25 Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsfolk camped in the hill country of Gilead.

26 Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword.

Genesis 31:22–26 (NRSV)

*

1 These are the descendants of Esau (that is, Edom).

2 Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah daughter of Anah son of Zibeon the Hivite,

3 and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth.

4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau; Basemath bore Reuel;

5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

6 Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his cattle, all his livestock, and all the property he had acquired in the land of Canaan; and he moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob.

7 For their possessions were too great for them to live together; the land where they were staying could not support them because of their livestock.

8 So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir; Esau is Edom.

9 These are the descendants of Esau, ancestor of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir.

10 These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz son of Adah the wife of Esau; Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.

11 The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

12 (Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son; she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.) These were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife.

13 These were the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau’s wife, Basemath.

14 These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah son of Zibeon: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

Genesis 36:1–14 (NRSV)

*

6 They also took their livestock and the goods that they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,

7 his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters; all his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.

8 Now these are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his offspring, who came to Egypt. Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn,

9 and the children of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

10 The children of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman.

11 The children of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

12 The children of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan); and the children of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

13 The children of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron.

14 The children of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel

15 (these are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, together with his daughter Dinah; in all his sons and his daughters numbered thirty-three).

16 The children of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

17 The children of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. The children of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel

18 (these are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; and these she bore to Jacob—sixteen persons).

19 The children of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

20 To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Genesis 46:6–27 (NRSV)

FOTL Forms of the Old Testament Literature
CBQMS Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series
D The Deuteronomic source in the Pentateuch.
VTSup Supplements to Vetus Testamentum
Josephus Jewish historian, late first century c.e.
*

37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.

Exodus 12:37 (NRSV)

Ephraim Tribe named for son of Joseph, in central hill country of Israel. Often used as a name for Israel.
*

28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

1 Kings 12:28 (NRSV)

*

28 The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

1 Kings 11:28 (NRSV)

*

2 He said:The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran. With him were myriads of holy ones; at his right, a host of his own.

Deuteronomy 33:2 (NRSV)

*

4 “Lord, when you went out from Seir, when you marched from the region of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens poured, the clouds indeed poured water.

5 The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

Judges 5:4–5 (NRSV)

*

7 O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness,Selah

8 the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rainat the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Psalm 68:7–8 (NRSV)

*

5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.

6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,

7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders;

9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 26:5–9 (NRSV)

*

2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.

3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;

4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

5 Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterwards I brought you out.

6 When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

7 When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness a long time.

8 Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.

9 Then King Balak son of Zippor of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you,

10 but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you; so I rescued you out of his hand.

11 When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to you.

12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.

13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant.

Joshua 24:2–13 (NRSV)

Horeb Mountain of revelation in E and D traditions (instead of Sinai). The name means wilderness.
*

13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

14 God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’ ”

Exodus 3:13–14 (NRSV)

Philo Jewish philosopher in Alexandria, early first century c.e.
Hittites People of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the second millennium b.c.e.
Jebusites Inhabitants of Jerusalem before Israelites.
*

7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings,

8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Exodus 3:7–8 (NRSV)

*

2 God also spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the Lord.

Exodus 6:2 (NRSV)

*

7 I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians.

Exodus 6:7 (NRSV)

YHWH The God of Israel, pronounced Yahweh. Traditionally, Jews do not pronounce the divine name and do not insert the vowels. Instead they say Adonai (the Lord) or ha-Shem (the name).
J Narrative source in the Pentateuch.
P Priestly strand in the Pentateuch.
*

5 Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

Exodus 11:5 (NRSV)

*

23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.

Exodus 12:23 (NRSV)

*

22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son.

23 I said to you, “Let my son go that he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

Exodus 4:22–23 (NRSV)

*

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.

Exodus 4:21 (NRSV)

*

3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 7:3 (NRSV)

*

14 Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.

1 Samuel 16:14 (NRSV)

*

1 The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.

Exodus 7:1 (NRSV)

NRSV New Revised Standard Version
Philo Jewish philosopher in Alexandria, early first century c.e.
*

23 For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians; when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down.

Exodus 12:23 (NRSV)

*

6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.

Exodus 12:6 (NRSV)

*

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.”

18 So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle.

Exodus 13:17–18 (NRSV)

E Narrative source in the Pentateuch.
Septuagint The Greek translation of the Old Testament.
*

26 King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

1 Kings 9:26 (NRSV)

*

19 The Lord changed the wind into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea; not a single locust was left in all the country of Egypt.

Exodus 10:19 (NRSV)

Canaan Area including Palestine, Lebanon, and part of Syria, in the second millennium b.c.e.
*

8 They set out from Pi-hahiroth, passed through the sea into the wilderness, went a three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and camped at Marah.

9 They set out from Marah and came to Elim; at Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.

10 They set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

Numbers 33:8–10 (NRSV)

*

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

Exodus 15:4 (NRSV)

*

1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.

6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power—your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.

7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble.

8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’

10 You blew with your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?

12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

13 “In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed; you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

14 The peoples heard, they trembled; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; trembling seized the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Exodus 15:1–18 (NRSV)

*

21 And Miriam sang to them:“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

Exodus 15:21 (NRSV)

*

1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.

6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power—your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.

7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries; you sent out your fury, it consumed them like stubble.

8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’

10 You blew with your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?

12 You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.

Exodus 15:1–12 (NRSV)

*

18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

Exodus 15:18 (NRSV)

*

13 “In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed; you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

14 The peoples heard, they trembled; pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; trembling seized the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

16 Terror and dread fell upon them; by the might of your arm, they became still as a stoneuntil your people, O Lord, passed by, until the people whom you acquired passed by.

17 You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession, the place, O Lord, that you made your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.

Exodus 15:13–17 (NRSV)

*

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials were changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done, letting Israel leave our service?”

Exodus 14:5 (NRSV)

*

6 So he had his chariot made ready, and took his army with him;

Exodus 14:6 (NRSV)

*

9 The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army; they overtook them camped by the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

Exodus 14:9 (NRSV)

*

10 As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord.

Exodus 14:10 (NRSV)

*

13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.

Exodus 14:13 (NRSV)

*

14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

Exodus 14:14 (NRSV)

*

19 The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them.

Exodus 14:19 (NRSV)

*

20 It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.

Exodus 14:20 (NRSV)

*

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.

Exodus 14:21 (NRSV)

*

24 At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptian army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic.

Exodus 14:24 (NRSV)

*

25 He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

Exodus 14:25 (NRSV)

*

27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea.

Exodus 14:27 (NRSV)

*

30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

Exodus 14:30 (NRSV)

*

31 Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.

Exodus 14:31 (NRSV)

*

6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so.

8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:6–10 (NRSV)

myth Sacred story.
Baal Canaanite storm-god.
Yamm Sea. A god in Ugaritic myth.
Marduk Main god of Babylon.
Tiamat The mother goddess in the Babylonian creation story, Enuma Elish.
Enuma Babylonian account of creation.
*

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord!Awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago!Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?

10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a wayfor the redeemed to cross over?

11 So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 51:9–11 (NRSV)

OTL Old Testament Library
redaction The study of how books, or blocks of material such as the source documents of the Pentateuch, were edited.
FOTL Forms of the Old Testament Literature
AB Anchor Bible
NIB New Interpreter’s Bible
Akhenaten Pharaoh Amenophis IV (c. 1350 b.c.e.), whose devotion to the god Aten (the solar disk) was the closest thing to monotheism before the rise of Israel.
Epic Story of human heroes, involving actions of the gods.
covenant A solemn agreement. Used especially of agreements between God and Israel.
Hittites People of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the second millennium b.c.e.
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by J. B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969
*

21 then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

22 The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.

23 He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors.

24 Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case.

25 If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”

Deuteronomy 6:21–25 (NRSV)

*

5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.

6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us,

7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders;

9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 26:5–9 (NRSV)

*

2 And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods.

3 Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac;

4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir to possess, but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

5 Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt with what I did in its midst; and afterwards I brought you out.

6 When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

7 When they cried out to the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did to Egypt. Afterwards you lived in the wilderness a long time.

8 Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of the Jordan; they fought with you, and I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you.

9 Then King Balak son of Zippor of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent and invited Balaam son of Beor to curse you,

10 but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you; so I rescued you out of his hand.

11 When you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I handed them over to you.

12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove out before you the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.

13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant.

Joshua 24:2–13 (NRSV)

Deuteronomic Reform of King Josiah, 621 b.c.e. Centralized the cult in accordance with Deuteronomy 12.
*

3 you shall have no other gods before me.

Exodus 20:3 (NRSV)

theophany Manifestation of a god.
*

3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites:

4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,

6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”

7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.

8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

Exodus 19:3–8 (NRSV)

*

6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”

Exodus 19:6 (NRSV)

*

2 They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

Exodus 19:2 (NRSV)

*

15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud.

17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 24:15–18 (NRSV)

*

7 Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Exodus 24:7 (NRSV)

*

9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,

10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.

11 God did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; also they beheld God, and they ate and drank.

Exodus 24:9–11 (NRSV)

apodictic Absolute, declarative law. No ifs or buts.
casuistic Case law, based on specific situations.
Pentateuch The first five books of the Bible, also called “the books of Moses.”
*

11 Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

12 Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you.

13 You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles

14 (for you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God).

15 You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice.

16 And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.

17 You shall not make cast idols.

18 You shall keep the festival of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

19 All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest.

22 You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year.

23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

24 For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

25 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the passover shall not be left until the morning.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Exodus 34:11–26 (NRSV)

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6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

7 you shall have no other gods before me.

8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me,

10 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.

15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

17 You shall not murder.

18 Neither shall you commit adultery.

19 Neither shall you steal.

20 Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (NRSV)

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1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

3 You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.

5 When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable in your behalf.

6 It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire.

7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable.

8 All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the Lord; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.

9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.

11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.

12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.

13 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.

14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

15 You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Leviticus 19:1–18 (NRSV)

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15 “Cursed be anyone who makes an idol or casts an image, anything abhorrent to the Lord, the work of an artisan, and sets it up in secret.” All the people shall respond, saying, “Amen!”

16 “Cursed be anyone who dishonors father or mother.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

17 “Cursed be anyone who moves a neighbor’s boundary marker.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

18 “Cursed be anyone who misleads a blind person on the road.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

19 “Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

20 “Cursed be anyone who lies with his father’s wife, because he has violated his father’s rights.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

21 “Cursed be anyone who lies with any animal.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

22 “Cursed be anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

23 “Cursed be anyone who lies with his mother-in-law.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

24 “Cursed be anyone who strikes down a neighbor in secret.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

25 “Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

26 “Cursed be anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by observing them.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

Deuteronomy 27:15–26 (NRSV)

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28 He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Exodus 34:28 (NRSV)

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13 He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

Deuteronomy 4:13 (NRSV)

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4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.

Deuteronomy 10:4 (NRSV)

Hellenistic Adjective referring to the Greek-speaking world after the conquests of Alexander the Great (died 323 b.c.e.).
Aten The exclusive worship of Aten, the solar disk, by Akhenaten.
Deuteronomistic The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
Asherah Canaanite goddess, also worshiped in Israel. Also the name for a sacred pole at cult sites.
el Canaanite high god. The word El is a generic name for “god” in Biblical Hebrew.
Samaria Capital of northern Israel.
Anat Canaanite goddess.
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9 All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know. And so they will be put to shame.

10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good?

11 Look, all its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans too are merely human. Let them all assemble, let them stand up; they shall be terrified, they shall all be put to shame.

12 The ironsmith fashions it and works it over the coals, shaping it with hammers, and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry and his strength fails, he drinks no water and is faint.

13 The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.

14 He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.

15 Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.

16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm, I can feel the fire!”

17 The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”

18 They do not know, nor do they comprehend; for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.

19 No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”

20 He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”

Isaiah 44:9–20 (NRSV)

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28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

1 Kings 12:28 (NRSV)

cherubim Mythical winged creatures, portrayed in Jerusalem temple.
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4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Exodus 20:4 (NRSV)

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23 You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.

Exodus 20:23 (NRSV)

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5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,

6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 20:5–6 (NRSV)

Akkadian The language of ancient Babylon and Assyria.
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5 saying, “When will the new moon be overso that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances,

Amos 8:5 (NRSV)

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13 bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.

Isaiah 1:13 (NRSV)

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30 If anyone kills another, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness.

Numbers 35:30 (NRSV)

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15 A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained.

Deuteronomy 19:15 (NRSV)

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7 Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

Exodus 24:7 (NRSV)

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20 When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished.

Exodus 21:20 (NRSV)

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28 When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall not be liable.

Exodus 21:28 (NRSV)

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35 If someone’s ox hurts the ox of another, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the price of it; and the dead animal they shall also divide.

Exodus 21:35 (NRSV)

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22 When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine.

23 If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life,

24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Exodus 21:22–25 (NRSV)

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38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;

Matthew 5:38–39 (NRSV)

Josephus Jewish historian, late first century c.e.
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16 When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife.

Exodus 22:16 (NRSV)

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21 You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 22:21 (NRSV)

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9 You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23:9 (NRSV)

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21 You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 22:21 (NRSV)

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4 When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.

5 When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.

Exodus 23:4–5 (NRSV)

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28 You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people.

Exodus 22:28 (NRSV)

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29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Exodus 22:29 (NRSV)

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20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

Exodus 34:20 (NRSV)

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12 Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.

Exodus 23:12 (NRSV)

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14 Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me.

15 You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

16 You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the festival of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.

17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.

Exodus 23:14–17 (NRSV)

Sukkoth Festival of Booths or Tabernacles.
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19 The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

Exodus 23:19 (NRSV)

Ugarit Modern Ras Shamra, in northern Syria, where important tablets were discovered in 1929.
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17 You shall not make cast idols.

18 You shall keep the festival of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

19 All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest.

22 You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year.

23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

24 For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

25 You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the passover shall not be left until the morning.

26 The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

Exodus 34:17–26 (NRSV)

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28 He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Exodus 34:28 (NRSV)

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7 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;

8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ”

9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.

10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”

14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Exodus 32:7–14 (NRSV)

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28 So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

29 He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

1 Kings 12:28–29 (NRSV)

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4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

Exodus 32:4 (NRSV)

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7 Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.”

1 Corinthians 10:7 (NRSV)

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5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”

Exodus 32:5 (NRSV)

Levites Priests descended from Levi. Subordinated to Zadokite priests in Jerusalem after the exile.
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27 He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.’ ”

Exodus 32:27 (NRSV)

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5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me,

Exodus 20:5 (NRSV)

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6 The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed,“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parentsupon the childrenand the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6–7 (NRSV)

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18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parentsupon the childrento the third and the fourth generation.’

Numbers 14:18 (NRSV)

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15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Psalm 86:15 (NRSV)

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17 they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.

Nehemiah 9:17 (NRSV)

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7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

Exodus 33:7 (NRSV)

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1 The Lord said to Moses, “Go, leave this place, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’

2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

Exodus 33:1–3 (NRSV)

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15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.

Exodus 33:15 (NRSV)

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20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

Exodus 34:20 (NRSV)

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29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Exodus 22:29 (NRSV)

Canon The corpus of biblical books, viewed as Sacred Scripture.
SBLMS SBL Monograph Series
SBLWAW SBL Writings from the Ancient World
Zion Hill in Jerusalem. City of David.
AnBib Analecta biblica
SBL Society of Biblical Literature
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992
OBT Overtures to Biblical Theology
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
nazirite Person consecrated to God by a vow (see Numbers 6).
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1 Then the whole congregation of the Israelites assembled at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.

Joshua 18:1 (NRSV)

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21 You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenantthat I shall give you.

Exodus 25:21 (NRSV)

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22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites.

Exodus 25:22 (NRSV)

Atrahasis One of the Babylonian accounts of creation.
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5 or anything else about which you have sworn falsely, you shall repay the principal amount and shall add one-fifth to it. You shall pay it to its owner when you realize your guilt.

Leviticus 6:5 (NRSV)

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21 Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task.

22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

Leviticus 16:21–22 (NRSV)

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16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:16–17 (NRSV)

divination Means of consulting the gods.
Dead Sea Texts found near Qumran by the Dead Sea, beginning in 1947.
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1 Now Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them.

2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

Leviticus 10:1–2 (NRSV)

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19 The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

Exodus 23:19 (NRSV)

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31 You shall do no work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements.

Leviticus 23:31 (NRSV)

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44 For I am the Lord your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming creature that moves on the earth.

45 For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy.

Leviticus 11:44–45 (NRSV)

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16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Leviticus 21:16 (NRSV)

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1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 Command the Israelites to put out of the camp everyone who is leprous, or has a discharge, and everyone who is unclean through contact with a corpse;

3 you shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp; they must not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.

4 The Israelites did so, putting them outside the camp; as the Lord had spoken to Moses, so the Israelites did.

5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

Numbers 5:1–5 (NRSV)

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34 When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a leprous disease in a house in the land of your possession,

35 the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, “There seems to me to be some sort of disease in my house.”

36 The priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest goes to examine the disease, or all that is in the house will become unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to inspect the house.

37 He shall examine the disease; if the disease is in the walls of the house with greenish or reddish spots, and if it appears to be deeper than the surface,

38 the priest shall go outside to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days.

39 The priest shall come again on the seventh day and make an inspection; if the disease has spread in the walls of the house,

40 the priest shall command that the stones in which the disease appears be taken out and thrown into an unclean place outside the city.

41 He shall have the inside of the house scraped thoroughly, and the plaster that is scraped off shall be dumped in an unclean place outside the city.

42 They shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and take other plaster and plaster the house.

43 If the disease breaks out again in the house, after he has taken out the stones and scraped the house and plastered it,

44 the priest shall go and make inspection; if the disease has spread in the house, it is a spreading leprous disease in the house; it is unclean.

45 He shall have the house torn down, its stones and timber and all the plaster of the house, and taken outside the city to an unclean place.

46 All who enter the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening;

47 and all who sleep in the house shall wash their clothes; and all who eat in the house shall wash their clothes.

48 If the priest comes and makes an inspection, and the disease has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, the priest shall pronounce the house clean; the disease is healed.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Leviticus 14:34–57 (NRSV)

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1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When a person makes an explicit vow to the Lord concerning the equivalent for a human being,

3 the equivalent for a male shall be: from twenty to sixty years of age the equivalent shall be fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary shekel.

4 If the person is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels.

5 If the age is from five to twenty years of age, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female.

6 If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and for a female the equivalent is three shekels of silver.

7 And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the equivalent for a male is fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

8 If any cannot afford the equivalent, they shall be brought before the priest and the priest shall assess them; the priest shall assess them according to what each one making a vow can afford.

Leviticus 27:1–8 (NRSV)

*

4 and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, he shall be held guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood, and he shall be cut off from the people.

Leviticus 17:4 (NRSV)

*

31 I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors.

Leviticus 26:31 (NRSV)

*

3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes.

Leviticus 18:3 (NRSV)

*

19 You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness.

Leviticus 18:19 (NRSV)

*

22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 18:22 (NRSV)

*

13 You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s flesh.

Leviticus 18:13 (NRSV)

*

27 and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

Romans 1:27 (NRSV)

*

9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites,

1 Corinthians 6:9 (NRSV)

*

19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,

Galatians 5:19 (NRSV)

*

10 fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching

1 Timothy 1:10 (NRSV)

*

21 You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 18:21 (NRSV)

*

2 Say further to the people of Israel:Any of the people of Israel, or of the aliens who reside in Israel, who give any of their offspring to Molech shall be put to death; the people of the land shall stone them to death.

3 I myself will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people, because they have given of their offspring to Molech, defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name.

4 And if the people of the land should ever close their eyes to them, when they give of their offspring to Molech, and do not put them to death,

5 I myself will set my face against them and against their family, and will cut them off from among their people, them and all who follow them in prostituting themselves to Molech.

Leviticus 20:2–5 (NRSV)

*

15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

Proverbs 5:15–16 (NRSV)

*

23 You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion.

Leviticus 18:23 (NRSV)

*

16 If a woman approaches any animal and has sexual relations with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.

Leviticus 20:16 (NRSV)

*

26 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural,

27 and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

Romans 1:26–27 (NRSV)

*

13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Leviticus 20:13 (NRSV)

*

19 You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.

Leviticus 19:19 (NRSV)

*

9 You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, or the whole yield will have to be forfeited, both the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard itself.

10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11 You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.

Deuteronomy 22:9–11 (NRSV)

*

19 You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.

Leviticus 19:19 (NRSV)

*

2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

3 You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:2–3 (NRSV)

*

11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.

12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.

13 You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.

Leviticus 19:11–13 (NRSV)

*

10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:10 (NRSV)

*

36 You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19:36 (NRSV)

Yom The Day of Atonement.
Second Temple The period after the Babylonian exile, down to the first century c.e. (539 b.c.e. –70 c.e.).
*

34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoyits sabbath years.

Leviticus 26:34 (NRSV)

*

44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God;

45 but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 26:44–45 (NRSV)

*

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying:

2 Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually;

3 from twenty years old and upward, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company.

4 A man from each tribe shall be with you, each man the head of his ancestral house.

5 These are the names of the men who shall assist you:From Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur.

6 From Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.

7 From Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab.

8 From Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar.

9 From Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon.

10 From the sons of Joseph:from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.

11 From Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni.

12 From Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.

13 From Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran.

14 From Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel.

15 From Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.

(Only first 15 verses of range shown)

Numbers 1:1–10:28 (NRSV)

*

2 Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually;

Numbers 1:2 (NRSV)

*

1 Satan stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:1 (NRSV)

*

59 The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, though they could not prove their families or their descent, whether they belonged to Israel:

60 the descendants of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda, six hundred fifty-two.

61 Also, of the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Habaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai (who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name).

62 These looked for their entries in the genealogical records, but they were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean;

63 the governor told them that they were not to partake of the most holy food, until there should be a priest to consult Urim and Thummim.

Ezra 2:59–63 (NRSV)

*

25 Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Amos 5:25 (NRSV)

*

29 Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’; come with us, and we will treat you well; for the Lord has promised good to Israel.”

Numbers 10:29 (NRSV)

*

35 Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say, “Arise, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered, and your foes flee before you.”

Numbers 10:35 (NRSV)

*

16 the oracle of one who hears the words of God, and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, but with his eyes uncovered:

Numbers 24:16 (NRSV)

Day of the Day of divine intervention in prophetic texts.
*

18 Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord!Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light;

Amos 5:18 (NRSV)

pseudepigrapha Books that are attributed to famous ancient people (such as Enoch), who did not actually write them.
*

17 I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites.

Numbers 24:17 (NRSV)

Akiba Rabbi, early second century c.e.
Bar Leader of Jewish revolt against Rome in 132–135 b.c.e.
*

8 They killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian, in addition to others who were slain by them; and they also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

Numbers 31:8 (NRSV)

*

16 These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.

Numbers 31:16 (NRSV)

WBC Word Biblical Commentary
rabbinic Judaism in the period c. 150–650 c.e.
CC Continental Commentaries
ITC International Theological Commentary
HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs
VTSup Supplements to Vetus Testamentum
*

18 When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests.

Deuteronomy 17:18 (NRSV)

Horeb Mountain of revelation in E and D traditions (instead of Sinai). The name means wilderness.
*

1 These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan—in the wilderness, on the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.

Deuteronomy 1:1 (NRSV)

*

44 This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

45 These are the decrees and the statutes and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they had come out of Egypt,

46 beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned at Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated when they came out of Egypt.

47 They occupied his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites on the eastern side of the Jordan:

48 from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon),

49 together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 4:44–49 (NRSV)

Gerizim Mountain near Shechem. Site of Samaritan temple in Hellenistic period.
*

1 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.

Deuteronomy 29:1 (NRSV)

VTE Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon
*

26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.

Deuteronomy 4:26 (NRSV)

*

19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NRSV)

*

28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

Deuteronomy 31:28 (NRSV)

*

1 At that time the Lord said to me, “Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark.”

3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

4 Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.

5 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the Lord commanded me.

Deuteronomy 10:1–5 (NRSV)

*

24 When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end,

25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,

26 “Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God; let it remain there as a witness against you.

Deuteronomy 31:24–26 (NRSV)

*

9 Then Moses wrote down this law, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.

10 Moses commanded them: “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the festival of booths,

11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 Assemble the people—men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns—so that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law,

13 and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

Deuteronomy 31:9–13 (NRSV)

*

18 When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests.

19 It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

Deuteronomy 17:18–19 (NRSV)

*

23 The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron.

24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

26 Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.

28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind;

29 you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way; and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.

30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but not enjoy its fruit.

31 Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, without anyone to help you.

32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything.

33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed,

34 and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see.

35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Deuteronomy 28:23–35 (NRSV)

Shamash The sun, or sun-god.

credo “I believe.” Profession of faith.
YHWH The God of Israel, pronounced Yahweh. Traditionally, Jews do not pronounce the divine name and do not insert the vowels. Instead they say Adonai (the Lord) or ha-Shem (the name).
*

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (NRSV)

covenant A solemn agreement. Used especially of agreements between God and Israel.
Baal Canaanite storm-god.
Asherah Canaanite goddess, also worshiped in Israel. Also the name for a sacred pole at cult sites.
high Open-air places of worship.
*

4 He removed the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the sacred pole. He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it; it was called Nehushtan.

2 Kings 18:4 (NRSV)

Deuteronomistic The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
*

28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is now the case.”

Deuteronomy 29:28 (NRSV)

Horeb Mountain of revelation in E and D traditions (instead of Sinai). The name means wilderness.
*

1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 3:1 (NRSV)

*

6 I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Exodus 17:6 (NRSV)

*

6 Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

Exodus 33:6 (NRSV)

source Attempt to distinguish different sources in the biblical text, especially in the Pentateuch.
E Narrative source in the Pentateuch.
*

10 how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, “Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so”;

Deuteronomy 4:10 (NRSV)

*

12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

Deuteronomy 4:12 (NRSV)

*

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Exodus 20:11 (NRSV)

*

1 Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.

2 And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord’s remission has been proclaimed.

3 Of a foreigner you may exact it, but you must remit your claim on whatever any member of your community owes you.

4 There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the Lord is sure to bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession to occupy,

5 if only you will obey the Lord your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.

6 When the Lord your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.

8 You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.

9 Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, “The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,” and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.

10 Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.

11 Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”

Deuteronomy 15:1–11 (NRSV)

*

10 For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield;

11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

Exodus 23:10–11 (NRSV)

*

19 When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.

20 When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow.

22 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 24:19–22 (NRSV)

Akkadian The language of ancient Babylon and Assyria.
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by J. B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1969
*

12 If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and works for you six years, in the seventh year you shall set that person free.

13 And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed.

14 Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the Lord your God has blessed you.

15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today.

16 But if he says to you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,

17 then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.

18 Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons, because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers; and the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do.

Deuteronomy 15:12–18 (NRSV)

*

15 A single witness shall not suffice to convict a person of any crime or wrongdoing in connection with any offense that may be committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be sustained.

Deuteronomy 19:15 (NRSV)

*

22 When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree,

23 his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession.

Deuteronomy 21:22–23 (NRSV)

*

6 If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.

Deuteronomy 22:6 (NRSV)

*

6 You shall never promote their welfare or their prosperity as long as you live.

Deuteronomy 23:6 (NRSV)

*

5 When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty. He shall be free at home one year, to be happy with the wife whom he has married.

Deuteronomy 24:5 (NRSV)

*

10 When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take them captive,

11 suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry,

12 and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails,

13 discard her captive’s garb, and shall remain in your house a full month, mourning for her father and mother; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

14 But if you are not satisfied with her, you shall let her go free and not sell her for money. You must not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

Deuteronomy 21:10–14 (NRSV)

*

11 He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts; then he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

2 Kings 23:11 (NRSV)

*

29 You shall not delay to make offerings from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me.

Exodus 22:29 (NRSV)

Deuteronomic Reform of King Josiah, 621 b.c.e. Centralized the cult in accordance with Deuteronomy 12.
*

15 Yet whenever you desire you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, according to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as they would of gazelle or deer.

Deuteronomy 12:15 (NRSV)

*

2 You shall offer the passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock and the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his name.

Deuteronomy 16:2 (NRSV)

*

21 The king commanded all the people, “Keep the passover to the Lord your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant.”

22 No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, even during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah;

23 but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 23:21–23 (NRSV)

Levites Priests descended from Levi. Subordinated to Zadokite priests in Jerusalem after the exile.
*

6 If a Levite leaves any of your towns, from wherever he has been residing in Israel, and comes to the place that the Lord will choose (and he may come whenever he wishes),

7 then he may minister in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow-Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord.

8 They shall have equal portions to eat, even though they have income from the sale of family possessions.

Deuteronomy 18:6–8 (NRSV)

*

9 The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred.

2 Kings 23:9 (NRSV)

*

15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.

16 This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.”

17 Then the Lord replied to me: “They are right in what they have said.

18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.

19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.

20 But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.”

21 You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?”

22 If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

Deuteronomy 18:15–22 (NRSV)

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15 If a man has two wives, one of them loved and the other disliked, and if both the loved and the disliked have borne him sons, the firstborn being the son of the one who is disliked,

16 then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he is not permitted to treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the firstborn.

17 He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the one who is disliked, giving him a double portion of all that he has; since he is the first issue of his virility, the right of the firstborn is his.

Deuteronomy 21:15–17 (NRSV)

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14 When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,”

15 you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community.

16 Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You must never return that way again.”

17 And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.

18 When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests.

19 It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes,

20 neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:14–20 (NRSV)

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5 A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 22:5 (NRSV)

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10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

11 You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.

Deuteronomy 22:10–11 (NRSV)

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1 Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house

2 and goes off to become another man’s wife.

3 Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies);

4 her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.

Deuteronomy 24:1–4 (NRSV)

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1 Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house

Deuteronomy 24:1 (NRSV)

rabbinic Judaism in the period c. 150–650 c.e.
Mishnah Compilation of rabbinic law from the second century c.e.
Akiba Rabbi, early second century c.e.
Ephraim Tribe named for son of Joseph, in central hill country of Israel. Often used as a name for Israel.
Zion Hill in Jerusalem. City of David.
Samaria Capital of northern Israel.
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29 God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore,

30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31 He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.

32 He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

33 He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish.

34 People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

1 Kings 4:29–34 (NRSV)

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29 God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore,

30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31 He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations.

32 He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.

33 He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish.

34 People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

1 Kings 4:29–34 (NRSV)

MT Masoretic text
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1 These are other proverbs of Solomon that the officials of King Hezekiah of Judah copied.

Proverbs 25:1 (NRSV)

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6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!”

Deuteronomy 4:6 (NRSV)

Torah The first five books of the Bible, also called “the books of Moses.”
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13 Choose for each of your tribes individuals who are wise, discerning, and reputable to be your leaders.”

Deuteronomy 1:13 (NRSV)

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14 You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, set up by former generations, on the property that will be allotted to you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Deuteronomy 19:14 (NRSV)

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17 “Cursed be anyone who moves a neighbor’s boundary marker.” All the people shall say, “Amen!”

Deuteronomy 27:17 (NRSV)

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13 You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, large and small.

14 You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, large and small.

15 You shall have only a full and honest weight; you shall have only a full and honest measure, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

16 For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are abhorrent to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 25:13–16 (NRSV)

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10 When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace.

Deuteronomy 20:10 (NRSV)

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28 If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act,

Deuteronomy 22:28 (NRSV)

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10 If one of you becomes unclean because of a nocturnal emission, then he shall go outside the camp; he must not come within the camp.

Deuteronomy 23:10 (NRSV)

Amenemope Name associated with Egyptian wisdom book that is thought to have influenced Proverbs.
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21 If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not postpone fulfilling it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you would incur guilt.

22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not incur guilt.

23 Whatever your lips utter you must diligently perform, just as you have freely vowed to the Lord your God with your own mouth.

Deuteronomy 23:21–23 (NRSV)

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5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it.

Ecclesiastes 5:5 (NRSV)

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15 Slaves who have escaped to you from their owners shall not be given back to them.

Deuteronomy 23:15 (NRSV)

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10 Do not slander a servant to a master, or the servant will curse you, and you will be held guilty.

Proverbs 30:10 (NRSV)

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11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.

12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”

13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”

14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

Deuteronomy 30:11–14 (NRSV)

Second Temple The period after the Babylonian exile, down to the first century c.e. (539 b.c.e. –70 c.e.).
Hellenistic Adjective referring to the Greek-speaking world after the conquests of Alexander the Great (died 323 b.c.e.).
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34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,

35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

38 This is the greatest and first commandment.

39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:34–40 (NRSV)

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28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?”

29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:28–31 (NRSV)

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25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”

27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

Luke 10:25–28 (NRSV)

D The Deuteronomic source in the Pentateuch.
P Priestly strand in the Pentateuch.
Grundschrift German for “basic document.” Used in the nineteenth century for what was later called the Priestly Writing (P).
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8 Guard against an outbreak of a leprous skin disease by being very careful; you shall carefully observe whatever the levitical priests instruct you, just as I have commanded them.

Deuteronomy 24:8 (NRSV)

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6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.

Exodus 12:6 (NRSV)

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1 The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no allotment or inheritance within Israel. They may eat the sacrifices that are the Lord’s portion

Deuteronomy 18:1 (NRSV)

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6 On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness.

7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised against the person to execute the death penalty, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

8 If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose,

Deuteronomy 17:6–8 (NRSV)

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6 Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, so that they may assist him.

7 They shall perform duties for him and for the whole congregation in front of the tent of meeting, doing service at the tabernacle;

8 they shall be in charge of all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and attend to the duties for the Israelites as they do service at the tabernacle.

9 You shall give the Levites to Aaron and his descendants; they are unreservedly given to him from among the Israelites.

Numbers 3:6–9 (NRSV)

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1 The Lord said to Aaron: You and your sons and your ancestral house with you shall bear responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary, while you and your sons alone shall bear responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood.

2 So bring with you also your brothers of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, in order that they may be joined to you, and serve you while you and your sons with you are in front of the tent of the covenant.

3 They shall perform duties for you and for the whole tent. But they must not approach either the utensils of the sanctuary or the altar, otherwise both they and you will die.

4 They are attached to you in order to perform the duties of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; no outsider shall approach you.

5 You yourselves shall perform the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, so that wrath may never again come upon the Israelites.

6 It is I who now take your brother Levites from among the Israelites; they are now yours as a gift, dedicated to the Lord, to perform the service of the tent of meeting.

7 But you and your sons with you shall diligently perform your priestly duties in all that concerns the altar and the area behind the curtain. I give your priesthood as a gift; any outsider who approaches shall be put to death.

Numbers 18:1–7 (NRSV)

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10 But the Levites who went far from me, going astray from me after their idols when Israel went astray, shall bear their punishment.

11 They shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and serving in the temple; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall attend on them and serve them.

12 Because they ministered to them before their idols and made the house of Israel stumble into iniquity, therefore I have sworn concerning them, says the Lord God, that they shall bear their punishment.

13 They shall not come near to me, to serve me as priest, nor come near any of my sacred offerings, the things that are most sacred; but they shall bear their shame, and the consequences of the abominations that they have committed.

14 Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the temple, to do all its chores, all that is to be done in it.

Ezekiel 44:10–14 (NRSV)

Zadokites Priests descended from Zadok (priest under David and Solomon). High priests in the Second Temple period were Zadokite, down to the Maccabean revolt.
restoration Return of Judean exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem, after the Babylonian exile.
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24 Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts.

Leviticus 23:24 (NRSV)

Yom The Day of Atonement.
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27 Now, the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you: you shall deny yourselves and present the Lord’s offering by fire;

Leviticus 23:27 (NRSV)

J Narrative source in the Pentateuch.
NIB New Interpreter’s Bible
NCB New Century Bible
OTL Old Testament Library
AB Anchor Bible
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Dick, M. B. 1988. Introduction to the Hebrew Bible : An inductive reading of the Old Testament . Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.