Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10108
M. Leuchter
The census narrative in 1 Chr 21 draws from the earlier version of the episode preserved in 2 Sam 24, which followed a mythological pattern we encounter in “crisis episodes” deriving from the monarchic era. The Chronicler introduces changes that not only depart from his source material on the literary level; they also break with the older mythological patterns found in earlier crisis episodes. These departures result from the influence of Persian imperial mythology on the Chronicler’s writing, with implications for the Chronicler’s own mythological agenda within his rendition of the census narrative and the chapters surrounding it.
{"title":"The Census “Crisis Episode” and the Chronicler’s Mythic Agenda in 1 Chronicles 21","authors":"M. Leuchter","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10108","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The census narrative in 1 Chr 21 draws from the earlier version of the episode preserved in 2 Sam 24, which followed a mythological pattern we encounter in “crisis episodes” deriving from the monarchic era. The Chronicler introduces changes that not only depart from his source material on the literary level; they also break with the older mythological patterns found in earlier crisis episodes. These departures result from the influence of Persian imperial mythology on the Chronicler’s writing, with implications for the Chronicler’s own mythological agenda within his rendition of the census narrative and the chapters surrounding it.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79985852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10111
S. E. Holtz
Many previous interpretations of Job 31:5–6; Ps 44:21–22; and Josh 22:23 have mistaken these texts as simple conditionals or as fully-articulated oaths. These earlier readings misconstrue verbs of adjudicatory procedure as punishments serving as self-curses in oaths. Context and semantic content favor identifying truncated oaths of innocence followed by separate adjudicatory challenges to God.
{"title":"The Truncated Oath of Innocence and the Adjudicatory Challenge to God: Three Examples (Job 31:5–6; Ps 44:21–22; Josh 22:23)","authors":"S. E. Holtz","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10111","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Many previous interpretations of Job 31:5–6; Ps 44:21–22; and Josh 22:23 have mistaken these texts as simple conditionals or as fully-articulated oaths. These earlier readings misconstrue verbs of adjudicatory procedure as punishments serving as self-curses in oaths. Context and semantic content favor identifying truncated oaths of innocence followed by separate adjudicatory challenges to God.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84139604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10112
Tyler Smith
The Alpha Text (AT) and Old Greek (OG) versions of Esther include six chapter-length passages—the “Additions”—not paralleled in the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) of Esther. In Addition A, Mordecai sees a dream marked by battle cries, confusion, thunder, earthquake, chaos, a pair of dragons, preparations for war, darkness and gloom, affliction and anguish, and an outcry to God from a frightened nation of righteous people. A small spring emerges from the outcry and turns into a mighty river, which consumes those held in esteem. Addition F offers a limited interpretation of several elements of this dream but leaves much of the dream uninterpreted. This paper offers a fresh perspective on the Addition A dream and its relationship to the plot of both AT- and OG-Esther in light of Artemidorus’s Oneirocritica, a second-century CE handbook of dream interpretation.
{"title":"Artemidorus Interprets the Dream of Mordecai (Additions to Esther A and F)","authors":"Tyler Smith","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10112","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Alpha Text (AT) and Old Greek (OG) versions of Esther include six chapter-length passages—the “Additions”—not paralleled in the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT) of Esther. In Addition A, Mordecai sees a dream marked by battle cries, confusion, thunder, earthquake, chaos, a pair of dragons, preparations for war, darkness and gloom, affliction and anguish, and an outcry to God from a frightened nation of righteous people. A small spring emerges from the outcry and turns into a mighty river, which consumes those held in esteem. Addition F offers a limited interpretation of several elements of this dream but leaves much of the dream uninterpreted. This paper offers a fresh perspective on the Addition A dream and its relationship to the plot of both AT- and OG-Esther in light of Artemidorus’s Oneirocritica, a second-century CE handbook of dream interpretation.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84513252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10109
Julia Rhyder
The temple vision of Ezek 40–48 devotes considerable attention to measuring and describing the various gates and entrances of the temple compound. Previous studies have tended to focus on the defensive function of the gates. However, these structures not only bar entry but also facilitate access to the temple under certain ritualized conditions. Offering a close reading of the references to the gates in Ezek 40–48, in which particular roles and activities are associated with specific entrances, this article shows how these architectural features of the temple map a differential system in which social hierarchies are organized according to the level, direction, and timing of access ascribed to different groups and individuals within the temple compound. The article concludes by exploring the significance of the gates for how we understand the literary genre of the temple vision of Ezek 40–48, and in particular its nature as a social utopia.
{"title":"Gates and Entrances in Ezekiel 40–48: The Social Utopia of the Temple Vision","authors":"Julia Rhyder","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10109","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The temple vision of Ezek 40–48 devotes considerable attention to measuring and describing the various gates and entrances of the temple compound. Previous studies have tended to focus on the defensive function of the gates. However, these structures not only bar entry but also facilitate access to the temple under certain ritualized conditions. Offering a close reading of the references to the gates in Ezek 40–48, in which particular roles and activities are associated with specific entrances, this article shows how these architectural features of the temple map a differential system in which social hierarchies are organized according to the level, direction, and timing of access ascribed to different groups and individuals within the temple compound. The article concludes by exploring the significance of the gates for how we understand the literary genre of the temple vision of Ezek 40–48, and in particular its nature as a social utopia.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74198187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-20DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10105
Ekaterina E. Kozlova
This essay considers Isa 49:16, where the image of Zion appears to be inscribed on YHWH’s hands. Since the formulation על־כפים חקתיך is missing the suffix “my” on כפים in the MT and given the specifics of Zion’s lament in v. 14 (i.e., YHWH, Zion’s parent, abandons her in infancy), it will be suggested that the word כפים could refer not to the palms of YHWH’s hands but to the soles of Zion’s feet (with the unusual form כפים underscoring Zion’s age—i.e., she is a young child still crawling on “its fours”; cf. Lev 11:27). Read as “around the soles [of your, namely Zion’s, feet], I have made an engraving of you,” v. 16 echoes a symbolic ANE gesture: that is, the foot-printing of foundlings for adoption. Thus, Isa 49:16 models YHWH’s reestablishment of Zion as daughter on ANE adoption contracts, which in turn is part of Deutero-Isaiah’s wider theology of restoration after the exile.
{"title":"“I Have Made an Engraving of You …” (Isa 49:16a): An Echo of an ANE Adoption Practice in Deutero-Isaiah","authors":"Ekaterina E. Kozlova","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10105","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This essay considers Isa 49:16, where the image of Zion appears to be inscribed on YHWH’s hands. Since the formulation על־כפים חקתיך is missing the suffix “my” on כפים in the MT and given the specifics of Zion’s lament in v. 14 (i.e., YHWH, Zion’s parent, abandons her in infancy), it will be suggested that the word כפים could refer not to the palms of YHWH’s hands but to the soles of Zion’s feet (with the unusual form כפים underscoring Zion’s age—i.e., she is a young child still crawling on “its fours”; cf. Lev 11:27). Read as “around the soles [of your, namely Zion’s, feet], I have made an engraving of you,” v. 16 echoes a symbolic ANE gesture: that is, the foot-printing of foundlings for adoption. Thus, Isa 49:16 models YHWH’s reestablishment of Zion as daughter on ANE adoption contracts, which in turn is part of Deutero-Isaiah’s wider theology of restoration after the exile.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73501933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-20DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10106
Paul K. Hosle
This essay concerns the vexed question of imitatio Dei in the Holiness Code (Lev 17–26) and, to a minor degree, other Holiness (H) traditions in the Pentateuch. I argue that H possesses a robust theology of imitatio Dei, but that the specific form that this imitation takes requires further clarification. Conceptually, I distinguish between the imitandum (i.e., that which is to be imitated) and the imitatio (i.e., the act of imitating). I argue that the imitandum is holiness understood as a quality proper to the deity that is irreducible to a code of conduct, but that this does not vitiate the applicability of the concept of imitatio Dei. On the level of the imitatio, I emphasize the irreducibly social nature of the imitatio, as well as its theocentric logic of justification. Within a typology of imitational structures, H represents an interesting case where both the imitandum and imitatio are heteronomously determined by the external demand of the deity and where the impulse of private, subjective moral growth plays a negligible role.
{"title":"Understanding Imitatio Dei in the Holiness Source","authors":"Paul K. Hosle","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10106","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This essay concerns the vexed question of imitatio Dei in the Holiness Code (Lev 17–26) and, to a minor degree, other Holiness (H) traditions in the Pentateuch. I argue that H possesses a robust theology of imitatio Dei, but that the specific form that this imitation takes requires further clarification. Conceptually, I distinguish between the imitandum (i.e., that which is to be imitated) and the imitatio (i.e., the act of imitating). I argue that the imitandum is holiness understood as a quality proper to the deity that is irreducible to a code of conduct, but that this does not vitiate the applicability of the concept of imitatio Dei. On the level of the imitatio, I emphasize the irreducibly social nature of the imitatio, as well as its theocentric logic of justification. Within a typology of imitational structures, H represents an interesting case where both the imitandum and imitatio are heteronomously determined by the external demand of the deity and where the impulse of private, subjective moral growth plays a negligible role.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75345944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-20DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10099
Zachary Schoening
The traditional reading of Isa 46:1–4 understands the Babylonian gods as falling or toppling. Interpretation of the nature of their actions depends upon how one reads the verbiage applied to the deities, which hinges upon the translation of a series of either difficult or semantically diverse Hebrew terms. This essay analyzes these terms in light of comparative Semitic evidence. It also considers the passage in light of broader ancient Near Eastern ideological and mythological patterns. Finally, it explores some prominent motifs in the traditions of the Akītu festival, which constitutes the immediate frame of reference for the oracle’s imagery and against which Deutero-Isaiah was framing his rhetoric. Birth imagery, this essay contends, constitutes the primary rhetorical vehicle by which the prophet ridicules the Babylonian gods, portraying them as crouching in labor, and depicting them as inferior to Yahweh.
{"title":"“Bel Crouches; Nebo Travails”: Reading Birth Imagery in Isaiah 46:1–4","authors":"Zachary Schoening","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10099","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The traditional reading of Isa 46:1–4 understands the Babylonian gods as falling or toppling. Interpretation of the nature of their actions depends upon how one reads the verbiage applied to the deities, which hinges upon the translation of a series of either difficult or semantically diverse Hebrew terms. This essay analyzes these terms in light of comparative Semitic evidence. It also considers the passage in light of broader ancient Near Eastern ideological and mythological patterns. Finally, it explores some prominent motifs in the traditions of the Akītu festival, which constitutes the immediate frame of reference for the oracle’s imagery and against which Deutero-Isaiah was framing his rhetoric. Birth imagery, this essay contends, constitutes the primary rhetorical vehicle by which the prophet ridicules the Babylonian gods, portraying them as crouching in labor, and depicting them as inferior to Yahweh.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75839436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-20DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10107
Eric X. Jarrard
This article expands the well-established relationship between Ezek 20 and the Holiness Code (H), developed by, among others, Michael Lyons. I argue that Ezekiel articulates the relationship between the exodus event and the legal material using an extensive intertextual allusion to H. These connections enable us to appreciate more thoroughly Ezekiel’s historiographical project, as well as exposing possible Deuteronomic redaction of the chapter that assumes and utilizes the established time patterning of the surrounding verses. The article concludes with a reflection on the mnemonic activity in Ezek 20 regarding how the chapter uses (proto-) Lev 18–20 to advocate for the preeminence of legal material and especially H in patterning time and conceptions of the exodus for future generations.
{"title":"A Legal Allusion: The Correlation of Law and History in Ezekiel 20","authors":"Eric X. Jarrard","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10107","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article expands the well-established relationship between Ezek 20 and the Holiness Code (H), developed by, among others, Michael Lyons. I argue that Ezekiel articulates the relationship between the exodus event and the legal material using an extensive intertextual allusion to H. These connections enable us to appreciate more thoroughly Ezekiel’s historiographical project, as well as exposing possible Deuteronomic redaction of the chapter that assumes and utilizes the established time patterning of the surrounding verses. The article concludes with a reflection on the mnemonic activity in Ezek 20 regarding how the chapter uses (proto-) Lev 18–20 to advocate for the preeminence of legal material and especially H in patterning time and conceptions of the exodus for future generations.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79169403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-20DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10104
Andrew Tobolowsky
This article weighs in on new debates about the affiliation of the tribe of Benjamin between Israel and Judah in the early monarchy. It points to two underappreciated aspects of the Hebrew Bible’s account of tribal realities in the books of Kings: the anonymity of the ten tribes attributed to Israel in 1 Kgs 11–12, and how unusual the absence of a complete and detailed account of tribal arrangements in Kings is in the context of a Primary History as a whole. It argues that both of these realities reflect a deliberate effort to obscure Benjamin’s northern origins and that, in fact, it is impossible to come up with a plausible list of ten Israelite tribes without Benjamin.
{"title":"Benjamin and the Anonymous Ten Tribes of Israel: A Holistic Approach to Tribal Confusions","authors":"Andrew Tobolowsky","doi":"10.1163/15685330-bja10104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-bja10104","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article weighs in on new debates about the affiliation of the tribe of Benjamin between Israel and Judah in the early monarchy. It points to two underappreciated aspects of the Hebrew Bible’s account of tribal realities in the books of Kings: the anonymity of the ten tribes attributed to Israel in 1 Kgs 11–12, and how unusual the absence of a complete and detailed account of tribal arrangements in Kings is in the context of a Primary History as a whole. It argues that both of these realities reflect a deliberate effort to obscure Benjamin’s northern origins and that, in fact, it is impossible to come up with a plausible list of ten Israelite tribes without Benjamin.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80053940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-20DOI: 10.1163/15685330-00001150
Simeon Chavel
The argument draws upon literary theory to revisit the two clauses that, traditionally, make up Song 1:1. (1) The title evaluates the work as the song-most of songs. I argue that the evaluation refers to the work’s manifold form of simulation—a literary work representing the speech of a dreamer, who speaks from both inside and outside the dream. (2) The scoring in MT, the rubric in LXX (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus), ancient interpreters and modern all take the first words of the Song of Songs to be a heading, comprising title (שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים) and attribution (אֲשֶׁר לִשְׁלֹמֹה). I argue that the clause marked and understood as an attribution may be the beginning of the character’s speech.
{"title":"Song of Songs 1:1—Text and Paratext","authors":"Simeon Chavel","doi":"10.1163/15685330-00001150","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15685330-00001150","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The argument draws upon literary theory to revisit the two clauses that, traditionally, make up Song 1:1. (1) The title evaluates the work as the song-most of songs. I argue that the evaluation refers to the work’s manifold form of simulation—a literary work representing the speech of a dreamer, who speaks from both inside and outside the dream. (2) The scoring in MT, the rubric in LXX (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus), ancient interpreters and modern all take the first words of the Song of Songs to be a heading, comprising title (שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים) and attribution (אֲשֶׁר לִשְׁלֹמֹה). I argue that the clause marked and understood as an attribution may be the beginning of the character’s speech.","PeriodicalId":46329,"journal":{"name":"VETUS TESTAMENTUM","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87524220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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