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Featuring contributions from internationally-recognized scholars in the study of the Pentateuch, this volume provides a comprehensive survey of key topics and issues in contemporary pentateuchal scholarship. The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch considers recent debates about the formation of the Pentateuch and their implications for biblical scholarship. At the same time, it addresses a number of issues that relate more broadly to the social and intellectual worlds of the Pentateuch. This includes engagements with questions of archaeology and history, the Pentateuch and the Samaritans, the relation between the Pentateuch and other Moses traditions in the Second Temple period, the Pentateuch and social memory, and more. Crucially, the Handbook situates its discussions of current developments in pentateuchal studies in relation to the field's long history, one that in its modern, critical phase is now more than two centuries old. By showcasing both this rich history and the leading edges of the field, this collection provides a clear account of pentateuchal studies and a fresh sense of its vitality and relevance within biblical studies, religious studies, and the broader humanities.
List of contents
- Abbreviations
- List of Contributors
- 1: Joel S. Baden and Jeffrey Stackert: Introduction: Convergences and Divergences in Contemporary Pentateuchal Research
- Part I:Text and Early Reception
- 2: Olivier Artus: The Pentateuch: Five Books, One Canon
- 3: Sidnie White Crawford: The Text of the Pentateuch
- 4: John J. Collins: The Pentateuch in Second Temple Judaism
- 5: Molly M. Zahn: The Relevance of Moses Traditions in the Second Temple Period
- 6: Magnar Kartveit: The Pentateuch and the Samaritans
- 7: Cécile Dogniez: The Greek Translation of the Pentateuch
- Part II: The Formation of the Pentateuch
- 8: Jean-Louis Ska: The Beginnings of a Critical Reading of the Pentateuch
- 9: Rudolf Smend: The Graf-Kuenen-Wellhausen School
- 10: Baruch J. Schwartz: The Documentary Hypothesis
- 11: Thomas B. Dozeman: Form and Tradition Criticism
- 12: Reinhard G. Kratz: Defining and Identifying Secondary Layers
- 13: Reinhard Müller: Positions on Redaction
- 14: Jakob Wöhrle: The Priestly Writing(s): Scope and Nature
- 15: Udo Rüterswörden: The Place of Deuteronomy in the Formation of the Pentateuch
- 16: Jeffrey Stackert: The Relationship of the Legal Codes
- 17: Frank Polak: The Identification of Preexilic Material in the Pentateuch
- 18: Rainer Albertz: The Identification of Postexilic Material in the Pentateuch
- Part III: The Pentateuch in Its Social World
- 19: Angela Roskop Erisman: The Genres of the Pentateuch and Their Social Settings
- 20: David P. Wright: Ancient Near Eastern Literature and the Pentateuch
- 21: Israel Finkelstein: The Pentateuch: Archaeology and History
- 22: Yitzhaq Feder: Pentateuchal and Ancient Near Eastern Ritual
- 23: Mark Brett: The Imperial Context of the Pentateuch
- 24: Reinhard Achenbach: The Pentateuch outside the Pentateuch
- 25: Ehud Ben Zvi: The Pentateuch as/and Social Memory of 'Israel' in the Late Persian Period
- 26: James W. Watts: The Pentateuch as 'Torah'
- Index
About the author
Joel S. Baden is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University.
Jeffrey Stackert is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago.
Summary
Featuring contributions from internationally-recognized scholars in the study of the Pentateuch, this Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of key topics and issues in contemporary pentateuchal scholarship
Report
For those readers who would like scholarly justification for their views concerning the Documentary Hypothesis and the late dating of the Pentateuch, this volume offers much fodder. Gary A. Rendsburg, Rutgers University, Journal of the American Oriental Society 143.3
