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The Torah, or Pentateuch (Five
Scrolls), traditionally the most revered portion of the Hebrew canon,
comprises a series of narratives, interspersed with law codes, providing
an account of events from the beginning of the world to the death of
Moses. Modern critical scholarship tends to hold that there were
originally four books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers) resulting
from the division into manageable scrolls--a so-called Tetrateuch--to
which later was added a fifth scroll, or book, Deuteronomy. A theory, once
widely held, that the Book of Joshua was originally integral with the
first five books to form a Hexateuch (Six Scrolls) is now generally
regarded as dubious.
The traditional Jewish and
Christian view has been that Moses was the author of the five books, that
"of Moses" means "by Moses," citing in support
passages in the Pentateuch itself that claim Mosaic authorship. Since
these claims, however, are written in the third person, the question still
arises as to the authorship of the passages; e.g.,
in Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 9: "And Moses wrote this law,
and gave it to the priests . . . and to all the elders of Israel."
The last eight verses of Deuteronomy (and of the Pentateuch), describing
Moses' death, were a problem even to the rabbis of the 2nd century CE, who
held that "this law" in the verse quoted refers to the whole
Torah preceding it. There are also other passages that seem to be written
from the viewpoint of a much later period than the events they narrate.
Beyond these obvious
discrepancies, modern literary analysis and criticism of the texts has
pointed up significant differences in style, vocabulary, and content,
apparently indicating a variety of original sources for the first four
books, as well as an independent origin for Deuteronomy. According to this
view, the Tetrateuch is a redaction primarily of three documents: the
Yahwist, or J (after the German spelling of Yahweh); the Elohist, or E;
and the Priestly code, or P. They refer,
respectively, to passages in which the Hebrew personal name for God, YHWH
(commonly transcribed "Yahweh"), is predominantly used, those in
which the Hebrew generic term for God, Elohim, is predominantly used, and
those (also Elohist) in which the priestly style or interest is
predominant. According to this hypothesis, these documents--along with Deuteronomy
(labelled D)--constituted the original sources
of the Pentateuch. On the basis of internal evidence, it has been inferred
that J and E are the oldest sources
(perhaps going as far back as the 10th century BCE), probably in that
order, and D and P the more recent ones (to about the 5th century BCE).
Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers are considered compilations of J, E, and P,
with Leviticus assigned to P and Deuteronomy to D.
The Yahwist, or J, is the master
of narrative in biblical literature, who sketches people by means of
stories. He takes his materials wherever he finds them, and if some are
crude he does not care, as long as they make a good story. The book of
Genesis, for example, contains the story of Abraham's passing off his wife
as his sister, so if the king took her as a concubine he would honour her
supposed brother instead of having her husband killed, a story told by J
without any moralistic homily. Not given to subtle theological
speculations, J nearly always refers to the Deity as YHWH, by his
specifically Israelite personal name (usually rendered "the
Lord" in English translations), though he is not hidebound and also
employs the term Elohim ("God"), especially when non-Hebrews are
speaking or being addressed. He presents God as one who acts and speaks
like human persons, a being with whom they have direct intercourse. The
Yahwist, however, has one very definite theological (or theo-political)
preoccupation: to establish Israel's divinely bestowed right to the land
of Canaan.
More reflective and theological in
the apologetic sense is the Elohist, or E. No fragment of E on the
primeval history (presented in the first 11 chapters of Genesis) has been
preserved, and it is probable that none ever existed but that the Elohist
began his account with the patriarchs (presented in the remainder of
Genesis, in which the J and E strands are combined). The first passage
that can be assigned to E with reasonable certainty is chapter 20 of
Genesis, which parallels the two J variants of the "She is my
sister" story noted above. Unlike these, it tries to mitigate the
offensiveness of the subterfuge: though the patriarch did endanger the
honour of his wife to save his life, his statement was not untrue but
merely (deliberately) misleading. The Elohist is also distinct from the
Yahwist in generally avoiding the presentation of God as being like a
human person and treating him instead as a more remote, less directly
accessible being. Significantly, E avoids using the term YHWH throughout
Genesis (with one apparent exception), and it is only after telling how
God revealed his proper name to Moses, in chapter 3 of Exodus, that he
refers to God as YHWH regularly, though not exclusively. This account
(paralleled in the P strand in chapter 6 of Exodus) is apparently based on
a historical recollection of Moses' paramount role in establishing the
religion of YHWH among the Israelites (the former Hebrew slaves). Also
noteworthy is E's choice of the term prophet for Abraham and his
characterization of a prophet as one who is an effective intercessor with
God on behalf of others. This is in line with his speculations on the
unique character of Moses as the great intercessor as compared with other
prophets (and also with Joshua as Moses' attendant).
It is inferred from certain
internal evidence that E was produced in the northern kingdom (Israel) in
the 8th century BCE and was later combined with J. Because it is not
always possible or important to separate J from E, the two together are
commonly referred to as JE.
The third major document of the
Tetrateuch, the Priestly code, or P, is very different from the other two.
Its narrative is frequently interrupted by detailed ritual instructions,
by bodies of standing laws of a ritual character, and by dry and
exhaustive genealogical lists of the generations. According to one theory,
the main author of P seems to have worked in the 7th century and to have
been the editor who combined the J and E narratives; for his own part, he
is content to add some brief, drab records--with frequent dates--of
births, marriages, and migrations. The P material is to be found not
merely in Leviticus but throughout the Tetrateuch, including the early
chapters of Genesis and one of the creation accounts and ranging from the
primeval history (Adam to Noah) to the Mosaic era. Like the Elohist, P
uses the term Elohim for God until the self-naming of God to Moses
(Exodus, chapter 3, in the P strand) and shows a non-anthropomorphic
transcendent stress.
The Deuteronomist, or D, has a
distinctive hortatory style and vocabulary, calling for Israel's
conformity with YHWH's covenant laws and
stressing his election of Israel as his special people (for a detailed
consideration of D, see below Deuteronomy:
Introductory discourse ). To the Deuteronomist or the
Deuteronomic school is also attributed the authorship of the Former
Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings), which scholars call the
"Deuteronomic history."
This documentary theory of the
composition of the Pentateuch has been challenged by eminent 20th-century
scholars who have offered alternative or additional methods of analysis
and interpretation. Form criticism, for example, has stressed particular
literary forms and the historical setting out of which they arose: the
sagas, laws, legends, and other forms and the particular tribal or cultic
context that gives them meaning. Tradition criticism centres on the
pre-literary sources; i.e., on the oral traditions and the circles out of which they
originated as accounting for the variety of the materials in the
Pentateuch. Archaeological criticism has tended to substantiate the
reliability of the typical historical details of even the oldest periods
and to discount the theory that the Pentateuchal accounts are merely the
reflection of a much later period. The new methods of criticism have
served to direct attention to the life, experience, and religion out of
which the Pentateuchal writings arose and to take a less static and
literal view of the constituent documentary sources; yet most scholars
still accept the documentary theory, in its basic lines, as the most
adequate and comprehensive ordering of the variegated Pentateuchal
materials. The following presentation rests mainly on an analysis and
interpretation of the literary sources. (See below The
critical study of biblical literature: exegesis and hermeneutics .)
In any case, the five books that
have come down in various texts and versions have been seen as a unit in
the religious communities that preserved them. Their basic content may be
divided thus: (1) beginnings of the world and man--the primeval history;
(2) patriarchal narratives--from Abraham to Joseph; (3) Egyptian slavery
and the Exodus; (4) the revelation and Covenant at Sinai; (5) wanderings
and guidance in the wilderness (divisible into two separate sub-blocks,
before and after Sinai); (6) various legal materials--the Decalogue,
Covenant Code, and passages of cultic and Deuteronomic laws--interspersed
in the narrative, which take up the greater portion of the Pentateuch.
This book is called Bereshit in the Hebrew original, after its first word (and the first
word of the Bible), meaning "In the beginning." It tells of the
beginnings of the world and man and of those acclaimed as ancestors of the
Hebrew people--all under the shaping action and purpose of God. The book
falls into two main parts: chapters 1-11, dealing with the primeval
history, and chapters 12-50, dealing with the patriarchal narratives; the
latter section is again divisible into the story of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob (chapters 12-36) and the story of Joseph (chapters 37-50), which may
be treated as a unit of its own.
The Bible begins with the creation
of the universe. It tells the story with images borrowed from Babylonian
mythology, transformed to express its own distinctive view of God and man.
Out of primary chaos, darkness, void, depths, and waters God creates the
heaven and the earth and all that dwell therein--a coherent order of
things--by his will and word alone. He says, "Let there be . .
." and there is. Actually, there are two creation accounts: the first
(1-2:4), ascribed to P, simply gives a terse day-by-day account including
the culminating creation of man, in the divine "image and
likeness," followed by the primordial sabbath on the seventh day. The
other (2:4-25), ascribed to J, starts with an arid wasteland and the
creation of man (Adam), described specifically as being formed by God out
of dust and made into a living thing by God blowing the breath of life
into him. He and the woman (Eve) created for him out of his rib are put
into a paradisal garden (Eden), especially
created for them to till and to tend and to sustain life. The two are
forbidden only to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on
pain of death (there is also a tree of life in the middle of the garden).
The cosmic setting and concern of the P account is thus followed by the
human setting and concern of the J account. Creation is followed by
temptation, disobedience, and fall and all that follows from that for the
history of mankind. At the instigation of the serpent, the shrewdest of
the beasts, who holds out the possibility of attaining godlike knowledge,
the woman eats of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and gives some to her
husband to eat also. Their distinction from beasts and children manifests
itself immediately by a sense of modesty about exposing their bodies, and
loincloths become the first products of the higher knowledge. The primal
human couple are punished by God for their disobedience by being driven
out of the idyllic garden into the world of pain, toil, and death. (see
also Index: creation
myth, Adam and Eve)
The reason given by YHWH to the
divine beings is: "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing
good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the
tree of life, and eat, and live for ever." These words apparently
point back to the polytheistic mythology (the existence of divine, magical
powers; the gods' jealousy of mankind; the tree of eternal life; etc.)
from which the Yahwist drew his images and symbols explaining man's
suffering, frustration, and limitation. In the biblical framework and
rendering (and subsequent interpretation), the archaic stories and images
acquire a different meaning, suitable to the idea of a transcendent deity
and an imperfect mankind.
With the exile from the garden,
human history and culture begins. In the story of Adam's sons, Cain
and Abel, man has already become a herdsman
and farmer, and also a murderer: again probably a reflection of older
mythical material and, again, one that puts an emphasis on human sin and
estrangement from God. In the story of the Flood that follows there are
evident borrowings from the Mesopotamian stories of a flood sent by the
gods to destroy mankind, but in the biblical account it is emphasized that
man's extreme wickedness is the cause and that Noah is saved along with
his family by God's deliberate choice because he is a righteous man. (In
the flood story in the Babylonian Gilgamesh
epic, by contrast, there is no apparent moral reason why the gods resolved
to destroy mankind, and the only reason why the hero of the Flood and his
kin are saved is that he is favoured by one of the gods, who tricks the
others, including the chief god.) After the Flood, God blesses Noah
and bestows on man the earth and the things on it for sustenance and makes
a covenant with Noah and all creatures that he will never again unleash a
world-destroying flood. The permanent order of the world is assured, and
God's blessing and covenant make their first explicit appearance in the
Bible. (see also Index: flood
myth)
In the story of the Tower
of Babel, the final story in the primeval history, a primal unity
of mankind in which there is only one language is shattered when, in their
pride, men decide to build a city and a tower that will reach up to the
heavens. YHWH again takes steps to check dangerous collaboration: He says
(to the celestial council), "Come, let us go down, and there confuse
their language, that they may not understand one another's speech,"
and scatters them over the earth. Again, the Yahwist has apparently used
ancient mythological motifs to explain the diversity of mankind; the story
may be regarded as simply a direct borrowing from the older traditions,
without any monotheistic adaptation; in its textual setting, however, it
may also be taken as another instance of the ruin of primal harmony by
human willfulness and pride.
The universal primal history of
man in the first 11 chapters of Genesis is followed by an account of the
fathers of the Hebrew people; i.e., of
the origins of a particular group. From a literary point of view, this
portion may be divided into the sagas of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the
story of Joseph. Although these narratives are not historical in the
ordinary sense, they have an evident historical setting and refer to
various particulars that fit in with what is generally known of the time
and area. They apparently rest on the traditions of particular families,
clans, or tribes and were probably passed down orally before they took
written form. Theologically, they are an account of a divine promise and
Covenant and of man's faith and unfaith in response, with Abraham as the
model man of faith.
The Elohist, as well as J and P,
tells the remarkable story of how God singled out Abraham
(Abram) to migrate from Mesopotamia and sojourn in Canaan, promised him
that he would make him the ancestor of great nations and that his
posterity would inherit the land of his sojournings, and singled out as
the heirs to the latter promise first Isaac,
Abraham's son by his chief wife, Sarah, and then Jacob,
the younger of Isaac's two sons; how Jacob acquired the additional name of
Israel and how the wives, children, and children's children who, in
Jacob-Israel's own lifetime, came to constitute a family of 70 souls,
became the nucleus of the Israelite people; and how it came about that
this ethnic group, prior to becoming, as promised, the masters of the land
of their sojournings, first vacated it to sojourn for a time in Egypt.
Apart from the low-keyed P strand, it is mostly splendid narrative,
including the Elohist's account of the (aborted) sacrifice of Isaac by his
father in response to God's command, a terse story packed with meaning,
and the Joseph story about the son of Jacob who is sold into slavery by
his brothers, rises to a high post in the Egyptian court, and ultimately
helps his family to settle in Egypt. The 12 sons of Jacob-Israel are
eponymous ancestors of Israelite tribes (ancestors after whom the tribes
are named); the actions and fortunes of the eponymous ancestors, including
certain blessings and other pronouncements of Jacob-Israel, account for
the future positions and fortunes of the particular tribes. Though there
is less history and more legend, much of the atmosphere of an older age is
preserved, with the patriarchs represented as seminomadic, essentially
peaceful and pastoral tent dwellers--alien residents--among the settled
Canaanites and as observing customs otherwise only attested in
Mesopotamia. Anachronistic features, however, insinuate themselves from
time to time.
The God of the patriarchs is
presented as Yahweh--explicitly by the Yahwist and implicitly by E and P--i.e.,
as the same God who would later speak to Moses. God apparently was
originally the personal, tutelary deity of each of the patriarchs, called
by a variety of names and later unified into the one God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. There are various cult legends in this portion of
Genesis, etiological accounts of the origins of various cult sites and
practices; though probably of Canaanite origin, these all indicate the
places and customs held holy by the Israelites and perhaps also by their
claimed Hebrew ancestors. There are direct appearances of God to some of
the main figures in the narratives, intimate personal communication
between men and God. God's particular blessing upon and Covenant with
Abraham is the paradigmatic high point, to be referred back to continually
in later biblical and post-biblical traditions.
The title (in the Greek, Latin,
and English versions) means "a going out," referring to the
seminal event of the liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage through
the wondrous acts and power of God. The book celebrates and memorializes
this great saving event in song and story and also the awesome revelation
and covenant at Mt. Sinai. The contents of the book may be summarized
thus: (1) Israel in Egypt, (2) the Exodus and wanderings, (3) the Covenant
at Sinai, (4) the apostasy of the people and renewal of the Covenant, and
(5) the instructions on building the Tabernacle and their execution. (see
also Index: Egypt,
ancient)
Significant in the early chapters
is God's special concern for the Hebrew slaves, his reference to them as
"my people," and his revelation to Moses, the rebel courtier
whom he has picked to be their leader, that he is YHWH, the God of their
fathers, an abiding presence that will rescue them from their misery and
bring them into Canaan, the land of promise. This assurance is repeated at
the critical moments that follow (e.g.,
"And I will take you for my people, and I will be your
God"). In the series of frustrations, obstacles, and redeeming events
that are narrated, God's special causal power and presence are represented
as being at work. God hardens the Pharaoh's heart, sends plagues that
afflict the Egyptians but spare the Hebrews, causes the waters to recede
in the Sea of Reeds (or Papyrus Marsh) to permit passage to the fleeing
Israelites and then to engulf the pursuing Egyptians ("the horse and
his rider he has thrown into the sea"), and gives the people guidance
in their wandering in the wilderness. The cryptic "name" that
God gives to himself in his revelation to Moses (`ehye
`asher `ehye), often translated "I am that I am" or "I
will be what I will be," may also be rendered "I will cause to
be that which I will cause to be." In either case, it is a play on,
and an implied interpretation of, the name YHWH.
The constancy of God's directive
power and concern is displayed notably in the period (40 years) of
wilderness wandering (on the eastern and southern borders of Canaan), when
Israel is tested and tempered not only by hardship but also by rebellious
despair that looks back longingly to Egyptian bondage (see also below Numbers). God sends the people bread from heaven (manna) and quail
for their sustenance (J and P strands) and, through Moses, brings forth
hidden sources of water (JE strand). When the Amalekites (a nomadic desert
tribe) attack, Moses, stationed on a nearby hill, controls the tide of
battle by holding high the rod of God (a symbol of divine power), and when
the enemy is routed he builds an altar called "The Lord is my
banner" (E strand). Also inserted here is the account (E) of the
visit of Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, a priest of another people
(Midianite) who, impressed by YHWH's marvellous deliverance of Israel,
blesses, extols, and sacrifices to him--under the name Elohim, but in the
context the same God is clearly meant.
God's power and presence manifest
themselves impressively in the culminating account of the Covenant at Mt.
Sinai (or Horeb). The people, forewarned by God through Moses, agree
beforehand to carry out the terms of the Covenant that is to be revealed,
because God has liberated them from Egypt and promises to make them his
special holy people; they purify themselves for the ensuing Covenant
ceremony, according to God's instructions. Yahweh appears in fire and
smoke, attended by the blare of a ram's horn at the top of the mountain,
where he reveals to Moses the terms of the Covenant, which Moses then
passes on to the people below. Here follow in the text the Ten
Commandments and the so-called Covenant
Code (or Book of the Covenant) of lesser, specific ordinances,
moral precepts, and cultic regulations, accompanied by a promise to help
the people conquer their enemies if they will serve no other gods. After
this comes the Covenant ceremony with burnt offerings and the sacrifice of
oxen, with the blood of the animals thrown both on the altar and on the
people to sacramentally seal the Covenant, followed by a sacral meal of
Moses and the elders at the mountaintop, during which they see God. Many
modern scholars hold that this is presented as the initial form of a
Covenant renewal ceremony that was repeated either annually or every seven
years in ancient Israel. (see also Index:
Sinai covenant)
There are certain problems and
apparent discrepancies in this account that are explained by critical
scholarship as deriving from the combination of different sources, mainly
J and E, traditions, or emphases. In the opening portion (chapter 19) the
people are gathered at the foot of the mountain so as to hear and meet
God, and Moses himself brings down to them God's words. In a later portion
(24:12-18, also 32:15-20), after the sacral meal, Moses goes up on the
mountain to receive "the tables of stone, with the law and
commandments," inscribed by God himself, and returns with two stone
tablets written on both sides by the hand of God--which he breaks in anger
at the people's worship of the molten calf that has developed in his
absence. Later (chapter 34), at God's command, Moses cuts two new stone
tablets, upon which after hearing God's various promises and exhortations,
he writes "the words of the covenant, the ten commandments";
finally, he brings the new tablets down to the people and tells them what
YHWH has commanded. There seem to be two parallel accounts of the same
event, woven together by the skillful redactor into a continuing story.
There also seem to be two distinct strands in the account of the sealing
of the Covenant in the first 11 verses of chapter 24. According to one,
the elders are to worship from afar, and only Moses is to come near YHWH;
in the other strand, as noted, the elders eat the sacred meal on the
mountaintop in the direct presence of God.
The book of Exodus includes not
only the narrative and celebration of God's redemptive action in the
Exodus and wanderings and his revealing presence at Mt. Sinai but also a
corpus of legislation, both civil and religious, that is ascribed to God
and this revelation event. The Covenant Code, or Book of the Covenant,
presented in chapters 20-23, immediately following the Decalogue (Ten
Commandments), opens with a short passage on ritual ordinances, followed
by social and civil law applying to specific situations (case law),
including the treatment of slaves, capital crimes, compensation for
personal injuries and property damage, moneylending and interest, precepts
on the administration of justice, and further ritual ordinances. Scholars
generally date this code in the later agricultural period of the
settlement in Canaan, but some hold that it is analogous to more ancient
Near Eastern law codes and may go back to Moses or to his time. In any
case, it seems to be a compilation from various sources, inserted into and
breaking the flow of the narrative.
Also interspersed in the story
(chapters 25-31) are God's detailed instructions to Moses for building and
furnishing the Tabernacle, the clothing and
ordination of priests, and other liturgical matters. According to this
segment (evidently P in inspiration), an elaborate structure is to be set
up in the desert, in the centre of the camp, taken apart, transported, and
assembled again, like the simple "Tent of Meeting" outside the
camp, where Moses received oracular revelations from God. Indeed, the two
concepts seem to have fused and the Tabernacle is also called the Tent of
Meeting. Its prime function is to serve as a sanctuary in which sacrifices
and incense are offered on altars and bread presented on a table; it is
also equipped with various other vessels and furnishings, including a
wooden ark, or cabinet, to contain the two tablets of the Covenant--the
famous ark of the Covenant. It is,
moreover, to be the place of God's occasional dwelling and meeting with
the people. Scholars believe that the elaborate details and materials
described stem from a later, Canaanite, period but that the essential
concept of a tent of meeting goes back to an earlier desert time. An
account of the execution of the instructions for the building of the
Tabernacle is presented in chapters 35-40 (following the apostasy, tablet
breaking, and Covenant-renewal episodes), which duplicates to the letter
the instructions in chapters 25-31. After the Tabernacle is completed and
consecrated, it is occupied by the "glory," or presence, of
YHWH, symbolized by a cloud resting upon it. It is on this note that the
book of Exodus ends.
The cultic and priestly laws
presented in Exodus are expanded to take up virtually the whole of
Leviticus, the Latin Vulgate title for the third of the Five Books of
Moses, which may be translated the Book (or Manual) of Priests. With one
exception (chapters 8-10), the narrative portions are brief connective or
introductory devices to give an ostensibly narrative framework for the
detailed lists of precepts that provide the book's content. The source of
Leviticus, both for the legal and narrative passages, is definitely
identified as P; it is the only book in the so-called Tetrateuch to which
a single source is attributed. Apparently the book consists of materials
from various periods, some of them going back to the time of Moses, which
were put together at a later date, possibly during or after the Babylonian
Exile. Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the ancient origin of much of
the material, as opposed to the previous tendency to ascribe a late, even
post-exilic date. Despite its content and its dry, repetitive style, many
interpreters caution against taking Leviticus as merely a dull, spiritless
manual of priestly ritual, holding that it is strictly inseparable from
the ethical emphasis and spiritual fervour of the religion of ancient
Israel. It is in Leviticus that the so-called law of love, "You shall
love your neighbour as yourself," first appears. The rituals set
forth drily here probably presuppose an inward state in offering to God,
as well as humanitarian and compassionate ethics.
The book may be divided thus:
chapters 1-7, offerings and sacrifices; chapters 8-10, inauguration of
priestly worship; chapters 11-16, purification laws; chapters 17-26,
holiness code; chapter 27, commutation of vows and tithes.
The first verse attributes these
regulations to YHWH, who speaks to Moses from the Tent of Meeting,
beginning with the rules for offerings by the individual layman. These
include burnt, cereal, peace, sin, and guilt offerings, all described in
precise details. The prescription for priestly offerings is about the
same, with some slight differences in the order of actions, and is
presented much more briefly. In chapters 8-10 the narrative that was
interrupted at the end of Exodus is resumed, and the ordination of Aaron
and his sons by Moses, before the people assembled at the door of the Tent
of Meeting is described, as are various animal sacrifices
by Aaron and his sons under Moses' direction and the subsequent appearance
of God's "glory" to the people. Aaron's two older sons are
burned to death by fire issuing forth from God because they have offered
"unholy fire." This story apparently emphasizes the importance
of adherence to the precise cultic details, as does also the account (at
the end of the chapter) of Moses' anger at Aaron's two remaining sons for
not eating the sin offering. These stories were apparently used by the
priestly authors to buttress the authority of the Aaronic priesthood.
With chapter 11 begin the
regulations on ritual cleanness and uncleanness, starting with animals and
other living things fit and unfit to eat--the basis of the famous Jewish dietary
laws. Then come the uncleanness and required purification of women
after childbirth, skin diseases, healed lepers, infected houses, and
genital discharges. Chapter 16, which belongs in the narrative flow
immediately after chapter 10, describes the priestly actions on the Day of
Atonement, the culmination of ritual cleansing in Israel. It is a chapter
rich in details on Israelite ritual and bound up with the salient
religious theme of atonement. (see also Index:
purification rite)
Next (chapters 17-26) comes what
has been designated the "Holiness Code," or "Law of
Holiness," which scholars regard as a separate, distinctive unit
within the P material (designated H). It calls upon the people to be holy
as God is holy by carrying out his laws, both ritual and moral, and by
avoiding the polluting practices of neighbouring peoples; and it proceeds
to lay down laws, interspersed with exhortations, to attain this special
holiness. Although many scholars tend to date its compilation in the
exilic period, some see evidence that it was compiled in pre-exilic times;
in any case, the consensus is that the laws themselves come from a much
earlier time.
These--a most miscellaneous
collection--begin with injunctions on the proper (kosher) slaughtering of
animals for meat; go on to a list of precepts against outlawed sexual
relations (incest, homosexuality) and an injunction against defiling the
(holy) land; proceed to a list of ethical injunctions, including the law
of love and kindness to resident aliens, all interspersed with agronomic
instructions and warnings against witchcraft; and then, after an
injunction against sacrificing children, return to the listing of illicit
sexual relations and the warning that the land will spew the people out if
they do not obey the divine norms and laws. There follow special
requirements for preserving the special holiness of priests and assuring
that only unblemished animals will be used in sacrifices; instructions on
the observance of the holy days--the sabbath, feasts, and festivals;
commands on the proper making of oil for the holy lamp in the Tent of
Meeting and of the sacred shewbread, to which are appended the penalties
for blasphemy and other crimes; and finally, rules for observance of the
sabbatical (seventh) and jubilee (50th) years, in which the land is to lie
fallow, followed by rules on the redemption of land and the treatment of
poor debtors and Hebrew slaves.
This miscellany, presented in
chapters 17-25, is followed by a final exhortation, in chapter 26,
promising the people that if they follow these laws and precepts all will
go well with them but warning that if they fail to do so all kinds of evil
will befall them, including exile and the desolation of the Promised Land.
Yet, if they confess their iniquity and atone for it, God will not destroy
them utterly but will remember his Covenant with their forebears. Such a
passage points to a later time but not necessarily to the exilic period,
as some commentators have assumed. The chapter concludes: "These are
the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord made between him and
the people of Israel on Mt. Sinai by Moses," connecting these
precepts with the primal revelation in Exodus.
In the final chapter of Leviticus
(27), the P material is resumed with a presentation of the rules for the
commutation of votive gifts and tithes. It provides for the release from
vows (of offerings of persons, animals, or lands to God) through specified
money payments. Some commentators understand the vow to offer persons to
refer originally to human sacrifice, others as pledging their liturgical
employment in the sanctuary. Special provisions are made for the poor to
relieve them from the stipulated payments. Only grain and fruit tithes,
not animal tithes, are redeemable. This chapter and the book of Leviticus
end, like chapter 26, with the verse, "These are the commandments
which the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount
Sinai."
In the Hebrew Bible this book is
entitled Bemidbar (In the Wilderness) after one of its opening words,
while in English versions it is called Numbers, a translation of the Greek
Septuagint title Arithmoi. Each of the titles gives an indication of the
content of the book: (1) the narrative of "40 Years" of
wanderings in the wilderness, or desert, between Sinai and Canaan; and (2)
the census of the people and other numerical and statistical matters,
preceding and interspersing that account. It is a composite of various
sources (J, E, and predominantly P) and traditions, which as a whole
continue the story of God's special care and testing of his people in the
events of the archaic period that formed them. Numbers continues the
account of what many modern scholars call the "salvation
history" of Israel, which apprehends and narrates events (or the
image and impact of events) as involving divine action and direction.
conclusion of the Sinai sojourn
(1:1-10:10), covering 20 days; (2) the wanderings in the desert of Paran
(10:11-20:13), covering 38-40 years; and (3) the events in Edom and Moab
(20:14-36:13), covering five months.
The book opens with a command from
God to Moses, early in the second year after the Exodus, to take a census
of the arms-bearing men over 20 in each of the clans of Israel. Moses and
Aaron, aided by the clan chiefs, take the count, clan by clan, and reach a
total of 603,550 men--according to critical scholars, an unbelievably
large total for the time and conditions. The Levites,
to whom is entrusted the care of the Tabernacle and its equipment, are
exempted from this secular census and are counted in a later census, of
males one month and over, along with a census of firstborn males from
other tribes. The Lord had required that the latter be consecrated to him
when he slew all the firstborn of the Egyptians but spared those of the
Israelites; now the bulk of them were released by the Levites being taken
in their stead to minister to the priests, while for the excess of
firstborn over Levites "redemption" payments were collected. A
further census of men 30-50 years old is taken among the Levite clans, so
as to assign them their various duties, which are here stipulated. Also
specified are the positions of the tribes (separated into four divisions
of three tribes each) in the camp and on the march, with an assignment of
specific portions of the Tabernacle and its equipment to be carried by the
Levite clans. YHWH is to give the signal to break camp by lifting the
cloud by day or the fire by night from above the Tabernacle and then to
advance it in the direction the people are to march. YHWH's signal is to
be followed by a blast by the priests (Aaron's sons) on two specially made
silver trumpets.
The above directions are set forth
in chapters 1-4 and 9-10 (through verse 10). There are intervening
chapters containing various materials: expelling leprous or other unclean
persons from the camp, the ordeal for a woman suspected of adultery,
regulations for Nazirites (those who take special ascetic vows), the
offerings brought at the dedication of the Tabernacle, and the
purification of the Levites preparatory to taking up their special sacred
functions. The priestly emphasis of the materials in chapters 1-10 is
evident, and it is also clear that there are various strands of priestly
interpretation involved.
This section apparently combines
various traditions of how the Israelites came into Palestine, and J, E (or
JE), and P sources have been discerned in these chapters. The traditional
"40 years" in the wilderness (38 or 39, according to critical
calculations) were spent mostly in the wilderness of Paran, with a short
stay in the oasis of Kadesh, according to
P; while, according to J, they spent most of their time in Kadesh; and
chapter 13, verse 26, puts Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran, thus
encapsulating both traditions. The discrepancy may stem from two separate
traditions of how the tribes entered Canaan: from the south or from the
north through Transjordan.
The P narrative begins (chapter
10, verse 11) with the lifting of the cloud from the Tabernacle and the
setting out of the Israelites for the Promised Land, with their holy
Tabernacle and ark, in the order prescribed in chapter 2. According to the
P account (verses 11-28), the cloud settles down over the wilderness of
Paran, the signal to make camp; whereas in the JE account (verses 29-36)
it is the ark of the Covenant that goes ahead to seek out a stopping
place, and where it stops the Israelites rest, the cloud simply
accompanying them overhead (perhaps to shield them from the blazing desert
sun). Chapters 11-12 (JE) deal with the complaints of the people about
their hardships and the rebellion of Miriam and Aaron against their
brother Moses. When the people express their longing for the good food
they had in Egypt and their disgust with the unvarying manna, God sends
them a storm of quail, which remain uneaten because he also sends them a
plague. This is a somewhat different account from that in Exodus, but the
point is the same: the mighty, infinite power of God (chapter 11, verse
23). (Also inserted here is the story of God visiting his spirit on 70
selected elders so that they may share Moses' burdens.) When Miriam and
Aaron question God's speaking only through Moses, God proclaims his unique
relation with Moses, who alone receives direct revelations from God, not
indirectly through dreams and visions, like the prophets.
Chapters 13-14 tell of the
despatch of spies from Paran to reconnoiter Canaan and of the despair,
rebellion, and unsuccessful foray of the people in response to the spies'
reports. Scholars discern two separate accounts of the spying incident
artfully woven together. According to the JE account, the spies go only as
far as Hebron in the south and return with a glowing report of a fertile
land, which is, however, they warn, too strongly defended to be taken from
that quarter: only one spy, Caleb,
advocates attacking it. In the P account the spies reconnoiter the whole
country and give a pessimistic report of it as a land that "devours
its inhabitants," who are, moreover, giants compared to the
Israelites. The people cry out in despair at this report and want to go
back to Egypt, while Caleb and Joshua
(added by P) plead with them to trust in God and go forward to take the
land. God, disgusted with the people, condemns them to wander in the
wilderness for 40 years and decrees that only their children, along with
Caleb and Joshua, shall enter into the land of promise. Ruefully, the
people now decide to attack and go forth, against Moses' warning, to a
resounding defeat.
Chapter 15 is a P document or
addition, setting forth various ritual regulations. Chapters 16-18 deal
with the comparative rights and duties of priests and Levites. Chapter 16
is a composite document dealing with revolts against Moses and Aaron by
certain Levites who question their special authority in a community where
all are holy, as also by certain Reubenites who resent Moses' leadership.
The dispute is settled when 250 revolting Levites attempt to offer incense
(a priestly Aaronic function) and are consumed by fire sent by God, while
the leaders of the revolt are swallowed up in the earth. Yet the stubborn
people continue their complaint against Moses and Aaron, bringing forth
the Lord's anger and a plague, from which they are saved by Aaron's
(proper and effective) offering of incense. This latter incident occurs in
chapter 17 in the Hebrew text and Jewish translations but concludes
chapter 16 in some Christian versions. Chapter 17 in both arrangements,
with its story of Aaron's rod, associates Levitical with Aaronic
authority; Aaron's name is inscribed on the staff of Levi, which alone
among the staffs of the chiefs of the tribes of Israel blossoms and bears
fruit, thus authenticating Aaron's, and thereby the Levites', special
claims. The relative functions and payments (tithes) of priests and
Levites are prescribed in chapter 18. Chapter 19, inserted here, has to do
with purification from uncleanness incurred through touching the dead,
accomplished through washing in water mixed with the ashes of a red
heifer.
Chapter 20, verse 14, resumes the
narrative of Israel's onward march, starting with their arrival in the
wilderness of Zin and stay at Kadesh, marked by Miriam's death and God's
exclusion of Moses and Aaron from entering the Promised Land because of
their ascribed lack of confidence in God when Moses drew forth water from
a rock in response to still more Israelite complaints, but did so in anger
and impatience, striking the rock twice with his rod, instead of telling
it to give forth water, as the Lord had instructed (the incident of the
waters of Meribah). Refused permission by the King of Edom to pass through
that land, over the much-used King's Highway, they proceed from Kadesh to
Mt. Hor, where Aaron dies and is succeeded by his son Eleazar, and from
which they proceed (chapter 21) to bypass Edom in an attempt to approach
Canaan from the east. Arrived at the border of what was geographically
part of Moab but politically the Amorite kingdom of Sihon, they are
refused passage and proceed to defeat the Amorites and take possession of
their land. This is from the JE strand of the composite narrative; the P
strand does not recognize the existence of settled and politically
organized populations between Kadesh and the plains of Moab. (see also Index:
Moab Plateau)
At this point, in chapters 22-24,
apparently a very mixed composite of various J and E strands, is presented
the fascinating story (or collection of stories) of the non-Israelite
seer, or prophet, Balaam, from the region of the Middle Euphrates. Alarmed
at the Israelite host encamped at his border, the King of Moab commissions
the seer Balaam to put a curse on them, but
Balaam refuses, at the order of YHWH, who is also the God of Balaam. On
three occasions at the King's request Balaam seeks an oracle from God
against Israel, but each time, to the King's rage, he is told by the Lord
that Israel is graced with the divine blessing and cannot be cursed. The
seer, who is ordered back to his own country, without payment by the
disgruntled King, offers a final, unsolicited oracle prophesying the
destruction of Moab and other nations by Israel's might: "I will let
you know what this people will do to your people in the latter days."
Chapter 25 (combining JE and P
strands) provides a lurid interlude in which the Israelites go whoring
after Moabite women and offer sacrifices and worship to their god, Baal of
Peor. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, is so incensed at the sight of an
Israelite consorting with a Midianite woman that he kills them both, thus
ending a plague that has broken out and earning God's special favour: a
covenant of perpetual priesthood with him and his descendants (a forward
reference to the Zadokite priesthood of post-exilic times). This account
is connected by the last two verses with God's call for Israel to harass
and smite the Midianites (see below). After the plague ends, in the
account (P) in chapter 26, a second census of arms-bearing men and of the
Levites is taken, and again a fantastically large total, 601,730, is
given, perhaps referring to a much later time. It is noted at the end that
all of the previous 603,730 had died in the wilderness, as prophesied,
except for Caleb and Joshua, who have been especially picked out by God.
This census, coming at the end of the 40-year period of wilderness
wanderings, is for the purpose of allotting lands to the various tribes
and families. Hence the logical positioning of the passage (P) in the
first 11 verses of chapter 27 assuring that a family may inherit through a
daughter when there is no son and through a brother when there are no
children and through the closest relative when there are neither.
At this point (chapter 27, verse
12) comes the impressive and poignant passage (also P) in which Moses
ascends the heights, at God's bidding, to look over the Promised Land,
which he is not to enter, and calls on God to appoint a leader to succeed
him. At God's command, Moses selects Joshua, and before the priest Eleazar
and the whole community he lays his hands on him and commissions him to
lead Israel. It is noteworthy that Joshua is invested only with some of
Moses' authority and is to learn God's will through Eleazar and the sacred
lot (Urim), not directly, as did Moses.
Again, the narrative is
interrupted by three chapters (P) dealing with various religious
regulations. Chapters 28-29 stipulate the sacrifices to be made by the
whole community daily, on the sabbath, at the new moon, and on these
holidays: the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of Weeks
(Shavuot), The Feast of Trumpets, i.e.,
New Year (Rosh Hashana), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and the
Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). The last two verses of chapter 29 specify
that these public offerings are in addition to individual offerings, such
as those specified in chapter 15. Critical scholars hold that these
elaborate regulations stem from a much later (post-exilic) period, though
they may go back to very ancient practices. Some see them as a liturgical
commentary on chapter 23 of Leviticus, which presents the cycle of feasts
and festivals (see above Leviticus).
Chapter 30 gives women special exemption from keeping vows (presumably of
offerings or abstinence) when countermanded by a father or husband; only
widows or divorcees are bound, like men, unconditionally to keep their
vows.
Chapter 31, likewise from P, deals
with the annihilation of the Midianites
following God's command at the end of chapter 25. The Israelites, a
thousand from each tribe, go forth to battle led by the priest Eleazar,
who carries the sacred vessels and the trumpets. They kill every man and
seize all the movable property but spare the women and children. Moses,
however, orders every male child and all nonvirgin women killed. There
follow instructions for purification for the stain caused by killing a
person or touching a dead body and for the distribution of the booty,
which includes sheep, cattle, asses, and 32,000 virgins. The rules are
that half of the spoils go to the fighting men, half to the rest of the
people; in addition, the Lord's share is allotted thus: one five-hundredth
of the fighting men's portion goes to the priest, and one-fiftieth of the
people's portion goes to the Levites. Scholars are inclined to treat this
chapter as a piece of fiction intended really to set forth the rules for
purification and dividing the spoils through an invented story. The
seer-diviner Balaam is here (verse 16) blamed for the whoring and apostasy
incidents in chapter 25; but texts providing his connection with these
events are lacking.
Chapter 32, dealing with the
settlement east of the Jordan, concludes the narrative portion of Numbers
and thus of the Tetrateuch (a story that is continued in chapter 34 of
Deuteronomy and in the Book of Joshua). This very composite account (JEP)
tells how the tribes of Reuben and Gad, after an initial angry
remonstrance from Moses, are granted permission to settle in the rich
pasturelands east of the Jordan on the assurance that after they erect
sheepfolds and fortified towns for their flocks and families, they will
provide the shock troops spearheading the advance of the Israelites into
Canaan, and will not return to their homes until their brethren hold the
land. Thereupon Moses allots the various conquered kingdoms and towns east
of Jordan to the Gadites and Reubenites. The various Gadite, Reubenite,
and Manassite towns are listed.
The rest of the book of Numbers (P
in its final form) consists of an itemized summary of the route from Egypt
to the plains of Moab outside Canaan (chapter 33) and various additional
materials (chapters 34-36). Verses 50-56 of chapter 33 present the divine
command to dispossess the people of Canaan, destroy their idols and cultic
places, and apportion the land to each clan by lot. In chapter 34 the Lord
specifies the boundaries of the whole land of Canaan that is to be
Israel's inheritance and names the tribal leaders who, along with Eleazar
and Joshua, are to oversee the division of the land by lot. In chapter 35,
the Lord orders 48 towns with extensive pasturelands to be set aside for
the Levites; six of these are to be cities of refuge for manslayers whose
guilt of intentional murder has not yet been determined and who are
provided sanctuary from the traditional blood vengeance. Although these
settlements do not constitute an independent tribal territory but are
scattered through the territories of the other tribes, the contradiction
with chapter 18, verse 24, of Leviticus, commanding that the Levites are
to have no share of the land but are to subsist solely on tithes, is
obvious and raises critical questions. Finally, chapter 36 concludes the
book of Numbers with a supplement to the law of inheritance through
daughters laid down in chapter 27, enjoining daughters from marrying
outside the tribe, so that the tribe will hold its portion of the land,
which was given from God, in perpetuity. As before, the general injunction
is laid down in a story dealing with a particular case (the daughter of
Zelophehad).
The English title of this work,
meaning "second law," is derived from a faulty Greek translation
of chapter 17, verse 18, referring to "a copy of this law": the
implication being that the book is a second law or an expanded version of
the original law for the new generation of Israelites about to enter
Canaan. Hebrew texts take the opening words of the book as title, Ele
ha-Devarim (These Are The Words), or simply Devarim (Words). As noted in Composition
and authorship , above,
the book is in a class by itself in the Pentateuch, so much so that modern
scholars tend to consider it apart from the other four books, and some see
it in style, content, and concerns more closely related to the succeeding
books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, constituting a
"Deuteronomic history." In spite of its homogeneous style and
tone--it is assigned for the most part to a single source, D--the content
indicates to critical scholars very composite traditions, ages, and
situations behind the finished form. This book has elicited a library of
scholarship going back to the early 19th century, not only because of the
complicated critical and historical problems calling for solution but also
because of its spiritual and theological message, which gives it a special
place among Old Testament writings.
In form, the book is ostensibly a
discourse by Moses "to all Israel" in the final month in Moab
before they go over the Jordan into Canaan. Actually it comprises three
separate discourses, a set of laws, two poems, and various other matters,
all ascribed to Moses directly--here it is Moses who sets forth the laws,
not God through him. These materials are centred on the presentation of
the rules of life and worship for the coming stay in the Promised Land,
along with exhortations and explanations pointing to YHWH, the marvellous
liberator from Egypt and guide in the wilderness, as the divine source and
reason for the commands. The traditional view was that, with the possible
exception of the account of Moses' death, the whole book was written by
Moses, based on the phrase "And Moses wrote this song" in
chapter 31, verse 22.
Some early Church Fathers
identified the book with "the book of the law" (II Kings,
chapter 22, verse 8), found in the 18th year of King Josiah's reign (c. 621 BCE), and made the basis of his great religious reform the
following year. Wilhelm M.L. de Wette, a German biblical scholar, in 1805
established the predominant modern view that Deuteronomy (or its nucleus,
or main portion) was found in Josiah's time and was a distinctive book,
separate from the Tetrateuch. He also held that it was composed shortly
before its discovery; other, more recent, scholars would put it as much as
a century earlier and connect it with earlier reforms, while some
associate it with the writings and teachings of the 8th-century-BCE
prophet Hosea and with the E source. Furthermore, the references to
localities near Shechem as cultic places, taken with certain passages in
Joshua, indicate a northern provenance for the book and not the southern
source connected with a cultic centre at Jerusalem, as had been previously
supposed from the associated material in II Kings. Some scholars see the
form and occasion of Deuteronomy as a Covenant renewal ceremony in which
the whole law is read, as in Joshua, chapter 8, verses 30-35, and thus
view it as a liturgical document, as well as a lawbook. In any case, the
tendency is to see various layers of materials and lines of transmission,
perhaps going back to quite early preliterary sources, before its final
formation in the 8th or 7th century BCE.
The book may be divided as
follows: (1) introductory discourse to the whole book (chapter 1 to
chapter 4, verse 43); (2) introductory discourse to the lawbook (chapter
4, verse 44, through chapter 11); (3) the lawbook (chapters 12-28); (4)
concluding exhortation and traditions about the last days and death of
Moses (chapters 29-34).
The first introductory discourse,
spoken by Moses, traces the journey of the Israelites from Mt. Horeb to
Moab, with some noticeable differences in detail from the account in
Exodus and Numbers and an emphasis on Moses being banned from entrance
into the Promised Land because the Lord was angry at the Israelites. To
this historical retrospect is appended an exhortation to the people to
obey God's laws and norms, recalling the imageless God of the revelation
and Covenant at Horeb as a warning against making images and serving
man-made gods. The uniqueness and soleness of the God of the Exodus and
Covenant, his power and presence in his marvellous acts of redemption and
revelation, and his gracious selection of Israel are proclaimed in
rhetorical questions; moreover, it is emphasized that the God of Israel
("YHWH your God") "is God in heaven above and on the earth
beneath; there is no other." The injunctions against idolatry appear
to come from later experience and religious crisis in Canaan. The fact
that other nations have their own gods and objects of worship is
recognized elsewhere in Deuteronomy.
The second discourse, also
ascribed to Moses, again refers to the Covenant at Horeb and sets forth
the Ten Commandments, which the people are
admonished to obey rigorously, emphasizing the mediating function of Moses
at Horeb between the awesome divine presence and the awestruck people.
Israel is further admonished to obey the law through wholehearted love of
God, expressed in what became the central liturgical expression of
Israel's faith, beginning, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the
Lord Alone. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your might." If they obey God's laws,
avoid other gods, and do what is right and good, they will possess the
land promised by God--him who rescued them from Egypt and has brought them
thus far. They are to avoid marriage and all other intercourse with the
peoples of the land, utterly destroying them and their idolatrous altars
and cultic places, for they are a special, holy people chosen by God out
of all the peoples because of his love, not because of their greatness or
power. This marvellous love will continue to be exercised, and the people
will be blessed with all good things--prosperity, fertility, health, and
success in battle--if they obey God's ordinances. They are urged to
remember the 40-year period of wilderness wandering, in which they were
tested (disciplined) by God through hardship and hunger (to find out
whether or not they would keep his commands) and saved by him: man does
not live by bread alone but, rather, by whatever God provides (e.g., manna from heaven). Another time of testing will come when
they live in the rich, fertile land of Canaan and eat their fill and
perhaps forget the Lord and his laws, ascribing their wealth to their own
power and might and even venturing into idolatrous worship of the gods of
the land. If they do so they shall perish, just as the idolatrous nations
of the land shall. (see also Index:
Sinai covenant)
A long list of the apostasies of
Israel is presented in chapter 9 to demonstrate the point that Israel is
going in to possess the land of Canaan not through any virtue of their own
but because of God's promise to the patriarchs. This is followed in
chapter 10 by a moving declaration of what God requires of Israel--fear
(reverence), walking in his ways, love, wholehearted service, and keeping
his commandments--and an extolling of the wondrous, unique, powerful God
who liberated them from Egypt. Chapter 11 extols the richness of the land
of Canaan and describes how it will bloom for them if they are observant
of God's commandments and promises that they will hold the territory from
the wilderness to Lebanon and from the Euphrates to the western sea
(Mediterranean). It closes with the choice set before them by Moses of
"a blessing and a curse"--the former if they obey the
commandments, the latter if they do not. This choice is posed to them
immediately before the presentation of the laws and norms beginning in
chapter 12.
The laws are the central core and
purport of the book of Deuteronomy. They are couched in a hortatory,
sermonic style that has led to their being categorized as preached law.
Emphatic statements of what must or must not be done are connected with
exhortations to fulfill these injunctions, pointing to the motivations and
spirit in which they should be carried out. There is a wide variety of
laws here--ritual, criminal, social--but they are all set within this
preaching context and aimed at the service of God. This is no dry legal
code but, rather, a book written in fluent and moving prose. Scholars have
seen duplications and parallels between the laws presented here and those
in the Covenant Code in chapters 21-23 of Exodus; but to this a common
source may be ascribed, and Deuteronomy may be considered a work in its
own right and not a mere expansion of the Covenant Code.
The lawbook comprises chapters
12-26, supplemented by chapters 27-28. After an initial order to destroy
the pagan cultic places and idols, the lawbook goes to its basic
injunction: to set up a single central sanctuary in Canaan, where all
Israel is to make their offerings, as distinct from the present
unregulated practice, "every man doing whatever is right in his own
eyes." The spot is designated only "the place which the Lord
your God will choose," which some interpreters, following King
Josiah, have understood to be Jerusalem and which others understand to be
Shechem. (The blessing and curse passage immediately preceding in chapter
11 specifies Mts. Gerizim and Ebal, on either side of Shechem, as the
places of blessing and curse, respectively; and an even more elaborate
ritual is prescribed for the same locality in chapter 27.) Instructions
are given for the proper killing of animals for food, previously connected
with the sacrificial cult, and the people are admonished when they settle
in Canaan not to inquire about how other nations serve their gods,
possibly to follow their abominable practices. Inserted at this point is
the striking exhortation, "Everything that I command you you shall be
careful to do; you shall not add to it or take from it."
Chapter 13 warns the people to
beware of the temptations to apostasy arising from the urging or example
of prophet-diviners, kinfolk or friends, or a whole town; they are to kill
the tempters and destroy the towns. Chapter 14 is devoted mainly to a list
of living things that may or may not be eaten, the "clean" and
"unclean," similar to the list in Leviticus, chapter 11; and to
laws for tithes and first fruits to be brought annually to the central
sanctuary and triennially to the Levites in the towns, who are specified
as having no "portion" of their own (two years to the centre,
the third year to the town Levites). Chapter 15 deals mainly with the
releases to be granted every seventh year to debtors of their debts and
Hebrew slaves of their bondage; lenders are exhorted and commanded not to
refuse loans to the poor in the sabbatical year of release, and God's
redemption of Israel from Egypt is given as the reason for freeing one's
Hebrew slaves in the sabbatical release. The first section of chapter 16,
verses 1-17, gives the rules for celebrating the three main festivals of
the religious year: Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Booths, which are to be
observed at the central sanctuary (hence later called the three pilgrim
festivals).
Beginning with verse 18 of chapter
16 there is a discussion of the appointment and character of judges,
and of judicial procedures and punishments for apostasy, homicide, and
other crimes; similarly, beginning with verse 14 of chapter 17 there are
rules on the selection of a king and for
his conduct, and the injunction that he read from "a copy of this
law," so that he may be edified and chastened. The first portion of
chapter 18 deals with the office and support of priests, referred to here
as "the Levitical priests . . . all the tribe of Levi," not
distinguishing the Aaronic priests from the lesser Levites. This is
followed--after a passage inveighing against abominable cultic and
divinatory practices of the nations of the land--by a promise that God
will raise up prophets among the people and instructions on how to tell
true from false prophets. Thus the offices
of judge, king, priest, and prophet are considered in chapters 16-18. (see
also Index: priesthood)
Chapter 19 deals again with crime
and punishment. It distinguishes between unintentional manslaughter and
murder, setting up cities of refuge for the manslayer and ordering the
murderer to be killed by the blood avengers. It also lays down the rules
for witnesses and the punishment for perjury. It closes with the famous lex
talionis: "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand
for hand, foot for foot," which in context may spell out what is to
happen to the false witness and even could be interpreted as a moderating,
rather than an inhumane, precept (no more than an eye for an eye, etc.).
Chapter 20 gives the rules for holy war, listing the situations that
exempt men from military service (e.g.,
a newly married man) and distinguishing the treatment of non-Canaanite
and Canaanite cities; the latter are to be utterly destroyed, yet it is
forbidden to destroy fruit-bearing trees. There are also rules on holy
war in 21:10-14; 23:9-14; 24:5; and 25:17-19. Chapters 20-25
contain a great variety of laws; the just treatment of women captives,
sexual offenses, exclusions from the religious community, public hygiene
in campgrounds, and many other things.
The last of the laws are set forth
in chapter 26, dealing with the first fruits offering and tithes.
At the annual offering (or soon after entering Canaan), in the central
sanctuary, the worshipper is to recite a piece beginning, "A
wandering Aramaean was my father," affirming his link with the
patriarchs and extolling God's wondrous deeds on behalf of Israel. And
every third year he is to set aside his tithe "to the Levite, the
sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow" and make an affirmation
"before the Lord" that he has complied and avoided any ritual
stain. (see also Index: sacrifice)
The final passage in chapter 26
proclaims that "this day" God has proclaimed his law, Israel has
affirmed its commitment to God and his law, and God has affirmed his
choice of Israel as his special, holy people, to be set up high above all
the nations. This is the hortatory conclusion to chapters 12-26 and to the
"second law," or Covenant, contained therein.
The emphasis on the laws given on
"this day" is continued in the supplementary chapters 27-28,
which deal with Covenant ratification and renewal ceremonies, apparently a
reference to an original ceremony in Moab, one in Canaan on the first day
in the land, and subsequent, possibly annual, renewal ceremonies.
Blessings and curses are to be pronounced from Mts. Gerizim and Ebal for
respectively fulfilling or disobeying the Covenant: all good things or all
bad things will befall the people, as they keep or fail to keep the
Covenant. Some of the curse consequences in chapter 28, referring to
siege, subjugation, and exile, are believed by some scholars to reflect
late pre-exilic or exilic situations. The curse consequences fill up the
bulk of these chapters and are recounted in powerful, moving language,
ending with a threat to return the people to Egypt.
Chapters 29-31 comprise the third
and last address of Moses to the people of Israel. They are preceded by an
introductory verse referring to "these words" as a covenant made
in Moab, in addition to the one made at Horeb (Sinai). After reminding
them of all that God has done for them, Moses calls on the whole people to
enter into the sworn Covenant made this day that they may be his people
and he may be their God, warning the secret apostate of the calamities
that will befall him. Yet the possibility of a return to God and the land
is held out to those who will suffer exile and persecution as punishment
for their apostasy, again presumably a reflection of the exilic situation
(chapter 30 verses 1-10 seems clearly to be an interpolation inspired by
the actual experience of exile). This law, it is emphasized, is no
recondite, remote thing up in the sky but is, rather, very close to men,
"in your mouth and in your heart"; what is revealed is made
plain, it is not the secret things of God. Moses sets before them the
classic Deuteronomic choice: "life and good" over "death
and evil." The people are given that choice and told the consequences
of loving the Lord and keeping the Covenant or of going the other way.
The final chapters are concerned
with the last words and acts of Moses: directing Joshua to lead Israel
after his death, writing down "this law," calling for a
sabbatical renewal ceremony of it on the Feast of Booths, ordering that it
be put beside the ark of the Covenant, and uttering two poems. The first,
"The Song of Moses" (chapter 32), praises the faithfulness and
power of the Lord, decries the faithlessness and wickedness of Israel, and
predicts the consequent divine punishment; it adds, however, that in the
end the Lord will relent and will vindicate his people. The second poem,
"The Blessing of Moses" (chapter 33), blesses each of the tribes
of Israel, one by one, and the blessings are associated with God's love,
the law commanded by Moses, and the kingship of God over his people. There
are indications in both poems of a considerably later date (after Joshua's
time, perhaps in the period of the Judges); Moses is spoken of in the
third person in "The Blessing" poem.
The narrative of Deuteronomy, and
thus of the Pentateuch, ends with Moses' ascent to the top of Mt. Pisgah,
his being shown the Promised Land by God, and his death there in the land
of Moab, buried by God in an unknown grave. It is emphasized in the
closing words that Moses was a unique prophet "whom the Lord knew
face to face" and through whom the Lord wrought unique "signs
and wonders" and "great and terrible deeds." Thus end the
Five Books of Moses. (S.C.)
The Hebrew canon
of the section of the Old Testament known as the Nevi'im, or the Prophets,
is divided into two sections: the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets.
The Former Prophets contains four historical books--Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, and Kings; the Latter Prophets includes four prophetic
works--the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (Minor)
Prophets. The Twelve Prophets, formerly written on a single scroll,
include the books of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Thus, in the Hebrew
canon of the Prophets there are, in effect, eight books. (see also Index:
Hebrew Bible)
The Christian canon of the
Prophets does not include the Former Prophets section in its division of
the Prophets; instead, it calls the books in this section Historical
Books. In addition to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the Christian canon
of the Prophets includes two works from the division of the Hebrew canon
known as the Ketuvim (the Writings): the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the
Book of Daniel. The Twelve (Minor) Prophets are separated into individual
books. The number of works in the Christian canon, however, varies. The
Protestant canon contains all the books of the Latter Prophets and the two
books from the Ketuvim, thus listing 17 works among the prophetic
writings. The Roman Catholic canon accepts
one other book as a canonical prophetic work, namely, Baruch (including
the Letter of Jeremiah); the number of prophetic writings in the Roman
Catholic canon is, therefore, 18. The Greek Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem in
1672 did not accept Baruch as canonical.
As far as the Former Prophets is
concerned, the Protestant canon, following the Septuagint, separates
Samuel and Kings into two sections each: I and II Samuel, and I and II
Kings. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches in the past divided these
two works into I, II, III, and IV Kings, but most Roman Catholic
translations now follow the listing as it is in the Septuagint. (see also Index:
Protestantism)
Hebrew prophecy was rooted in the
prophetic activities of various individuals and groups from the nations
and peoples of the ancient Near East. Though prophecy among ancient
Egyptians, Mesopotamians, and Canaanites--as well as among the peoples of
the Aegean civilization--generally was connected with
"foretelling" (or predicting) the future, the Hebrew view of
prophecy centred on "forthtelling" (or proclaiming), though it
included predictive aspects. Thus, in Hebrew prophecy the phrase
"Thus says the Lord" is repeated constantly to emphasize the
"forthtelling" motif. The Hebrew prophets were very conscious of
the absolute holiness (separateness) of God and his purpose for his chosen
people, Israel. Because of this consciousness, they developed an acute
awareness of sin and its effects on man and society and, from such an
awareness, a radical ethical outlook that applied to both the individual
and the community. (see also Index:
Judaism)
The Hebrew term for prophet (navi`)
is probably related etymologically to the Akkadian verb nabu,
meaning "to call" or "to name." The Hebrew prophet
may thus be viewed as a "caller," or spokesman, for God. Other
designations for prophet in the Old Testament are ro`e, or "seer," and hoze,
or "visionary," the two latter terms indicating that the
predictive element was operative in Hebrew prophecy. The distinctive
element of Hebrew prophecy, however, was the relationship of the prophet
to God, the Lord of the Covenant, and to Israel, the covenant people. He
spoke for the sovereign Lord to remind, cajole, castigate, reprove,
comfort, and give hope to the people of the covenant, constantly reminding
them that they were chosen to witness to the nations of the love, mercy,
and goodness of God.
Some of the Hebrew prophets, from
the 11th to the 8th century BCE, belonged to bands or guilds of ecstatic
prophets. Such prophets were spokesmen for God whose uncontrollable
actions and words caused them to be feared and, sometimes, held in
contempt. In II Kings, chapter 9, verse 11, a prophet--who came to Jehu,
the 9th-century-BCE army commander who became king of Israel, in order to
anoint him--was called a "madman" (meshugga').
Other Hebrew prophets were more independent, such as Nathan and Elijah,
though they continued to maintain the quality of being uncontrollable--at
least as far as the political authorities were concerned. Both of these
early nonwriting prophets spoke out against the oppression of the weak by
the strong, a theme that came to be expressed constantly in Judaism. The
activities of such early prophets, including also Micaiah and Elisha in
the 9th century BCE, are described in the Former Prophets.
In the 8th century BCE, the
writing prophets--i.e., the
Latter Prophets--began their activities. Though all the books that bear
their names probably have been edited by schools of a prophet or by
individuals or groups that were influenced by their ideas, the editors or
disciples of the prophets preserved as well as was possible the words,
activities, and idiosyncratic themes of the prophetic personalities. Some
of the Latter Prophets may have been connected with the priestly class,
such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; most of the Latter Prophets,
however, were independent of priestly connections. All of the Latter
Prophets stood out in contrast to the court prophets who, in the tradition
of court prophets of most ancient Near Eastern peoples, seldom
contradicted what they believed was expected of them by their sovereigns
or the people.
The Book
of Joshua takes its name from the man who succeeded Moses as the
leader of the Hebrew tribes--Joshua, the son of Nun, a member of the tribe
of Ephraim. In post-biblical times Joshua himself was credited with being
the author of the bo |
