LEVITES AND THE PLENARY RECEPTION OF REVELATION by Mark Alan Christian Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion December, 2011 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor Douglas A. Knight Professor Jack M. Sasson Professor Annalisa Azzoni Professor Robert Drews Copyright © 2011 by Mark Alan Christian All Rights Reserved To my wife and lifelong companion Peggy Brown Christian and our twin daughters Michal Jillian Christian and Briana McNeill Christian הוהימֵ ןוֹצרָ קפֶ ָיוַ בוֹט אצָ מָ השָ אִ אצָ מָ (Proverbs 18:22) ה סֶ חְּ מַ הֶיהְּ ִי ויָנבָ לְּ וּ זֹע־חטַ בְּ מִ הוָהְּי תאַרְִּיבְּ (Proverbs 14:26) iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people who have helped produce this dissertation, academically, beginning with Robert O. Byrd, Emeritus Professor of New Testament at Belmont University, who taught me Koiné Greek and introduced me to using language and history to think critically and faithfully about the biblical text. At Vanderbilt I learned much about Semitic languages and Jewish thought from Peter J. Haas, who was willing to direct my reading of rabbinic literature and teach Syriac to a few persistent Aramaic students. Renita Weems inspired me to write more artistically and attend more to matters of social location. From James Barr I learned of elegance and rigor and uncompromising assiduity in method. In him was reconfirmed what I had learned from my experiences with gifted musicians, namely, that humility always resides among the truly great. With razor-sharp wit and infectious humor he often trod where angels dread to go. From my Doktorvater Douglas Knight I have learned the most, both inside and outside of the classroom: constructing exhaustive bibliographies; always consulting the sources; offering other ways of looking at situations whether the organizing of a thesis or dealing with the contexts behind the texts; pushing past the familiar, looking far and wide for corroborative textual and material evidence on the one hand, auxilliary methods from other fields and disciplines on the other; limitless application of sociopolitical theory and critical legal study to biblical interpretation. Thanks go to committee members Jack M. Sasson, Annaliza Azzoni, and Robert Drews, all distinquished specialists whose critical insights are sincerely appreciated. A special word of thanks goes to Thomas Dozeman of United Theological Seminary, whose expertise in current, international scholarship on the Pentateuch and Hexateuch, as well as engagement in the emerging sociological work being done in Second Temple Judaism, proved invaluable. W. Brown Patterson, Francis S. Houghteling Professor of History Emeritus and former Dean of the University of the South, Sewanee, and onetime student of C.S. Lewis at Oxford University, consistently encouraged my writing projects beginning in 2004. Kind and professional collection development and interlibrary loan assistance from Vanderbilt Library staff and a munificent interlibrary loan policy at the University of the South proved essential many times over. Special thanks go to Mrs. Eileen Crawford, Mr. iv Chris Benda, Mrs. Marilyn Pilley, and Mr. Jim Toplon at Vanderbilt Library; Mrs. Cari Reynolds at the University of the South, Sewanee. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF KEY TERMS, SIGLA, AND ABBREVIATIONS ......................................... xiv SECTION A. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF RESEARCH CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................1 1.1.1 The Problem ...........................................................................................................1 1.1.1.1 A Problem of Recognition ............................................................................1 1.1.1.2 Revelation in the Face of Terror ...................................................................1 1.1.1.3 Authorship Considerations Regarding the PRR and Its Accompanying Traditions ...............................................................................................................2 1.1.1.4 The Elite Corps of Priests ..............................................................................3 1.1.1.5 Importunate Levites .......................................................................................4 1.1.2 Scope of the Project ..............................................................................................5 1.1.3 The Rationale .......................................................................................................6 1.2 History of Research Part I .............................................................................................9 1.2.1 Redaction, Supplement, Source Critical, and Sociological Treatments of the PRR ............................................................................................................................9 1.2.1.1 Abraham Kuenen .........................................................................................9 1.2.1.2 G. Ernest Wright ........................................................................................10 1.2.1.3 Brevard S. Childs .......................................................................................11 1.2.1.4 E. W. Nicholson .........................................................................................13 1.2.1.5 Thomas B. Dozeman ..................................................................................15 1.2.1.6 John Van Seters and the Absence of the PRR in J’s Version of Exod 19–24..................................................................................................................20 1.2.1.7 Eckart Otto and the Emerging Mosaic Office of Authoritative Interpretation ......................................................................................................21 1.2.1.8 Thomas Krüger: Spatial Considerations in Deut 4 ....................................23 1.2.1.9 Ansgar Moenikes: YHWH as Original Promulgator of Torah in Urdeuteronomium .............................................................................................26 1.2.1.10 Wolfgang Oswald: Multidimensional Considerations in the Sinai Pericope..............................................................................................................28 1.3 History of Research Part II: Methodological Analysis of the Hexateuch Redaction and Pentateuch Redaction within the Context of Current Pentateuchal Research .................................................................................................30 1.3.1 The Plenary Reception of (Revealed) Law and the Pentateuch ..........................30 1.3.2 Diachronic, Redaction-Infused Research Flourishes on the Continent ..............30 vi 1.3.3 Legal Corpora in the Tanakh ..............................................................................32 1.3.4 Archaeology and Legal Studies ..........................................................................34 1.3.5 Regarding the Literary Textgenese of the Hebrew Bible ...................................35 1.3.6 The Complexity of the Sinai Complex ...............................................................37 1.3.6.1 The Reduction of P ......................................................................................37 1.3.6.1.1 P in Joshua?...........................................................................................40 1.3.7 J as Basic Grid and the Fragmentary Hypothesis ...............................................40 1.3.8 Problems with Pg as Pentateuchal Grid ..............................................................42 1.3.9 Pre-Priestly Texts in the Pentateuch and the Interlocking of Large Units .........................................................................................................................43 1.3.10 En Route to the Hexateuch Redaction (HexRed) .............................................44 1.3.10.1 Ernst Axel Knauf’s Hexateuch Redaction ...............................................49 1.3.10.2 Brief Apologia for Redactional Analysis ................................................52 1.3.10.3 Biblical Evidence of Ancient Redaction ..................................................54 1.3.10.4 Yes to Isaiah but No to the Pentateuch? ..................................................55 1.3.11 The Hexateuch and Pentateuch Redactions ......................................................61 1.3.11.1 HexRed and DtrL: The Dtr Conquest Narrative (Landnahmeerzählung) ..........................................................................................62 1.3.11.2 The Pentateuch Redaction (PentRed) ......................................................64 1.3.11.3 The Book of Numbers and the Completion of the Pentateuch ................67 1.3.11.4 Recognizing the Historical, Sociopolitical, and Ideological Horizon of HexRed ............................................................................................69 1.3.11.5 Relevance of HexRed for the PRR ..........................................................70 1.3.11.6 The Contrasting of Faithful Foreigners and Unfaithful Israelites ............72 1.3.11.7 HexRed, Egypt, and Questioning Moses’ Authority and Leadership Agenda ............................................................................................73 1.3.11.8 Connections between Reversals: Openness to the Other and the PRR ...................................................................................................................75 1.3.11.9 Concluding Comments in Behalf of Accepting HexRed’s Explanation ........................................................................................................76 1.3.11.10 HexRed and the Levitizing (Levitisierung) of the Priesthood ...............78 1.3.11.10.1 The Insertion of the Holiness Code Predates the Levitizing of the Priesthood? ..........................................................................................80 1.3.11.10.2 The Later, Post-HexRed Delevitizing of the Priesthood by Theocratic Revisers (Bearbeiteren) ................................................................82 1.3.11.10.2.1 The Conflicted Aaronide Relation to Levites and their Lay Constituents ...............................................................................83 1.3.11.11 Levites as Mediators of Revelation....................................................84 SECTION B. LITERARY ANALYSES CHAPTER 2: TEXTS IN EXODUS DOCUMENTING THE PLENARY RECEPTION OF REVELATION: EXOD 20:18-22 (ESPECIALLY VV. 18, 22); 33:1-4 (ESPECIALLY. V. 4) ....................................................................................................86 2.1 Introduction to the Exegesis of Exodus .......................................................................86 vii 2.1.1 The Sinai Decalogue in the Book of Exodus: “Des influences mutuelles” .........87 2.1.2 Preliminary Considerations Regarding the Decalogue in Exod 20: Keeping Deuteronomy 5 in View .............................................................................88 2.1.3 The Plenary Reception of Revelation: Original or Secondary Notion ................89 2.2 Exod 19:5-6a: All-Israel as Priestly Kingdom and Holy Nation .................................90 2.2.1 שודק יוג ...............................................................................................................92 2.2.2 Exod 19:5f. and Gianni Barbieri’s Reconceptualization of Yahwistic Nationhood ...............................................................................................................93 2.2.3 Acquiring Cultic and Prophetic Competence .....................................................95 2.2.4 Third Isaiah and Exod 19:5-6a: Israel’s Calling as Prophetic Mediator .............96 2.2.4.1 Israelite Intermediaries in Exodus and Third Isaiah ....................................98 2.2.4.2 Israel’s Mission Led by Professional Priests? .............................................98 2.2.5 Priestly and Other Perspectives in the Concept of שדק .....................................100 2.2.6 An Inclusive “Kingdom of Priests”and the PRR ..............................................101 2.2.7 םינהכ תכלממ (“Kingdom of Priests”): A Levitical Concept? ..............................102 Excursus 1 ........................................................................................................................104 2.2.8 Israel as Mediator ..............................................................................................108 2.2.9 The Gola’s Sociopolitical Perspective in Exod 19:3b-6 ..................................110 2.2.10 Further Exegetical Considerations Regarding Exod 19:5f. ............................111 2.2.11 Semi-Autonomous Kingdom of Priests ..........................................................113 2.2.12 Exod 19:5-6a and 24:3-8 .................................................................................114 2.2.12.1 The “Directly Contradictory Material” (F. Crüsemann) in Exod 24 ...........114 2.2.13 Exod 19:5f. and the Book of Leviticus: The Inclusion of Lay Perspectives in Priestly Literature .........................................................................117 2.2.13.1 Religious Competency Expected of the Community in Leviticus ........120 2.2.13.2 The Indwelling of the דובכ in H .............................................................122 2.2.13.3 Post-dtr Debates Regarding the Ascendancy to Revelation and Holiness: A Cooperative Emerges in H ....................................................123 2.2.13.4 Perspectives and Legal Exegesis in H ..................................................126 2.2.13.5 History and Indwelling in H ..................................................................127 2.2.13.6 The Need for Holiness and Purity/Impurity Competency in the Israelite Family and Cult in H........................................................................................128 2.2.13.7 Concluding Considerations of the Holy People in Exodus and H ........128 2.3 Exod 20:18-21 with Recourse to Chapter Nineteen ..................................................129 2.3.1 Concerns about Proximity to the Divine May Supersede Concerns about the PRR ..................................................................................................................135 2.3.2 The םע Take Their Stand (בצי hitpa’el) .............................................................140 2.3.2.1 The Levites Take their Stand in Revelatory Liturgical Settings ..............141 2.3.2.2 The Miracle at the Sea ............................................................................142 2.3.2.3 The Role of Fear in Exod 14 ...................................................................145 2.3.3 Fear Factors and the Determination of the People ............................................146 Excursus 2: Exod 19:20-25 (With Recourse to Verses 12-13) ........................................147 viii 2.3.4 Condensation of Ongoing Revelatory Events ...................................................150 2.3.5 Dtn/Dtr Features in Exod 20:18-21: A Post-dtr Layer......................................152 2.4 Exod 20:22 .................................................................................................................154 2.4.1 The Insertion of the Exodus Dec is Subsequent to the Insertion of the Dec in Deuteronomy ...............................................................................................154 2.5 Exod 33:1-6: Additional Evidence of the Plenary Reception of Divine Disclosure (HexRed; vv. 7-11 is PentRed) .................................................................155 2.5.1 Moses as Negotiator/Intercessor Rather than Mediator: The Panim’s Dependence on Covenant Renewal ...........................................................................................156 2.5.2 The People (Over)hear YHWH’s Direct Pronouncement in Exod 33 ................157 2.6 Summary of the Exegesis in Exodus .........................................................................158 CHAPTER 3: TEXTS IN DEUTERONOMY DOCUMENTING THE PLENARY RECEPTION OF REVELATION (DEUT 4:10-12, 33-37; 5:4, 22) ............................160 3.1 Introduction to Deut 4–5: The Dec Delivered at Mt Horeb .......................................160 3.1.1 Deuteronomy’s Relationship to Other Texts and the Double Decalogue ..........160 3.1.2 Revelation Continues in the Prairie in the Book of Numbers ............................163 3.1.3 Recognizing the Tertiary Nature of the Dec in Deuteronomy ...........................164 3.1.4 Deut 4:1-40 ........................................................................................................165 3.1.4.1 The Pentateuch Redaction (PentRed) in Deuteronomy .............................168 3.2 Deut 4:10-12 .............................................................................................................167 3.2.1 Nearness and Distance ......................................................................................170 3.2.2 1 Enoch 89 ....................................................................................................174 Excursus 3: Deut 4:13-14.................................................................................................176 3.3 Deut 4:33-37 .............................................................................................................180 3.3.1 Yair Hoffman’s Two Covenants .......................................................................182 3.3.2 Multiple Occasions and Modes of Revelation? ...............................................183 3.3.3 A Prophetic Nation? ..........................................................................................186 3.3.4 The Immanence of God and the Levites’ Cryptic Rejection by Elite Priests .....................................................................................................................187 3.4 Deut 5:4-5 Within Moses’ Second Speech ...............................................................188 3.4.1 Content and Redactional Considerations ..........................................................189 3.4.2 The PRR and the Horeb Covenant, “the Covenant of the PRR”? ....................190 3.4.3 The Moab Covenant ..........................................................................................192 Excursus 4: Literary-historical Considerations in the Relationship between 29:1-15: An “even more Consequential and Radical” Covenant—and Deut 4; 5 ....................193 x.1 The Horeb תירב in Deut 5 ......................................................................................194 x.2 Abandoning the Horeb תירב for the Moab תירב, the New Covenant for the Second and Subsequent Generations ...................................................................................194 ix 3.4.4 Heated Hermeneutical Debate? .......................................................................198 3.4.5 Deut 5:4 as the Work of HexRed which PentRed Later Corrects, but which the School of HexRed Reinstates ................................................................199 3.4.6 Childs’ Interpretation of the Conflict between Deut 5:4, 5 ..............................200 3.4.7 Timo Veijola’s Interpretation of Deut 5:4, 5 ....................................................201 3.4.8 Concluding Comments on Deut 5:4-5 ..............................................................203 3.5 Deut 5:22-26 .............................................................................................................205 3.5.1 A. Rofé’s Differentiation between the Sinai and Horeb Generations and the Notion that the PRR Preceded the Theme of Mediation ....................................202 3.5.2 The Authors of Fear Opposite the Authors of the PRR .....................................203 3.5.3 The Coexistence of the PRR and Mosaically Mediated Revelation: E. Otto’s Interpretation of Deut 5:22-31 within the Larger Context of Developing Deuteronomy ........................................................................................209 3.5.4 Reading the Canonical Narrative of Deut 5:22-26 ...........................................210 3.6 Deut 9:10 ...................................................................................................................216 3.7 Deut 10:4 ...................................................................................................................218 3.7.1 Immortalizing Scribal Activity at the End of the Pentateuch ............................215 3.8 Synchronic Summary of the Analyses of Deuteronomy ............................................219 3.9 Summary of Diachronic Analyses of Deuteronomy ..................................................220 3.10 Viewing both Exodus and Deuteronomy Accounts .................................................221 SECTION C. SOCIAL (INCLUDES ARCHAEOLOGICAL), POLITICAL AND RHETORICAL ANALYSES CHAPTER 4: PRIESTLY POWER THAT EMPOWERS ..............................................223 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................223 4.1.1 Minority Reports ................................................................................................225 4.1.2 Preexile through the Exile ..................................................................................227 4.1.3 Levites in the Postexilic Period..........................................................................231 4.1.4 “Popular Religious Groups” and “Official Religion” in Israel ..........................235 4.1.5 Conceptualizing Heterodox Religion in Israel with Jacques Berlinerblau ........236 4.1.6 Official Religion ................................................................................................237 4.1.7 Official Religion as a Network ..........................................................................238 4.2 Central and Peripheral Origins of “Deuteronomism” ................................................241 4.3 Priest-Scribes and Schools .........................................................................................243 4.4 The Sanctuary Circuit and Eighth-century Literary Production ................................247 4.5 Conceptualizing Iron II Cities and Towns with Douglas A. Knight ..........................248 4.6 Lower-Tier, Lay Personnel? ......................................................................................251 4.7 Reconceptualizing the “Israelite School” ..................................................................252 4.8 The Itinerant’s Task and Sociopolitical Balancing Act .............................................261 4.9 The Impact of the Northern Israel and the Northern Kingdom .................................264 4.9.1 Deuteronomy Ideology’s Possible Northern Provenience ...............................266 4.9.2 Hosea, the Kemarim, and Northern Israel .........................................................269 4.9.3 Plausible Connections between Levites and the Kemarim ...............................271 4.10 Brief Comments on the Law of the King .................................................................273 x