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Joel S. Baden - Jeffrey Stackert (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch (Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press, 2021).

Abstract

"Featuring contributions from internationally-recognized scholars in the study of the Pentateuch, this volume provides a comprehensive survey of key topics and issues in contemporary pentateuchal scholarship. The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch considers recent debates about the formation of the Pentateuch and their implications for biblical scholarship. At the same time, it addresses a number of issues that relate more broadly to the social and intellectual worlds of the Pentateuch. This includes engagements with questions of archaeology and history, the Pentateuch and the Samaritans, the relation between the Pentateuch and other Moses traditions in the Second Temple period, the Pentateuch and social memory, and more. Crucially, the Handbook situates its discussions of current developments in pentateuchal studies in relation to the field's long history, one that in its modern, critical phase is now more than two centuries old. By showcasing both this rich history and the leading edges of the field, this collection provides a clear account of pentateuchal studies and a fresh sense of its vitality and relevance within biblical studies, religious studies, and the broader humanities."--Publisher description.

Contents

1. Introduction: Convergences and Divergences in Contemporary Pentateuchal Research -- Part I: Text and Early Reception -- 2. The Pentateuch: Five Books, One Canon -- Book Division and Compositional Structure in the Pentateuch -- The Preexilic Literary Materials -- Unifying Preexilic Literary Materials in Exilic and Postexilic Documents, Redactions, and Compositions; The Unity and the Authority of the Pentateuch -- The Pentateuch: Five Books, One Canon -- 3. The Text of the Pentateuch -- The Textual Evidence -- The Textual History of the Pentateuch -- The Textual History of the Pentateuch and the Composition of the Pentateuch -- 4. The Pentateuch in Second Temple Judaism -- Content -- The Torah in the Persian Period -- The Torah as the Ancestral Law of Judea -- The Torah in the Diaspora -- The Torah as Civil Law -- 5. The Relevance of Moses Traditions in the Second Temple Period -- The Formation of the Pentateuchal Text; Second Temple Traditions Related to the Pentateuch -- "Torah" in the Second Temple Period -- Conclusion -- 6. The Pentateuch and the Samaritans -- The Manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch -- Editions of the Samaritan Pentateuch -- The Character of the Samaritan Pentateuch -- Scholarly Assessments of the Character of the Samaritan Pentateuch -- The Pre-Samaritan Manuscripts among the Dead Sea Scrolls -- Did the Samarians/Samaritans Influence or Partake in the Final Version of the Pentateuch? -- 7. The Greek Translation of the Pentateuch -- Introduction -- The Pentateuch -- The Septuagint; The Origins of the Greek Pentateuch -- The Five Books of the Greek Pentateuch -- The Language of the Greek Pentateuch -- The Greek Pentateuch Compared to Its Hebrew Original -- Conclusion -- Part II: The Formation of the Pentateuch -- 8. The Beginnings of a Critical Reading of the Pentateuch -- 9. The Graf-Kuenen-Wellhausen School -- A School? -- Kuenen, 1861 -- Graf-Kuenen, 1866-1869 -- Kuenen, 1869-1870 -- Wellhausen, 1867-1871 -- Wellhausen, 1876-1877 -- Wellhausen, 1878 -- Kuenen-Wellhausen, 1877-1889 -- 10. The Documentary Hypothesis -- Redundancy -- Contradictions -- Discontinuity; Terminology and Style -- The Solution -- The Documentary Hypothesis -- 11. Form and Tradition Criticism -- Form Criticism -- Tradition History -- Summary and Evaluation -- 12. Defining and Identifying Secondary Layers -- The External Evidence -- Internal Evidence -- Conclusion -- 13. Positions on Redaction -- Concepts of Redaction in the First Phase of Critical Research up to the Newer Documentary Hypothesis -- The Impact of Redaction History and the Dissolution of the Source Model -- Thinking of Redaction in Light of Empirical Evidence -- 14. The Priestly Writing(s): Scope and Nature

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