Re-Reading the Scriptures: Essays on the Literary History of the Old Testament

This volume contains 15 papers written by Christoph Levin between 2001 and 2011, four of them unpublished. One main focus is on the Pentateuch, mainly on the oldest comprehensive narrative source, the Yahwist, which was written at the beginning of the Jewish diaspora. One paper gives an outline of the features of this source as they emerge resulting from an inquiry into their redaction history. In addition the full text of the Yahwist’s history is given in an English translation, the sources used by the editor being distinguished from the editorial text. Other papers deal with single stories of the Yahwist’s history, such as the narrative of creation and fall in Gen 2-3, the story of Joseph’s fate in Egypt in Gen 39, the story of the call of Moses in Exod 3, and the story of the miracle at the sea in Exod 14. A second focus is on the books of Kings, on their chronological structure as well as on the final two chapters 2 Kgs 24-25. The author deals with the prophetical books, in particular with the theology of the word of God in the book of Jeremiah and with the day of Yahweh within the book of Zephaniah. He also studies the Israelite religion in the time of the monarchy, the origins of biblical Covenant theology, and the Old Testament attitude to poverty. All the papers are based on a detailed investigation into the literary growth of the biblical text. The author shows that the Old Testament as we know it originated from a process of continual re-reading during the Second Temple period.