The book begins with a critical evaluation of the various scholarly assessments of the historical setting and development of the Pentateuchal murmuring theme and the Priestly School's contribution thereto. It goes on to analyze four major priestly texts: the manna story (Exodus 16); the story of the Scouts (Numbers 13-14); the story of the rebellions surrounding the figure of Korah (Numbers 16-17) and the story of the Waters of Merivah (Numbers 20).

This book deals with the stories of Israelite complaint or murmuring in the wilderness found in the books of Exodus and Numbers that were composed and edited by the priesthood of ancient Israel. It discusses the significance of the theme of rebellion and complaint for the ancient priests and analyses the part they played in the development of the theme in the Pentateuch. After a general introduction on the theme of murmuring and on the Priestly School, the book goes on to analyze four major priestly texts: the manna story (Exodus 16); the story of the Scouts (Numbers 13-14); the story of the rebellions surrounding the figure of Korah (Numbers 16-17) and the story of the Waters of Merivah (Numbers 20). The significance of the book is two-fold. First, it develops a methodology that allows one to discriminate between early priestly narrative materials and later priestly editorial supplementation. Second, the work demonstrates the antiquity of the priestly narrative lore in the Pentateuch and the significant role which the priests played in creating and developing major narrative traditions in ancient Israel.

A fresh look at the Priestly narrative that places less weight on linguistic criteria alone in favor of narrative coherence Boorer explores the theology of an originally independent Priestly narrative (Pg), extending through Genesis–Numbers, as a whole. In this book she describes the structure of the Priestly narrative, in particular its coherent sequential and parallel patterns. Boorer argues that at every point in the narrative’s sequential and parallel structure, it reshapes past traditions, synthesizing these with contemporary and unique elements into future visions, in a way that is akin to the timelessness of liturgical texts. The book sheds new light on what this material might have sought to accomplish as a whole, and how it might have functioned for, its original audience. Solid arguments based on genre and themes, with regard to a once separate Priestly narrative (Pg) that concludes in Numbers 27* Thorough discussion of the overall interpretation of the Priestly narrative (Pg), by bringing together consideration of its structure and genre Clear illustration of how understanding the genre of the material and its hermeneutics of time is vital for interpreting Pg as a whole

Written by leading experts in the field, The Book of Exodus: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation offers a wide-ranging treatment of the main aspects of Exodus. Its twenty-four essays fall under four main sections. The first section contains studies of a more general nature, including the history of Exodus in critical study, Exodus in literary and historical study, as well as the function of Exodus in the Pentateuch. The second section contains commentary on or interpretation of specific passages (or sections) of Exodus, as well as essays on its formation, genres, and themes. The third section contains essays on the textual history and reception of Exodus in Judaism and Christianity. The final section explores the theologies of the book of Exodus.

It is often presumed that biblical redaction was invariably done using scribal methods, meaning that when editors sought to modify or compile existing texts, they would do so in the process of rewriting them upon new scrolls. There is, however, substantial evidence pointing to an alternative scenario: Various sections of the Hebrew Bible appear to have been created through a process of material redaction. In some cases, ancient editors simply appended new sheets to existing scrolls. Other times, they literally cut and pasted their sources, carving out patches of text from multiple manuscripts and then gluing them together like a collage. Idan Dershowitz shows how this surprising technique left behind telltale traces in the biblical text - especially when the editors made mistakes - allowing us to reconstruct their modus operandi. Material evidence from the ancient Near East and elsewhere further supports his hypothesis.

Addressing a topic of perennial interest in Christian theology, this volume offers a constructive account of the doctrine of providence. Mark Elliott shows that, contrary to received opinion, the Bible has a lot to say about providence as a distinct doctrine within the wider scope of God's acts of salvation. This book by a leading scholar of Christian theology and exegesis is a capstone of years of research on the history and theology of the doctrine of providence.

This book explores God’s use of violence as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the Pentateuch, it reads biblical narratives and codes of law as documenting formations of theopolitical imagination. Ophir deciphers the logic of divine rule that these documents betray, with a special attention to the place of violence within it. The book draws from contemporary biblical scholarship, while also engaging critically with contemporary political theory and political theology, including the work of Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, Jan Assmann, Regina Schwartz, and Michael Walzer. Ophir focuses on three distinct theocratic formations: the rule of disaster, where catastrophes are used as means of governance; the biopolitical rule of the holy, where divine violence is spatially demarcated and personally targeted; and the rule of law where divine violence is vividly remembered and its return is projected, anticipated, and yet postponed, creating a prolonged lull for the text’s present. Different as these formations are, Ophir shows how they share an urform that anticipates the main outlines of the modern European state, which has monopolized the entire globe. A critique of the modern state, the book argues, must begin in revisiting the deification of the state, unpacking its mostly repressed theological dimension.

This collection of essays examines how stories from the biblical narrative of "Israel in the Wilderness" (Exodus 16-Deuteronomy 34) were interpreted by later Jewish and Christian writers (ca. 400 BCE-500 CE). Stories such as those about manna and water from a rock, the Golden Calf incident, Koraha (TM)s rebellion, and the death of Moses provided later Jewish and Christian writers with a treasure trove of material for reflection and interpretation. Whereas individual essays investigate how particular literary works, such as Ben Sira, Qumran documents, New Testament writings, the Apostolic Fathers, and Targums, appropriated the biblical text, taken together the essays form an exercise in uncovering the hermeneutical imagination of interpreters during formative periods of Jewish and Christian thought. This volume will be valuable to those interested in ancient Judaism and early Christianity, the history of interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, and the hermeneutical appropriation of sacred texts.