Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
Hebrew Union College Annual
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2019) 163-184
Keywords:
Moses
;
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Bible. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
;
Intertextuality in the Bible
Abstract:
The dominance of Moses in pre-Persian Jewish tradition is affirmed by the role he plays in the Pentateuch, the ultimate testament to his authority. Yet the Pentateuch was a product of the Aaronide priests of the Persian period, and uses Moses to rhetorically secure their positions as mediators of both ancient Jewish traditions and Persian imperialism. The Pentateuch's closing verses recruit Moses to validate this effort, situating the Aaronide priests as the trustees of Moses's own legacy and subordinating all other Israelite prophetic traditions in the process. The creation of the Book of the Twelve by Levite scribes in the late Persian period appears to constitute a response to this. It recruits the name of Moses at strategic points throughout its collection of prophetic oracles to challenge the rhetorical claims of the Pentateuch and the priesthood that work was created to benefit. Moses is thus caught between the Pentateuch and the Book of the Twelve, which together point to a larger network of Moses traditions beyond their literary boundaries that each authorial group sought to annex and deploy.
DOI:
10.15650/hebruniocollannu.90.2019.0163
URL:
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