Jeffrey Stackert is Professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago. His work situates the Hebrew Bible in the context of the larger ancient Near Eastern world in which it was composed. His recent research has focused on the composition of the Pentateuch, ancient Near Eastern prophecy, cultic texts, and ancient Near Eastern law. Phone: 773-702-8994 Address: Swift Hall
1025 E. 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
The book of Deuteronomy introduces and develops many of the essential ideas, events, and texts of... more The book of Deuteronomy introduces and develops many of the essential ideas, events, and texts of both Judaism and Christianity, and it has thus been a resource—and in some instances even a starting point—for investigations of themes and concepts beyond it. In this volume, Jeffrey Stackert deftly guides the reader through major topics in the interpretation of Deuteronomy and its relationship to the other four pentateuchal books. Considering subjects such as the relationship between law and narrative, the role of Deuteronomy in Israel’s history, its composition and reception history, the influence of cuneiform legal and treaty traditions, textual and archaeological evidence from the Levant and Mesopotamia, and the status of Deuteronomy within the larger biblical canon, this book introduces ongoing debates surrounding the book of Deuteronomy and offers a contemporary evaluation of the latest textual and material evidence.
Featuring contributions from internationally-recognized scholars in the study of the Pentateuch, ... more 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.
Jeffrey Stackert addresses two of the oldest and most persistent problems in biblical studies: th... more Jeffrey Stackert addresses two of the oldest and most persistent problems in biblical studies: the relationship between prophecy and law in the Hebrew Bible and the utility of the Documentary Hypothesis for understanding Israelite religion. These topics have in many ways dominated pentateuchal studies and the investigation of Israelite religion since the nineteenth century, culminating in Julius Wellhausen's influential Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel. Setting his inquiry against this backdrop while drawing on and extending recent developments in pentateuchal theory, Stackert tackles the subject through an investigation of the different presentations of Mosaic prophecy in the four Torah sources. His book shows that these texts contain a rich and longstanding debate over prophecy, its relation to law, and its place in Israelite religion.
With this argument, A Prophet Like Moses demonstrates a new role for the Documentary Hypothesis in discussions of Israelite religion. It also provides an opportunity for critical reflection on the history of the field of biblical studies. Stackert concludes with an argument for the importance of situating biblical studies and the study of ancient Israelite religion within the larger field of religious studies rather than treating them solely or even primarily as theological disciplines.
This book explores literary correspondences among the pentateuchal legal corpora and especially t... more This book explores literary correspondences among the pentateuchal legal corpora and especially the relationships between similar laws in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Legislation (Lev 17-26, the so-called "Holiness Code," as well as significant parts of the Priestly source elsewhere in the Pentateuch). Resemblances between these law collections range from broad structure to fine detail and include treatments of similar legal topics, correlations with regard to sequence of laws, and precise grammatical and lexical correspondences. Yet the nature and basis of these resemblances persist as debated points among biblical scholars. Through an analysis of the pentateuchal laws on asylum, seventh-year release, manumission, and tithes, the book argues that the Holiness Legislation depends upon both the Covenant Collection and Deuteronomy. It also elucidates the compositional logic of the Holiness legislators, showing that these authors do not simply replicate pre-existing legal content. Rather, they employ a method of literary revision in which they reconceptualize source material according to their own ideological biases. In the end, the Holiness Legislation proves to be a "super law" that collects and distills the Priestly and non-Priestly laws that precede it. By accommodating, reformulating, and incorporating various viewpoints from these sources, the Holiness authors create a work that is intended to supersede them all.
This book is a collection of essays on purification and atonement in the Hebrew Bible that provid... more This book is a collection of essays on purification and atonement in the Hebrew Bible that provides new insights into the discussion of these ideas by looking at the values of sociological and anthropological approaches to the topics. The collection also examines multivalence and polyvalence in ritual and asks to what extent it is possible to speak of the function or meaning of ritual, even within the highly systematic priestly texts.
Essays on the history, religion, language, and culture of the Ancient Near East as well as articl... more Essays on the history, religion, language, and culture of the Ancient Near East as well as articles on ancient Israel and the Bible, including essays on later Jewish History and Indic studies. Articles include topics such as the concept of "soul," how ancients calculated the size of the sky, numerous essays on incantations, gender aspects of heaven and earth, Dumuzi literature, Assyria in the Septuagint, and comparison of Hammurabi's laws and the Covenant Code.
For a copy of this article, please email me at stackert@uchicago.edu.
This article addresses t... more For a copy of this article, please email me at stackert@uchicago.edu.
This article addresses the value of literary evidence in the assessment of putatively ancient texts, with special focus on Shapira Deuteronomy in the wake of its recent reconsideration. The article argues that, notwithstanding the challenges that attend them, all types of evidenceepigraphic, linguistic, literary-should be assessed, and that each can offer important evaluative insights, individually and in relation to each other. The article concludes with a few specific literary observations on Shapira Deuteronomy. These observations add to the case against this text's status as an ancient work and, as such, demonstrate that literary analysis of the Shapira strips produces significant information regarding their putative antiquity, even apart from any epigraphic or linguistic assessment.
Email me at stackert@uchicago.edu for a pdf of this article.
This article argues against the w... more Email me at stackert@uchicago.edu for a pdf of this article.
This article argues against the well-endorsed view that there is a fundamental link between creation and sanctuary building in P and that the latter is the completion of the former. It shows that a basic discontinuity between creation and sanctuary building is presented in P’s plot and that this discontinuity undergirds P’s pure/impure and sacred/profane dichotomies. In so doing, the article affirms that it is P's story that is the starting point for understanding its various parts.
The Scribe in the Biblical World: A Bridge Between Scripts, Languages and Cultures, 2023
Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
Revisionary compositions exhibit a range of ev... more Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
Revisionary compositions exhibit a range of evidence for reconstructing their genesis, including evidence of the various processes—mental, material, and otherwise—undertaken by the scribes who produced them. Especially in instances where both literary patrimony and inheritor text are available to be compared, detailed identification and rich analysis of this evidence is possible. In this paper, I will consider the phenomenon variously termed “editorial fatigue” or “docile reproduction” that sometimes attends revisionary composition. In such cases, a revisionary author carries over material from a literary patrimony that conflicts with innovations otherwise introduced by that author in the new work created. The result is a lack of content consistency in the revisionary composition. I will begin by addressing the theory of editorial fatigue—or, as I will term it, scribal fatigue—as it has been developed especially in the study of New Testament gospel texts before turning to a number of additional examples, primarily from the Hebrew Bible. I hope to show that literary details ascribed to so-called “fatigue” are part of a larger constellation of related characteristics that together shed important light on the scribal processes involved in revisionary composition. I will then conclude with a brief consideration of the effects of fatigue-related discrepancies on readers, including why these features are relatively easily noticed yet oftentimes perceived as unproblematic and how they can help illuminate scribal practice in literary composition.
Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
The Deuteronomic authors (D) include several r... more Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
The Deuteronomic authors (D) include several references to the Israelites' forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. Yet even where it can be shown that these writers depend upon source material for this tradition, they seek to recast its purpose, a process that also requires modification of particular story elements. Specifically, D transforms the extended wilderness sojourn from a period of punishment to one of preparation. In so doing, it eliminates the tradition of Israelite generation change during this time. Subsequent interpolations were introduced non-systematically into Deuteronomy in order to harmonize D's views with those found elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
Please email me for a copy (stackert@uchicago.edu)
This article argues that the Iron Age II cale... more Please email me for a copy (stackert@uchicago.edu)
This article argues that the Iron Age II calendar plaques that have been discovered in several Judean sites shed light on the pentateuchal Priestly work's calendar and, in particular, its theorization of the Sabbath as a conspicuous interruption (a "sign," Exod 31:17) of conventional calendrical counts.
Please email me for an offprint (stackert@uchicago.edu).
This article seeks to explain the long ... more Please email me for an offprint (stackert@uchicago.edu).
This article seeks to explain the long observed allusion to Exod 24:8 in Mark 14:23. It contextualizes this allusion as part of a more extensive interpretive engagement with the sacrificial ritual described in Exod 24:3–11. In so doing, it identifies an exegetical justification for the consumption of blood in the Last Supper rite, a feature problematically situated in the Jewish milieu from which early Christianity sprang. The article also reflects on Mark 14:23 as an example of ancient biblical interpretation and argues that, by connecting the sacrifice and blood manipulation in Exod 24:4–6 with the meal in v. 11bβ, this gospel text anticipates the modern, source-critical approach that identifies Exod 24:3–8, 11bβ as distinct from Exod 24:1–2, 9–11bα.
The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America; edited by Jan C. Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid
The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah (FAT 107), Edited by P. Dubovský, D. Markl, and J.-P. Sonnet
The pentateuchal Priestly source exhibits indirect evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem and t... more The pentateuchal Priestly source exhibits indirect evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent exile in its P and H strata. Read as a political allegory, the P stratum is most plausibly situated in the preexilic period. P’s conceptualization of the fundamental connection between the land and the sanctuary requires a landed context for its authorship and audience, and its omission of any consideration of divine abandonment or exile makes a postexilic context for its composition problematic. The H stratum, by contrast, exhibits some evidence of Babylonian influence. Particularly relevant are its revisions to P under the apparent influence of Babylonian language and legal practice. H also explicitly acknowledges the possibility of exile, even as it introduces this idea into the theological framework that it inherits from P. Based on their particular ideological perspectives and their specific language, then, P and H are best understood as originating on the two sides of Jerusalem’s destruction.
In 2011, Joshua Berman published a contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate over the sources ... more In 2011, Joshua Berman published a contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate over the sources and dating of Deuteronomy: 'CTH 133 and the Hittite Provenance of Deuteronomy 13.' Berman asserted that a Hittite treaty text from the fifteenth century B. C. E. (Catalogue des Textes hittites [CTH] 133) provides a closer parallel to Deut 13 than does the seventh century Neo-Assyrian text commonly known as the Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon or, more technically, Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty (henceforth, EST). In his estimation, CTH 133 is therefore the preferred literary source for Deut 13. On the basis of those parallels with CTH 133, as well as other similarities that he finds between Deuteronomy and Hittite treaty forms, Berman contended that Deut 13 should be dated to the second millennium B. C. E. The significance of this argument goes to the heart of scholarly methodology and the historical critical method of modern biblical scholarship. If correct, Berman’s claim would overturn the standard scholarly position that the core of Deuteronomy dates to the seventh century, thereby abolishing an Archimedian point scholars use to date other biblical texts.
Because of these methodological implications, we included a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals in an article that recently appeared in this journal, 'Between the Covenant Code and Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty: Deuteronomy 13 and the Composition of Deuteronomy' (2012). The focus of the article, consistent with the theme issue of the journal, was to preview some of the main issues in Deuteronomy research that we will address in the monograph we are preparing for the Yale Anchor Bible Reference Library, Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. We therefore covered a wide range of methodological and interpretive issues, including a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals. We argued that Berman’s rejection of EST as a source for Deuteronomy does not take due notice of the unique parallels between EST and Deut 28 that lend weight to the evidence for the connection between EST and Deut 13. In addition, we rejected Berman’s claims of a source relationship between CTH 133 and Deut 13, and his dating of the text to the Late Bronze Age, because there is no clear evidence for contact between Israelite scribes and fifteenth century Hittite texts, either in the second millennium or later. Berman has now prepared a full-length rejoinder, which appears in this issue. What follows is our response to that rejoinder.
Berman has reframed the debate as a case study on the comparative method. In addition to responding to our specific criticisms of his work, Berman appears to have two main goals: 1) to advocate for a more inclusive consideration of extra-biblical texts as sources for biblical texts – one consequence of which, he assumes, would be a broader range of potential dates for such biblical texts; and 2) to define the criteria for identifying source texts by highlighting ways in which scholars incorrectly narrow their list of extra-biblical sources. His critiques are rather dramatic, and we have given them our full attention in this response. In the process, we have found that the primary and secondary sources on which Berman relies actually provide stronger arguments for our own views, both textually and at a theoretical level. The clearest way to examine these issues is to start with the specific textual arguments and claims Berman makes about the Hittite provenance of Deut 13, and then to step back and consider the larger theoretical structure of his position.
Keywords: Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, canon formula, CTH 133, Joshua Berman, Covenant Code, Tel Tayinat, EST, VTE, Hittite treaty, biblical law, New Historicism, New Criticism, biblical scholarship, compositional history, Deuteronomy, succession, Assurbanipal, Deut 28, Dtn 28, Deut 13, Dtn 13, Pentateuch, law and narrative.
The book of Deuteronomy introduces and develops many of the essential ideas, events, and texts of... more The book of Deuteronomy introduces and develops many of the essential ideas, events, and texts of both Judaism and Christianity, and it has thus been a resource—and in some instances even a starting point—for investigations of themes and concepts beyond it. In this volume, Jeffrey Stackert deftly guides the reader through major topics in the interpretation of Deuteronomy and its relationship to the other four pentateuchal books. Considering subjects such as the relationship between law and narrative, the role of Deuteronomy in Israel’s history, its composition and reception history, the influence of cuneiform legal and treaty traditions, textual and archaeological evidence from the Levant and Mesopotamia, and the status of Deuteronomy within the larger biblical canon, this book introduces ongoing debates surrounding the book of Deuteronomy and offers a contemporary evaluation of the latest textual and material evidence.
Featuring contributions from internationally-recognized scholars in the study of the Pentateuch, ... more 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.
Jeffrey Stackert addresses two of the oldest and most persistent problems in biblical studies: th... more Jeffrey Stackert addresses two of the oldest and most persistent problems in biblical studies: the relationship between prophecy and law in the Hebrew Bible and the utility of the Documentary Hypothesis for understanding Israelite religion. These topics have in many ways dominated pentateuchal studies and the investigation of Israelite religion since the nineteenth century, culminating in Julius Wellhausen's influential Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel. Setting his inquiry against this backdrop while drawing on and extending recent developments in pentateuchal theory, Stackert tackles the subject through an investigation of the different presentations of Mosaic prophecy in the four Torah sources. His book shows that these texts contain a rich and longstanding debate over prophecy, its relation to law, and its place in Israelite religion.
With this argument, A Prophet Like Moses demonstrates a new role for the Documentary Hypothesis in discussions of Israelite religion. It also provides an opportunity for critical reflection on the history of the field of biblical studies. Stackert concludes with an argument for the importance of situating biblical studies and the study of ancient Israelite religion within the larger field of religious studies rather than treating them solely or even primarily as theological disciplines.
This book explores literary correspondences among the pentateuchal legal corpora and especially t... more This book explores literary correspondences among the pentateuchal legal corpora and especially the relationships between similar laws in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Legislation (Lev 17-26, the so-called "Holiness Code," as well as significant parts of the Priestly source elsewhere in the Pentateuch). Resemblances between these law collections range from broad structure to fine detail and include treatments of similar legal topics, correlations with regard to sequence of laws, and precise grammatical and lexical correspondences. Yet the nature and basis of these resemblances persist as debated points among biblical scholars. Through an analysis of the pentateuchal laws on asylum, seventh-year release, manumission, and tithes, the book argues that the Holiness Legislation depends upon both the Covenant Collection and Deuteronomy. It also elucidates the compositional logic of the Holiness legislators, showing that these authors do not simply replicate pre-existing legal content. Rather, they employ a method of literary revision in which they reconceptualize source material according to their own ideological biases. In the end, the Holiness Legislation proves to be a "super law" that collects and distills the Priestly and non-Priestly laws that precede it. By accommodating, reformulating, and incorporating various viewpoints from these sources, the Holiness authors create a work that is intended to supersede them all.
This book is a collection of essays on purification and atonement in the Hebrew Bible that provid... more This book is a collection of essays on purification and atonement in the Hebrew Bible that provides new insights into the discussion of these ideas by looking at the values of sociological and anthropological approaches to the topics. The collection also examines multivalence and polyvalence in ritual and asks to what extent it is possible to speak of the function or meaning of ritual, even within the highly systematic priestly texts.
Essays on the history, religion, language, and culture of the Ancient Near East as well as articl... more Essays on the history, religion, language, and culture of the Ancient Near East as well as articles on ancient Israel and the Bible, including essays on later Jewish History and Indic studies. Articles include topics such as the concept of "soul," how ancients calculated the size of the sky, numerous essays on incantations, gender aspects of heaven and earth, Dumuzi literature, Assyria in the Septuagint, and comparison of Hammurabi's laws and the Covenant Code.
For a copy of this article, please email me at stackert@uchicago.edu.
This article addresses t... more For a copy of this article, please email me at stackert@uchicago.edu.
This article addresses the value of literary evidence in the assessment of putatively ancient texts, with special focus on Shapira Deuteronomy in the wake of its recent reconsideration. The article argues that, notwithstanding the challenges that attend them, all types of evidenceepigraphic, linguistic, literary-should be assessed, and that each can offer important evaluative insights, individually and in relation to each other. The article concludes with a few specific literary observations on Shapira Deuteronomy. These observations add to the case against this text's status as an ancient work and, as such, demonstrate that literary analysis of the Shapira strips produces significant information regarding their putative antiquity, even apart from any epigraphic or linguistic assessment.
Email me at stackert@uchicago.edu for a pdf of this article.
This article argues against the w... more Email me at stackert@uchicago.edu for a pdf of this article.
This article argues against the well-endorsed view that there is a fundamental link between creation and sanctuary building in P and that the latter is the completion of the former. It shows that a basic discontinuity between creation and sanctuary building is presented in P’s plot and that this discontinuity undergirds P’s pure/impure and sacred/profane dichotomies. In so doing, the article affirms that it is P's story that is the starting point for understanding its various parts.
The Scribe in the Biblical World: A Bridge Between Scripts, Languages and Cultures, 2023
Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
Revisionary compositions exhibit a range of ev... more Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
Revisionary compositions exhibit a range of evidence for reconstructing their genesis, including evidence of the various processes—mental, material, and otherwise—undertaken by the scribes who produced them. Especially in instances where both literary patrimony and inheritor text are available to be compared, detailed identification and rich analysis of this evidence is possible. In this paper, I will consider the phenomenon variously termed “editorial fatigue” or “docile reproduction” that sometimes attends revisionary composition. In such cases, a revisionary author carries over material from a literary patrimony that conflicts with innovations otherwise introduced by that author in the new work created. The result is a lack of content consistency in the revisionary composition. I will begin by addressing the theory of editorial fatigue—or, as I will term it, scribal fatigue—as it has been developed especially in the study of New Testament gospel texts before turning to a number of additional examples, primarily from the Hebrew Bible. I hope to show that literary details ascribed to so-called “fatigue” are part of a larger constellation of related characteristics that together shed important light on the scribal processes involved in revisionary composition. I will then conclude with a brief consideration of the effects of fatigue-related discrepancies on readers, including why these features are relatively easily noticed yet oftentimes perceived as unproblematic and how they can help illuminate scribal practice in literary composition.
Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
The Deuteronomic authors (D) include several r... more Please email me for a copy: stackert@uchicago.edu
The Deuteronomic authors (D) include several references to the Israelites' forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. Yet even where it can be shown that these writers depend upon source material for this tradition, they seek to recast its purpose, a process that also requires modification of particular story elements. Specifically, D transforms the extended wilderness sojourn from a period of punishment to one of preparation. In so doing, it eliminates the tradition of Israelite generation change during this time. Subsequent interpolations were introduced non-systematically into Deuteronomy in order to harmonize D's views with those found elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
Please email me for a copy (stackert@uchicago.edu)
This article argues that the Iron Age II cale... more Please email me for a copy (stackert@uchicago.edu)
This article argues that the Iron Age II calendar plaques that have been discovered in several Judean sites shed light on the pentateuchal Priestly work's calendar and, in particular, its theorization of the Sabbath as a conspicuous interruption (a "sign," Exod 31:17) of conventional calendrical counts.
Please email me for an offprint (stackert@uchicago.edu).
This article seeks to explain the long ... more Please email me for an offprint (stackert@uchicago.edu).
This article seeks to explain the long observed allusion to Exod 24:8 in Mark 14:23. It contextualizes this allusion as part of a more extensive interpretive engagement with the sacrificial ritual described in Exod 24:3–11. In so doing, it identifies an exegetical justification for the consumption of blood in the Last Supper rite, a feature problematically situated in the Jewish milieu from which early Christianity sprang. The article also reflects on Mark 14:23 as an example of ancient biblical interpretation and argues that, by connecting the sacrifice and blood manipulation in Exod 24:4–6 with the meal in v. 11bβ, this gospel text anticipates the modern, source-critical approach that identifies Exod 24:3–8, 11bβ as distinct from Exod 24:1–2, 9–11bα.
The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Europe, Israel, and North America; edited by Jan C. Gertz, Bernard M. Levinson, Dalit Rom-Shiloni, and Konrad Schmid
The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of the Torah (FAT 107), Edited by P. Dubovský, D. Markl, and J.-P. Sonnet
The pentateuchal Priestly source exhibits indirect evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem and t... more The pentateuchal Priestly source exhibits indirect evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent exile in its P and H strata. Read as a political allegory, the P stratum is most plausibly situated in the preexilic period. P’s conceptualization of the fundamental connection between the land and the sanctuary requires a landed context for its authorship and audience, and its omission of any consideration of divine abandonment or exile makes a postexilic context for its composition problematic. The H stratum, by contrast, exhibits some evidence of Babylonian influence. Particularly relevant are its revisions to P under the apparent influence of Babylonian language and legal practice. H also explicitly acknowledges the possibility of exile, even as it introduces this idea into the theological framework that it inherits from P. Based on their particular ideological perspectives and their specific language, then, P and H are best understood as originating on the two sides of Jerusalem’s destruction.
In 2011, Joshua Berman published a contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate over the sources ... more In 2011, Joshua Berman published a contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate over the sources and dating of Deuteronomy: 'CTH 133 and the Hittite Provenance of Deuteronomy 13.' Berman asserted that a Hittite treaty text from the fifteenth century B. C. E. (Catalogue des Textes hittites [CTH] 133) provides a closer parallel to Deut 13 than does the seventh century Neo-Assyrian text commonly known as the Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon or, more technically, Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty (henceforth, EST). In his estimation, CTH 133 is therefore the preferred literary source for Deut 13. On the basis of those parallels with CTH 133, as well as other similarities that he finds between Deuteronomy and Hittite treaty forms, Berman contended that Deut 13 should be dated to the second millennium B. C. E. The significance of this argument goes to the heart of scholarly methodology and the historical critical method of modern biblical scholarship. If correct, Berman’s claim would overturn the standard scholarly position that the core of Deuteronomy dates to the seventh century, thereby abolishing an Archimedian point scholars use to date other biblical texts.
Because of these methodological implications, we included a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals in an article that recently appeared in this journal, 'Between the Covenant Code and Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty: Deuteronomy 13 and the Composition of Deuteronomy' (2012). The focus of the article, consistent with the theme issue of the journal, was to preview some of the main issues in Deuteronomy research that we will address in the monograph we are preparing for the Yale Anchor Bible Reference Library, Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. We therefore covered a wide range of methodological and interpretive issues, including a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals. We argued that Berman’s rejection of EST as a source for Deuteronomy does not take due notice of the unique parallels between EST and Deut 28 that lend weight to the evidence for the connection between EST and Deut 13. In addition, we rejected Berman’s claims of a source relationship between CTH 133 and Deut 13, and his dating of the text to the Late Bronze Age, because there is no clear evidence for contact between Israelite scribes and fifteenth century Hittite texts, either in the second millennium or later. Berman has now prepared a full-length rejoinder, which appears in this issue. What follows is our response to that rejoinder.
Berman has reframed the debate as a case study on the comparative method. In addition to responding to our specific criticisms of his work, Berman appears to have two main goals: 1) to advocate for a more inclusive consideration of extra-biblical texts as sources for biblical texts – one consequence of which, he assumes, would be a broader range of potential dates for such biblical texts; and 2) to define the criteria for identifying source texts by highlighting ways in which scholars incorrectly narrow their list of extra-biblical sources. His critiques are rather dramatic, and we have given them our full attention in this response. In the process, we have found that the primary and secondary sources on which Berman relies actually provide stronger arguments for our own views, both textually and at a theoretical level. The clearest way to examine these issues is to start with the specific textual arguments and claims Berman makes about the Hittite provenance of Deut 13, and then to step back and consider the larger theoretical structure of his position.
Keywords: Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, canon formula, CTH 133, Joshua Berman, Covenant Code, Tel Tayinat, EST, VTE, Hittite treaty, biblical law, New Historicism, New Criticism, biblical scholarship, compositional history, Deuteronomy, succession, Assurbanipal, Deut 28, Dtn 28, Deut 13, Dtn 13, Pentateuch, law and narrative.
The authors are preparing a volume for the Yale Anchor Bible Reference Library, Deuteronomy and t... more The authors are preparing a volume for the Yale Anchor Bible Reference Library, Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch, which will examine the following key questions: (1) What is the date and historical context for the composition of Deuteronomy? (2) What is Deuteronomy’s method of composition? (3) What is the relationship between law and narrative in Deuteronomy? (4) What is the intent of Deuteronomy vis-à-vis its Israelite sources? (5) What is the influence of cuneiform legal and treaty traditions upon Deuteronomy and its Israelite forebears? (6) What is Deuteronomy’s status within the compiled Pentateuch (and the larger biblical canon)? In this article, the authors summarize these issues and then examine Deut 13 and its relevance for dealing with each of them.
Keywords: Tel Tayinat, EST, VTE, Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, canon formula, CTH 133, Joshua Berman, Covenant Code, Hittite treaty, biblical law, Deuteronomy, succession, Assurbanipal, Deut 28, Dtn 28, Deut 13, Dtn 13, Pentateuch, law and narrative.
Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 2 (2013): 458-78 (appeared 2014)
Leviticus 21:16–24 enumerate twelve blemishes that disqualify a priest from altar service. We arg... more Leviticus 21:16–24 enumerate twelve blemishes that disqualify a priest from altar service. We argue that the Holiness Legislation’s laws against physically blemished priests serving in the sanctuary are fundamentally related to the Priestly myth’s larger characterization of the Israelite god as a superhuman king, its corresponding understanding of the cult, and, in particular, its views of divine perception. YHWH, whose great powers can effect both good and ill, must be attended by servants whose ministrations are as unobtrusive as possible. It is the inconspicuous quality of priestly officiation that protects these servants as they venture into close proximity with the deity. In the case of the priest without a blemish, the cultic vestments that are required during altar service successfully mitigate the deity’s gaze, functioning as a sort of camouflage for him. Yet these vestments do not sufficiently camouflage a priest with a blemish, and this priest’s physical defect attracts excessive and potentially dangerous divine attention. H’s prohibition against sanctuary service by blemished priests, like the requirement that the priests wear the prescribed, sacred vestments, is thus both concerned to maintain the deity’s royal expectations and preferences – what we will term here his “divine repose” – and to protect the priests who serve the divine sovereign.
An analysis of Evangelical Christian practices of biblical interpretation and their likely contri... more An analysis of Evangelical Christian practices of biblical interpretation and their likely contribution to the Capitol Attack on January 6, 2021
Hosted by Kevin Hector and Jeffrey Stackert and sponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Publ... more Hosted by Kevin Hector and Jeffrey Stackert and sponsored by the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, The Biggest Questions Podcast features interview-style conversations with scholars of religion. Its aim is lively discussion of both the broad range of ideas and practices that constitute religion and how scholars make sense of them. The name of the podcast, then, is meant in both of its senses: as a set of conversations on religion, it addresses what have long been central human concerns. At the same time, in engaging new research, these conversations probe the most pressing questions of the scholars interviewed. Look for The Biggest Questions Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
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With this argument, A Prophet Like Moses demonstrates a new role for the Documentary Hypothesis in discussions of Israelite religion. It also provides an opportunity for critical reflection on the history of the field of biblical studies. Stackert concludes with an argument for the importance of situating biblical studies and the study of ancient Israelite religion within the larger field of religious studies rather than treating them solely or even primarily as theological disciplines.
This article addresses the value of literary evidence in the assessment of putatively ancient texts, with special focus on Shapira Deuteronomy in the wake of its recent reconsideration. The article argues that, notwithstanding the challenges that attend them, all types of evidenceepigraphic, linguistic, literary-should be assessed, and that each can offer important evaluative insights, individually and in relation to each other. The article concludes with a few specific literary observations on Shapira Deuteronomy. These observations add to the case against this text's status as an ancient work and, as such, demonstrate that literary analysis of the Shapira strips produces significant information regarding their putative antiquity, even apart from any epigraphic or linguistic assessment.
This article argues against the well-endorsed view that there is a fundamental link between creation and sanctuary building in P and that the latter is the completion of the former. It shows that a basic discontinuity between creation and sanctuary building is presented in P’s plot and that this discontinuity undergirds P’s pure/impure and sacred/profane dichotomies. In so doing, the article affirms that it is P's story that is the starting point for understanding its various parts.
Revisionary compositions exhibit a range of evidence for reconstructing their genesis, including evidence of the various processes—mental, material, and otherwise—undertaken by the scribes who produced them. Especially in instances where both literary patrimony and inheritor text are available to be compared, detailed identification and rich analysis of this evidence is possible. In this paper, I will consider the phenomenon variously termed “editorial fatigue” or “docile reproduction” that sometimes attends revisionary composition. In such cases, a revisionary author carries over material from a literary patrimony that conflicts with innovations otherwise introduced by that author in the new work created.
The result is a lack of content consistency in the revisionary composition. I will begin by addressing the theory of editorial fatigue—or, as I will term it, scribal fatigue—as it has been developed especially in the study of New Testament gospel texts before turning to a number of additional examples, primarily from the Hebrew Bible. I hope to show that literary details ascribed to so-called “fatigue” are part of a larger constellation of related characteristics that together shed important light on the scribal processes involved in revisionary composition. I will then conclude with a brief consideration of the effects of fatigue-related discrepancies on readers, including why these features are relatively easily noticed yet oftentimes perceived as unproblematic and how they can help illuminate scribal practice in literary composition.
The Deuteronomic authors (D) include several references to the Israelites' forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. Yet even where it can be shown that these writers depend upon source material for this tradition, they seek to recast its purpose, a process that also requires modification of particular story elements. Specifically, D transforms the extended wilderness sojourn from a period of punishment to one of preparation. In so doing, it eliminates the tradition of Israelite generation change during this time. Subsequent interpolations were introduced non-systematically into Deuteronomy in order to harmonize D's views with those found elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
This article argues that the Iron Age II calendar plaques that have been discovered in several Judean sites shed light on the pentateuchal Priestly work's calendar and, in particular, its theorization of the Sabbath as a conspicuous interruption (a "sign," Exod 31:17) of conventional calendrical counts.
This article seeks to explain the long observed allusion to Exod 24:8 in Mark 14:23. It contextualizes this allusion as part of a more extensive interpretive engagement with the sacrificial ritual described in Exod 24:3–11. In so doing, it identifies an exegetical justification for the consumption of blood in the Last Supper rite, a feature problematically situated in the Jewish milieu from which early Christianity sprang. The article also reflects on Mark 14:23 as an example of ancient biblical interpretation and argues that, by connecting the sacrifice and blood manipulation in Exod 24:4–6 with the meal in v. 11bβ, this gospel text anticipates the modern, source-critical approach that identifies Exod 24:3–8, 11bβ as distinct from Exod 24:1–2, 9–11bα.
Babylonian influence. Particularly relevant are its revisions to P under the apparent influence of Babylonian language and legal practice. H also explicitly acknowledges the possibility of exile, even as it introduces this idea into the theological framework that it inherits from P. Based on their particular ideological perspectives and their specific language, then, P and H are best understood as originating on the two sides of Jerusalem’s destruction.
Because of these methodological implications, we included a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals in an article that recently appeared in this journal, 'Between the Covenant Code and Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty: Deuteronomy 13 and the Composition of Deuteronomy' (2012). The focus of the article, consistent with the theme issue of the journal, was to preview some of the main issues in Deuteronomy research that we will address in the monograph we are preparing for the Yale Anchor Bible Reference Library, Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. We therefore covered a wide range of methodological and interpretive issues, including a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals. We argued that Berman’s rejection of EST as a source for Deuteronomy does not take due notice of the unique parallels between EST and Deut 28 that lend weight to the evidence for the connection between EST and Deut 13. In addition, we rejected Berman’s claims of a source relationship between CTH 133 and Deut 13, and his dating of the text to the Late Bronze Age, because there is no clear evidence for contact between Israelite scribes and fifteenth century Hittite texts, either in the second millennium or later. Berman has now prepared a full-length rejoinder, which appears in this issue. What follows is our response to that rejoinder.
Berman has reframed the debate as a case study on the comparative method. In addition to responding to our specific criticisms of his work, Berman appears to have two main goals: 1) to advocate for a more inclusive consideration of extra-biblical texts as sources for biblical texts – one consequence of which, he assumes, would be a broader range of potential dates for such biblical texts; and 2) to define the criteria for identifying source texts by highlighting ways in which scholars incorrectly narrow their list of extra-biblical sources. His critiques are rather dramatic, and we have given them our full attention in this response. In the process, we have found that the primary and secondary sources on which Berman relies actually provide stronger arguments for our own views, both textually and at a theoretical level. The clearest way to examine these issues is to start with the specific textual arguments and claims Berman makes about the Hittite provenance of Deut 13, and then to step back and consider the larger theoretical structure of his position.
Keywords: Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, canon formula, CTH 133, Joshua Berman, Covenant Code, Tel Tayinat, EST, VTE, Hittite treaty, biblical law, New Historicism, New Criticism, biblical scholarship, compositional history, Deuteronomy, succession, Assurbanipal, Deut 28, Dtn 28, Deut 13, Dtn 13, Pentateuch, law and narrative.
With this argument, A Prophet Like Moses demonstrates a new role for the Documentary Hypothesis in discussions of Israelite religion. It also provides an opportunity for critical reflection on the history of the field of biblical studies. Stackert concludes with an argument for the importance of situating biblical studies and the study of ancient Israelite religion within the larger field of religious studies rather than treating them solely or even primarily as theological disciplines.
This article addresses the value of literary evidence in the assessment of putatively ancient texts, with special focus on Shapira Deuteronomy in the wake of its recent reconsideration. The article argues that, notwithstanding the challenges that attend them, all types of evidenceepigraphic, linguistic, literary-should be assessed, and that each can offer important evaluative insights, individually and in relation to each other. The article concludes with a few specific literary observations on Shapira Deuteronomy. These observations add to the case against this text's status as an ancient work and, as such, demonstrate that literary analysis of the Shapira strips produces significant information regarding their putative antiquity, even apart from any epigraphic or linguistic assessment.
This article argues against the well-endorsed view that there is a fundamental link between creation and sanctuary building in P and that the latter is the completion of the former. It shows that a basic discontinuity between creation and sanctuary building is presented in P’s plot and that this discontinuity undergirds P’s pure/impure and sacred/profane dichotomies. In so doing, the article affirms that it is P's story that is the starting point for understanding its various parts.
Revisionary compositions exhibit a range of evidence for reconstructing their genesis, including evidence of the various processes—mental, material, and otherwise—undertaken by the scribes who produced them. Especially in instances where both literary patrimony and inheritor text are available to be compared, detailed identification and rich analysis of this evidence is possible. In this paper, I will consider the phenomenon variously termed “editorial fatigue” or “docile reproduction” that sometimes attends revisionary composition. In such cases, a revisionary author carries over material from a literary patrimony that conflicts with innovations otherwise introduced by that author in the new work created.
The result is a lack of content consistency in the revisionary composition. I will begin by addressing the theory of editorial fatigue—or, as I will term it, scribal fatigue—as it has been developed especially in the study of New Testament gospel texts before turning to a number of additional examples, primarily from the Hebrew Bible. I hope to show that literary details ascribed to so-called “fatigue” are part of a larger constellation of related characteristics that together shed important light on the scribal processes involved in revisionary composition. I will then conclude with a brief consideration of the effects of fatigue-related discrepancies on readers, including why these features are relatively easily noticed yet oftentimes perceived as unproblematic and how they can help illuminate scribal practice in literary composition.
The Deuteronomic authors (D) include several references to the Israelites' forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. Yet even where it can be shown that these writers depend upon source material for this tradition, they seek to recast its purpose, a process that also requires modification of particular story elements. Specifically, D transforms the extended wilderness sojourn from a period of punishment to one of preparation. In so doing, it eliminates the tradition of Israelite generation change during this time. Subsequent interpolations were introduced non-systematically into Deuteronomy in order to harmonize D's views with those found elsewhere in the Pentateuch.
This article argues that the Iron Age II calendar plaques that have been discovered in several Judean sites shed light on the pentateuchal Priestly work's calendar and, in particular, its theorization of the Sabbath as a conspicuous interruption (a "sign," Exod 31:17) of conventional calendrical counts.
This article seeks to explain the long observed allusion to Exod 24:8 in Mark 14:23. It contextualizes this allusion as part of a more extensive interpretive engagement with the sacrificial ritual described in Exod 24:3–11. In so doing, it identifies an exegetical justification for the consumption of blood in the Last Supper rite, a feature problematically situated in the Jewish milieu from which early Christianity sprang. The article also reflects on Mark 14:23 as an example of ancient biblical interpretation and argues that, by connecting the sacrifice and blood manipulation in Exod 24:4–6 with the meal in v. 11bβ, this gospel text anticipates the modern, source-critical approach that identifies Exod 24:3–8, 11bβ as distinct from Exod 24:1–2, 9–11bα.
Babylonian influence. Particularly relevant are its revisions to P under the apparent influence of Babylonian language and legal practice. H also explicitly acknowledges the possibility of exile, even as it introduces this idea into the theological framework that it inherits from P. Based on their particular ideological perspectives and their specific language, then, P and H are best understood as originating on the two sides of Jerusalem’s destruction.
Because of these methodological implications, we included a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals in an article that recently appeared in this journal, 'Between the Covenant Code and Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty: Deuteronomy 13 and the Composition of Deuteronomy' (2012). The focus of the article, consistent with the theme issue of the journal, was to preview some of the main issues in Deuteronomy research that we will address in the monograph we are preparing for the Yale Anchor Bible Reference Library, Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. We therefore covered a wide range of methodological and interpretive issues, including a brief discussion of Berman’s proposals. We argued that Berman’s rejection of EST as a source for Deuteronomy does not take due notice of the unique parallels between EST and Deut 28 that lend weight to the evidence for the connection between EST and Deut 13. In addition, we rejected Berman’s claims of a source relationship between CTH 133 and Deut 13, and his dating of the text to the Late Bronze Age, because there is no clear evidence for contact between Israelite scribes and fifteenth century Hittite texts, either in the second millennium or later. Berman has now prepared a full-length rejoinder, which appears in this issue. What follows is our response to that rejoinder.
Berman has reframed the debate as a case study on the comparative method. In addition to responding to our specific criticisms of his work, Berman appears to have two main goals: 1) to advocate for a more inclusive consideration of extra-biblical texts as sources for biblical texts – one consequence of which, he assumes, would be a broader range of potential dates for such biblical texts; and 2) to define the criteria for identifying source texts by highlighting ways in which scholars incorrectly narrow their list of extra-biblical sources. His critiques are rather dramatic, and we have given them our full attention in this response. In the process, we have found that the primary and secondary sources on which Berman relies actually provide stronger arguments for our own views, both textually and at a theoretical level. The clearest way to examine these issues is to start with the specific textual arguments and claims Berman makes about the Hittite provenance of Deut 13, and then to step back and consider the larger theoretical structure of his position.
Keywords: Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, canon formula, CTH 133, Joshua Berman, Covenant Code, Tel Tayinat, EST, VTE, Hittite treaty, biblical law, New Historicism, New Criticism, biblical scholarship, compositional history, Deuteronomy, succession, Assurbanipal, Deut 28, Dtn 28, Deut 13, Dtn 13, Pentateuch, law and narrative.
Keywords: Tel Tayinat, EST, VTE, Esarhaddon’s Succession Treaty, Vassal Treaty of Esarhaddon, canon formula, CTH 133, Joshua Berman, Covenant Code, Hittite treaty, biblical law, Deuteronomy, succession, Assurbanipal, Deut 28, Dtn 28, Deut 13, Dtn 13, Pentateuch, law and narrative.