Chronicles and Exodus: An Analogy and Its Application (JSOT Supplement Series)

337 Pages·1998·16.41 MB·English

by  William Johnstone

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
275
Editors
David J.A. Clines
Philip R. Davies
Executive Editor
John Jarick
Editorial Board
Robert P. Carroll, Richard J. Coggins, Alan Cooper, J. Cheryl Exum,
John Goldingay, Robert P. Gordon, Norman K. Gottwald,
Andrew D.H. Mayes, Carol Meyers, Patrick D. Miller
Sheffield Academic Press
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Chronicles and Exodus
An Analogy and its Application
William Johnstone
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Supplement Series 275
To my students in Aberdeen,
who made me try to explain it this way
Copyright © 1998 Sheffield Academic Press
Published by
Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
Mansion House
19KingfieldRoad
Sheffield SI 19AS
England
Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press
and
Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain
by Bookcraft Ltd
Midsomer Norton, Bath
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 1-85075-881-6
CONTENTS
Abbreviations 7
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION 9
Parti
THE PROPOSAL:
CHRONICLES AS GATEWAY TO PENTATEUCHAL CRITICISM
Chapter 2
CHRONICLES, CANONS AND CONTEXTS 50
Chapter 3
THE EXODUS AS PROCESS 74
Part II
LOOKING AT THE GATEWAY:
CHRONICLES IN ITSELF AND IN ITS RELATION TO THE PENTATEUCH
Chapter 4
GUILT AND ATONEMENT: THE THEME OF 1 AND 2 CHRONICLES 90
Chapter 5
THE USE OF LEVITICUS IN CHRONICLES 115
Chapter 6
PROSPECTIVE ATONEMENT:
THE USE OF EXODUS 30.11-16 IN 1 CHRONICLES 21 128
6 Chronicles and Exodus
Part III
LOOKING THROUGH THE GATEWAY:
APPLYING THE ANALOGY TO THE PENTATEUCH
Chapter 7
REACTIVATING THE CHRONICLES ANALOGY IN
PENTATEUCHAL STUDIES, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE SINAI PERICOPE IN EXODUS 142
Chapter 8
THE DECALOGUE AND THE REDACTION OF THE
SINAI PERICOPE IN EXODUS 168
Chapter 9
THE Two THEOLOGICAL VERSIONS OF THE
PASSOVER PERICOPE IN EXODUS 198
Chapter 10
THE DEUTERONOMISTIC CYCLES OF 'SIGNS'
AND 'WONDERS' IN EXODUS 1-13 217
Chapter 11
FROM THE SEA TO THE MOUNTAIN. EXODUS 15.22-19.2:
A CASE STUDY IN EDITORIAL TECHNIQUES 242
Chapter 12
FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO KADESH,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EXODUS 32.30-34.29 262
Part IV
THE VIEW BEYOND
Chapter 13
SOLOMON'S PRAYER (2 CHRONICLES 6):
IS INTENTIONALISM SUCH A FALLACY? 282
Chapter 14
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH REVISITED 298
Index of References 307
Index of Authors 329
ABBREVIATIONS
AEL
E.W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (8 vols.; London:
Williams andNorgate, 1863-93)
AnBib Analecta biblica
ANET James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating
to the Old Testament (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1950)
AusBR Australian Biblical Review
BBB Bonner biblische Beitrage
BDB Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew
and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1907)
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium
BHS Biblia hebraica stuttgartensia
Bib Biblica
BKAT Biblischer Kommentar: Altes Testament
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift
BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
EA J.A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln n(Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs,
1908-15)
EncJud Encyclopaedia Judaic a
EurHS Europaische Hochschulschriften
EvT Evangelische Theologie
ExpTim Expository Times
GKC Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (ed. E. Kautzsch, revised and
trans. A.E. Cowley; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910)
GNB Good News Bible
JB Jerusalem Bible
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies
JPSV Jewish Publication Society Version
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement
Series
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
LD Lectio divina
NCB New Century Bible
NEB New English Bible
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
8 Chronicles and Exodus
OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis
OTG Old Testament Guides
OTL Old Testament Library
OTS Oudtestamentische Studien
RB Revue biblique
RSV Revised Standard Version
SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien
SET Studies in Biblical Theology
SJT Scottish Journal of Theology
SOTSMS Society for Old Testament Study Monograph Series
ST Studio theologica
SVTP Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha
TDOT G.J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds.), Theological
Dictionary of the Old Testament
TGUOS Transactions of the Glasgow University Oriental Society
TLZ Theologische Literaturzeitung
TQ Theologische Quartalschrift
TRu Theologische Rundschau
TynBul Tyndale Bulletin
TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
UBS United Bible Society
VF Verkiindigung und Forschung
VT Vetus Testamentum
VTC S. Mandelkern, Veteris Testamenti Concordantiae (Leipzig,
1925)
VTSup Vetus Testamentum, Supplements
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
WMANT Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alien und Neuen
Testament
ZAW Zeitschrift fiir die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
A Change of Direction
As is now well documented, since at least the 1970s profound and far-
reaching changes have been taking place in Pentateuchal criticism.1 It
would be idle to claim that the train of thought represented in the essays
in this collection has not been encouraged and influenced by that
changing climate. Yet it has been stimulated also—perhaps, even,
mainly—by specific local factors, the commonplace character of which,
however, prompts the hope that the following account will spark some
recognition among fellow-travellers through this controversial terrain.
The fundamental local factor stimulating change in my strategy in
Pentateuchal study was the requirement in 1972-73 to teach a final
honours course in the religion of ancient Israel to students who, as stu-
dents of Religious Studies, had no formal training in Old Testament
criticism. The challenge was to construct a course that would not only
be accessible to the students concerned but also provide a reliable and
intellectually defensible guide to the biblical material. It seemed to me
that the only possible starting-point for such students was to begin at
the end, with the Hebrew Bible as it is in the possession of all, rather
than with the reconstruction of beginnings based on prevailing critical
1. For the Pentateuch as a whole, see for example J. Blenkinsopp, The Penta-
teuch: An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible (London: SCM Press,
1992); C. Houtman, Der Pentateuch: Die Geschichte seiner Erforschung neben
einer Auswertung (Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology, 8; Kampen:
Pharos, 1994); E.W. Nicholson, The Pentateuch in the Twentieth Century: The
Legacy of Julius Wellhausen (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998). For Exodus,
M. Vervenne (ed.), Studies in the Book of Exodus: Redaction-Reception-Interpre-
tation (BETL, 126; Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 1996); T.B. Doze-
man, God at War: Power in the Exodus Tradition (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996).