315 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXII N° 3-4, mei-augustus 2005 316 OUDE TESTAMENT to make an early link to the Exodus-story, namely Genesis 15 and the Joseph story. In each case it is argued that, while GERTZ, J.Chr., K. SCHMID, M. WITTE (Hrsg.) — Abschied these units contain much material that is earlier than P, it is vom Jahwisten. Die Komposition des Hexateuch in der designed as a polemic against the prominence of the Exodus jüngsten Diskussion (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die tradition and as such cannot originally have been part of the alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 315). Walter de Gruyter same narrative. It must be said that the alleged polemic is in & Co., Berlin, 2002. (32 cm, XI, 345). ISBN 3-11- both cases rather difficult to hear. H.C. Schmitt's essay attrib- 017121-X. /98,-. utes Exodus 34.10-28, often in the past thought to be J's for- mulation of the terms of the Sinai covenant, to the late For well over 200 years of modern Old Testament criti- Deuteronomistic final redactor of the Pentateuch. Such a view cism a source-document known first as the Jehovist and then seems to overlook the very different view in Deuteronomy as the Jahwist or Yahwist (J) has been a central feature of 9-10 about the basis for the renewal of the covenant after the attempts to unravel the process by which the book of Gene- episode of the Golden Calf (viz. the Decalogue). Four con- sis and in subsequent research the rest of the Pentateuch was tributions (by T.B. Dozeman, M. Witte, T.C. Römer and A.G. composed. Perceptions of this document and its author have Auld) deal with the book of Numbers, whose non-Priestly varied, as the history of research by J.-L. Ska in this volume narratives are seen here as providing no basis for the hypoth- shows (pp. 1-23), but perhaps the most influential has been esis of a continuous Yahwist source. Two more general stud- Gerhard von Rad's description of J as a theological writer ies, by E.A. Knauf and R.G. Kratz, seek respectively to cor- who adapted and enriched the traditions of earlier times relate stages of the Hexateuch's origins by ‘content criticism' around a pre-existing credal structure and so established the with the history of Israel and to establish a firm connection essential shape and theology of the Hexateuch as early as the between the wilderness narratives (and the Exodus story) and tenth century B.C. A number of distinguished scholars con- the conquest of the land of Canaan at a stage prior to any tinue to maintain that such a source existed (e.g. J.A. Emer- Deuteronomistic or Priestly stage of composition. ton, E.W. Nicholson, L. Schmidt, W.H. Schmidt), though not But in several ways the most interesting contribution is that necessarily with as an early an origin in the pre-exilic period by Erhard Blum (pp. 119-56). Blum's extensive earlier work as von Rad thought, and some would date it to the exilic on the Pentateuch had already involved a ‘Farewell to the period (e.g. C. Levin, M. Rose, J. Van Seters: against such Yahwist', since he attributed the main creative theological a late date see recently J.A. Emerton, ‘The Date of the Yah- shaping of the narrative to a ‘D-Komposition' (beginning at wist', in J. Day [ed.], In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel [JSOT Genesis 12) and a ‘P-Komposition', which incorporated it Supplement 406: London and New York, 2004], pp. 107-29). (beginning at Genesis 1). Earlier narrative sequences covered However, since about 1975 the application of critical meth- only a portion of the story of Israel's origins. A similar view ods such as redaction-criticism and the study of the develop- is still maintained by William Johnstone (pp. 247-73 of this ment of traditions, which have proved their value in other volume). Here Blum focuses attention on the key issue raised areas of Old Testament study, has led a number of scholars by ‘the most recent discussion', namely the stage of compo- to quite different ways of conceiving the early history of the sition at which the patriarchal narrative was first joined to the composition of the Pentateuch/Hexateuch. It is fourteen con- Exodus narrative in a literary work. He is strongly critical of tributions by such scholars who have ‘taken leave' (Abschied) some of the arguments put forward by Schmid and Gertz to of the Yahwist which make up this new volume: in addition attribute this initial linkage to the Priestly source (Exodus 3 there is a bibliography of earlier and more recent literature as a late ‘bridge-passage'; Exodus 1.8-10 as dependent on on the subject. Exodus 1.7P). But he nevertheless accepts their conclusion, A common thread that runs through most of the essays is largely it seems because he is now persuaded of the view that the view that the major sections of the Pentateuchal/Hexa- passages in Genesis (esp. ch. 15 and 50.24(-26)) which had teuchal narrative — the Primeval History (Genesis 1-11), the previously formed key elements in his D-Komposition are patriarchal narratives (Genesis 12-50), the story of the Exo- much later in origin and come from a post-Priestly stage of dus and the encounter with God at Mount Sinai (Exodus 1- redaction. His D-Komposition therefore begins in Exodus 1 40) and perhaps subsequent episodes — were first brought (at verse 10?), no earlier. Those, like the reviewer, who together into a single written composition in the Priestly already doubted the extent of Deuteronomistic influence per- Work (P) in the sixth or fifth century B.C., that is after the ceived by Blum (and Johnstone) in Genesis and Exodus will fall of the Judaean state to the Babylonians. It is perhaps this not be too surprised by his change of view, except that one epoch-making role attributed to the Priestly Work which jus- might ask why he could not have ‘jumped the other way'. If tified the inclusion of the essay of A. de Pury on the divine evidence is lacking for a D-Komposition straddling Genesis title ‘Elohim' (pp. 25-47), which is mainly about its use in P and Exodus, should not such evidence as there is for conti- and has no direct relevance to questions about the Yahwist. nuity in non-Priestly material be attributed to a non-D strand The other essays for the most part discuss particular biblical which may as well be earlier as later than the Priestly source, books or parts of books where passages have traditionally especially when (despite the claims of some) it shows no real been attributed to J, questioning either their early date or their signs of being dependent on P? Blum himself mentions in connection with other parts of the narrative or both. Thus J. passing two possible ‘leads' in such a direction. One is that, Blenkinsopp, as in earlier writings of his, argues that the non- even without Genesis 50.24 as an ‘anchor point' in Genesis, Priestly sections of Genesis 1-11 come from a post-exilic Exodus 1.6 and 8 could readily be understood as an early tran- ‘lay' source which dealt only with the beginnings of sition between the patriarchal narratives and Exodus. Blum's mankind. Two of the editors who have already published sub- view that these verses are dependent on and so not earlier than stantial books in this field, J.C. Gertz and K. Schmid, treat the transitional passage in Judges 2.8-10 and that the latter sections later in Genesis which have been thought in the past passage is Deuteronomistic is by no means necessary: some 317 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — OUDE TESTAMENT 318 scholars (e.g. recently C. Levin) have seen the relationship cal texts for their daily life. This is the reviewer’s first between the passages as the other way round. Secondly, Blum favourable impression of the present study. cites an earlier article of his in which he examined the con- Hanson himself presents two respects in which, in his own currence of Jacob and Exodus traditions in Hosea 12 (‘Noch opinion, his work transcends certain limitations in classical einmal: Jakobs Traum in Bethel — Genesis 28,10-22', in S.L. theologies of the Old Testament as e.g. of Eichrodt and von McKenzie and T. Römer [ed.], Rethinking the Foundations: Rad. Hanson treats the diversity of theological traditions, with Historiography in the Ancient World and in the Bible [Bei- an appreciation for the unique contribution each makes to the hefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, theology of the Bible as a whole, especially to the under- 294: Berlin, 2000], pp. 33-54, esp. 44-49). It is true, as he standing of the concept of community. Priestly, sapiential and says, that this by itself only proves a ‘cognitive' and not a lit- apocalyptic traditions take their place alongside the histori- erary connection between the two traditions in the northern cal and prophetic traditions, more favoured by earlier the- kingdom in the eighth century B.C. But further indications of ologies of the Old Testament. A second way in which Han- such a connection can be found in evidence which points to son transcends the limitations of these theologies is by going the combination of the two traditions in the context of the beyond the writings of the Hebrew Bible. A historical northern shrine of Bethel and its worship (cf.