This volume offers the first systematic investigation of the literary transitions between the books of Numbers/Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy/Joshua. Placing a special focus on the material aspects of ancient Jewish scribal practices, it retraces the development of these literary transitions and considers the implications of the latter for the broader compositional history of the biblical books in question.
Biblical books, which were transmitted on separate scrolls in antiquity, are not necessarily identical with books in the modern sense of a coherent and self-contained compositional unit. Especially the books of the Primary History constitute a larger master narrative. This raises the question of how the distribution of the text over different scrolls relates to its compositional history. Were the respective books conceived as physically separate parts of a multivolume composition (whether Pentateuch, Hexateuch, Deuteronomistic History or Enneateuch) from the outset, or are we dealing with a more complex development of originally independent compositional units that were only connected or separated by later redaction? The present volume addresses these issues with respect to the book transitions of Deuteronomy, whose relatively freestanding literary shape sets it apart among the books of the Hexateuch.
Table of contents:
Introduction
Part I: The Literary Transition between the Books of Numbers and Deuteronomy
1. Material Evidence -
Stephen Germany: The Attestation of the Book-Seam between Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Early Textual Witnesses - 2. Literary-Historical Approaches - 2.1. History of Research -
Raik Heckl: Der literarische Übergang zwischen den Büchern Numeri und Deuteronomium in der Forschungsgeschichte - 2.2. Contemporary Approaches -
Christian Frevel: Die Buchnaht zwischen Numeri und Deuteronomium. Komposition, Literargeschichte und Rechtshermeneutik -
Nathan MacDonald: The Daughters of Zelophehad and the Legal Hermeneutics of the Pentateuch -
Reinhard Achenbach: Die »Buchnähte« zwischen Numeri und Deuteronomium. Schriftrollen, Réécrituren, Kompilationen, Rollentrennungen. Eine Antwort auf C. Frevel und N. MacDonald
Part II: The Literary Transition between the Books of Deuteronomy and Joshua
1. Material Evidence -
Stephen Germany: The Attestation of the Book-Seam between Deuteronomy and Joshua in the Early Textual Witnesses - 2. Literary-Historical Approaches - 2.1. History of Research -
Erasmus Gaß: Joshua 1 as a Beginning or Continuation? Perspectives from the History of Research - 2.2. Contemporary Approaches -
Stephen Germany: The Literary Transition from Deuteronomy 34 to Joshua 1 -
Joachim J. Krause: Der literarische Übergang in Deuteronomium 34 und Josua 1 -
Philip Y. Yoo: Before and After the Death of Moses: The Literary Transition between Deuteronomy and Joshua -
Reinhard G. Kratz: Eine Methode - Drei Hypothesen. Eine Replik auf die Beiträge von Stephen Germany, Joachim J. Krause und Philip Y. Yoo
Part III: The Larger Context
Christophe L. Nihan: The Reception of Priestly Traditions in Deuteronomy: The Case of Deuteronomy's Laws of Centralization -
Julia Rhyder: Cultic Centralization and Deuteronomy's Influence in the Pentateuch: The Laws of Deuteronomy 12, Exodus 20:22-26, and Leviticus 17 Revisited -
Katharina Pyschny: Der Aufstand Korachs, Datans und Abirams in Numeri 16-17 und sein Verhältnis zu Deuteronomium 11,2-7. Zur Frage von buchübergreifenden kompositions- und redaktionsgeschichtlichen Zusammenhängen in den Büchern Numeri und Deuteronomium -
Zev Farber: The Samaritan Book(s) of Joshua: Composition and Reception History -
Olivier Artus: The Two and a Half Transjordanian Tribes (Numbers 32; Deuteronomy 3:12b-20)
Part IV: Résumé
Reinhard Müller: Die Buchnähte des Deuteronomiums. Ein Resümee
