What is meant by attributing texts to Moses in Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism? The answer depends not only on the history of texts but also on the history of concepts of textuality. This book criticizes the terms "Pseudepigraphy" and "Rewritten Bible", which presuppose conceptions of authentic attribution and textual fidelity foreign to ancient Judaism. Instead, this book develops the concept of a discourse whose creativity and authority depend on repeated returns to the exemplary figure and experience of a founder. Attribution to Moses is a central example, whose function is to re-present the experience of revelation at Sinai. Distinctive features of Mosaic discourse are studied in Deuteronomy, Jubilees, the Temple Scroll, and the works of Philo of Alexandria.
Author(s): Hindy Najman
Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 77
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 190
SECONDING SINAI: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in Second Temple Judaism......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
General Abbreviations......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 13
The History of Texts and the History of Textuality......Page 16
Four Features of Mosaic Discourse......Page 31
Deuteronomy and the Origin of Mosaic Discourse......Page 34
Reworking as Expansion and Omission......Page 35
Self-Ascribed Status of Torah......Page 44
Re-Presentation of Sinaitic Revelation......Page 46
Pseudonymous Attribution to Moses......Page 51
Conclusion......Page 54
The Proliferation of Second Temple Interpretation......Page 56
Reworking Authoritative Literature in Jubilees and 11QTemple......Page 58
Jubilees and 11QTemple as This Torah......Page 65
Sinai Revisited......Page 68
Appeals to Pre-Sinaitic Authority......Page 71
Mediated versus Unmediated Revelation......Page 75
Divine Pseudepigraphon......Page 78
Conclusion......Page 83
The Authority of the Figure and Law of Moses in a Hellenistic Context......Page 85
Philo of Alexandria and the Discourse of Moses......Page 115
Conclusion......Page 121
Later Developments of Mosaic Discourse......Page 123
Ezra and the Torah of Moses......Page 126
Jubilees and תורה שבעל פה (Oral Torah)......Page 132
Unwritten Natural Law and Written Mosaic Law......Page 141
Bibliography......Page 154
D......Page 178
L......Page 179
S......Page 180
W......Page 181
Z......Page 182
M......Page 183
W......Page 184
Index of Primary Texts......Page 185
Back Matter......Page 192
