A Farewell to the Yahwist?
My copy of A Farewell to the Yahwist? arrived this morning and I look forward to digging in.
Blurb
Since the “assured results” of scholarship are rarely certain, it should come as no surprise that the classical formulation of the Documentary Hypothesis has yet again been called into question. However, many North American scholars are unfamiliar with the work of a new generation of European scholars who are advancing an alternate view of the compositional history of the Pentateuch. A growing consensus in Europe argues that the larger blocks of pentateuchal tradition, especially the stories of the patriarchs and Moses, were not redactionally linked before the Priestly Code, as the J hypothesis suggests, but existed side by side as two independent, rival myths of Israel’s origins. This volume makes available both the most recent European scholarship on the Pentateuch and its critical discussion, providing a helpful resource and fostering further dialogue between North American and European interpreters.
Glad to see you have decided to check this one out. Let me know your thoughts on it. I’m not taken away with its methodology, but it does say something important about the state of Pentateuchal studies at present.
Yeah, looks like a really good book. I’ve been wanting to read it one of these days. I’m not as up on Pentateuch as I’d like to be (most of my emphasis is on DtrH with a growing interest in Ezra-Nehemiah) but perhaps I can use this as an excuse to heed part of the plea to be a solid generalist scholar, as is the discussion of late due to the SBL forum post!
I’ve read the first few essays and they are quite thought provoking. I am not completely taken with their arguments thus far but they certainly raise some important points.
Do you know of a good explanation of why we should be dating Gen. 1-2:4 to the exilic/post-exilic period. I’ve Gunkel’s Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton but I’m looking for something more succinct and modern.