This would institute probably, more than just one author or editors/redactors at least for units like the Torah: 1 Chronicles 8.29-38 and 1 Chronicles 9.35-44 Exodus 23.19 and Exodus 34.26 Joshua 15.14-19 and Judges 1.10-15 2 Samuel 22.1-51 and Psalms 18.1-50 2 Samuel 23.8-39 and 1 Chronicles 11.11-47 1 Kings 3.5-13 and 2 Chronicles 1.7-12…

All historical figures: Shishak (= Sheshonq I), pharaoh, r. 945–924, 1 Kings 11.40 and 14:25, in his inscriptions, including the record of his military campaign in Palestine in his 924 B.C.E. inscription on the exterior south wall of the Temple of Amun at Karnak in Thebes. See OROT, pp. 10, 31–32, 502 note 1; many…

Mark S. Smith’s Where the Gods Are: Spatial Dimensions of Anthropomorphism in the Biblical World. Excerpt: In short, some of these sources (P and D) show a trend moving away from the idea of a divine body in any location, while others (Ezek 1, Second Isaiah, Dan 7, and 1 Enoch) were moving toward a…

What was the figure? There are diverse hypotheses, notably that the being is an angel, and that he is a river-demon or was originally presented as one (with the biblical redactors/authors ‘masking’ this identification). There are objections to both readings, and another proposal (made notably by Hamori in When Gods Were Men) is that the…

The book’s traditional origin is that it was written in the late fifteenth century BCE, coming from the hand of Moses during Israel’s journey through the wilderness toward Canaan following the exodus from Egypt. While many of the folklore elements found in the book must predate the time of its creation, their cumulative weight points…

Sarna has interesting suggestions here (in Understanding Genesis): Hundley has pretty valuable insights and objections to the proposal that Jacob’s adversary here is a river spirit or a “demon”, he notes that: 134 Perhaps the man’s desire to leave before daybreak signals not a loss of power (for which there is no compelling evidence), but…

Thomas Romer in his book The Invention Of God(Harvard University Press; 2014) has this to say about that verse:The fact that “man” in the image of god is male and female may refer to the tradition of the divine couple(Yhwh and Asherah) , transposed to the human couple, or it may express that god contains…

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Objections raised to Moses as author: 1. Torah has no direct evidence of authorship – it is not “autographed”2. Different styles of writing are present – repetitive style of Gen. 17 is much different from dynamic style of Gen. 15 (both passages concern the covenant God made with Abraham)3. Use of names and facts from…

Eugene H. Maly provides this outline of Genesis with tentative ascription to the Yahwist, Elohist, and Priestly sources (The Jerome Biblical Commentary, pp. 9-10) I. Primitive History (1-11) (A1) Creation of World and Man (1:1-2:4a) (P)A. Creation of Man and Woman (2:4b-25) (J)B. The Fall (3:1-24) (J)C. Cain and Abel (4:1-16) (J)D. Genealogy of Cain…