The Book of Judges: The Art of Editing.

• Author: Grossberg, Daniel

The present volume is a revised dissertation written under the supervision of Meir Sternberg. The author has learned well from her mentor. As does her teacher, Amit works in biblical studies and poetics, demonstrating a fine command of the methodology of the two fields and exhibiting familiarity with the scholarly literature of both.

After a brief overview of evidence of editing in several biblical books (chap. 1), Amit isolates two editorial characteristics centering on "signs" and "leadership." These, she claims, are responsible for the shape and message of Judges (chap. 2). The body of the work is Amit's demonstration that these principles explain the editorial decisions of selection, combination, and adaptation of the material in the various parts of Judges: the exposition (chap. 3), the independent stories (chap. 4), the story cycles (chap. 5), and the conclusion (chap. 6). Amit concludes her investigation with a discussion of the time and setting of the final editing of the book (chap. 7).

Amit studies the received text of Judges and does not concern herself with a reconstruction of alleged sources of the book. Her study finds that most of the elements of the whole, even those appended at a later stage in the transmission of the book, are consistent thematically and stylistically with the two major editorial characteristics. The "signs" Amit identifies are a set of divinely given direct or indirect indications to the nation, testifying to God's providence and direction of the course of events in the history of the people. Such signs include the historical and religious cycles that unify most of Judges and the portrayal of the judges as messengers of God.

The editor's...