The pentateuch.

• Author: Erisman, Angela Roskop
• Position: Book review

The Pentateuch. Edited by THOMAS B. DOZEMAN; KONRAD SCHMID; and BARUCH J. ScHwAwrz. For-schungen zum Alten Testament, vol. 78. Tiibingen: MOHR SIEBECK, 2011. Pp. xviii + 578. [euro]129.

This volume is a collection of papers given at an international symposium on the current state of Pentateuchal studies held on January 10-12, 2010, in Zurich, Switzerland. The current state is fragmented: The Graf-Wellhausen documentary hypothesis (JEDP) remains dominant in the United States when it comes to matters of composition history. Israeli scholars tend to focus their attention on refining the documentary hypothesis by using literary models to isolate complete sources and fewer redactions than was typical in source-critical studies of the mid-twentieth century. The Graf-Wellhausen paradigm is no longer dominant in Europe, where attention has turned to fragments and supplements alongside source documents, and scholars tend to work with only a P and a non-P version rather than four independent sources. The goal of this symposium was to bring together scholars from these three regions in an effort "to overcome the parochialization in the global academic landscape with regard to questions of the Pentateuch's literary development" (p. xi). The editors acknowledge that the symposium did not create consensus but did help everyone realize the need for increased dialogue and cooperation.

A major strength of this work is its organization and coverage. The essays are divided into sections on Genesis; Exodus-Deuteronomy; P. H, and D; and Pentateuch in the Hebrew Bible and Its History of Reception, so readers can easily dip in based on their area of interest. Within each section, the coverage of literature and issues is fairly comprehensive. The Genesis section deals with the P creation narrative, the fall, the flood story, the connection between the primeval history and the patriarchal narratives, social conventions in the patriarchal narratives, and the Joseph story. The Exodus-Deuteronomy section includes treatments of itineraries, the Decalogue, how to identify blocks of material, post-P revisions, the formation of legal texts, and the relationship between Deuteronomy and the Tetrateuch. The section on P, H, and D treats questions of covenant and circumcision, the issues of how to distinguish P from H and whether P is source or redaction, the role of H in the final redaction of the Pentateuch, and the development of P and D law.

One misses only a treatment of...