Table Of ContentJuha Pakkala
God's Word Omitted
Omissions in the Transmission
of the Hebrew Bible
Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur
des Alten und Neuen Testaments
Edited by
Jan Christian Gertz, Dietrich-Alex Koch, Matthias Kc>ckert,
Hermut Lohr, Joachim Schaper, David Andrew Teeter
and Christopher Tuckett
Volume 251
Juha Pakkala
God's Word Omitted
Omissions in the Transmission of the Hebrew Bible
Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht
__
.......,
/J,
- MIX
....-
FSC
FSC-C003147
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data available online: http :l/dnb.d-nb.de.
ISBN 978-3-525-53611-7
ISBN 978-3-647-53611-8 (E-book)
© 2013, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Gottingen/
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht LLC, Bristol, CT, U.S.A.
www.v-r.de
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Printing and binding: CPI Buch Biicher.de GmbH, Birkach
Printed in Germany
Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . 9
I. Omissions the Hebrew Bible? . ll
Traditional Conceptions in Biblical Studies 16
Earlier Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Other Approaches Share the Same Conceptions . 34
Implementation of Literary Criticism 37
Text-Critical Scholarship ...... . 40
Omissions in the New Testament . . . 44
The Evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls . 46
The Epic of Gilgamesh as a Witness to Editorial Processes . 54
Assyrian Annals . . . . . . . . . 58
Challenges to Literary Criticism . . . . . 63
What is Authoritative Scripture? ..... 72
Claimed and Acknowledged Authority . 74
Types of Authoritativeness of Scripture 79
Geographical, Social and Other Differences 81
Various Levels of Authoritativeness 82
Changed Authoritativeness . . . 84
Authoritative Texts: Discussion 85
Methodological Clarifications . 87
Summary ............. . 88
II. Conservative Editorial Processes in the Samaritan Pentateuch 93
Expansions in the Samaritan Pentateuch . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Small Omission, Large Impact-The Location of Sacrifices 97
The Place of Sacrifice-Gerizim or Ebal? . . . . . 99
An Addition That Resulted in an Omission . . . . 101
An Omission of One Letter-Many Gods Omitted 101
Summary ...................... . 102
6 Contents
III. The Conservative Editorial Processes in the Book of Jeremiah 103
Several Additions in the MT ofJer 25: 1-14 104
An Omission in Jer 32:5/Jer 39:5 LXX 112
Summary .................. . 116
IV. The Development of Laws in the Pentateuch . . . . . . . 117
Deuteronomy and the Covenant Code . . . . . . . . . . 118
The Use of the Older Laws as Sources for Deuteronomy 125
Violated Virgins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
On the Right Conduct in Court . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Discussion: The Covenant Code and Deuteronomy . 132
Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code (Lev 17 - 26) 134
The Festival of Weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
The Festival ofBooths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Discussion: Deuteronomy and the Holiness Code . 143
The Development of the Passover Law 145
Discussion: The Passover Law 152
v. Jubilees ............ . 155
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
The Sixth and the Seventh Day of Creation 159
Cain in Jubilees 4:7-10 and Genesis 4 ... 162
I Will not Marry a Canaanite . . . . . . . . 164
Jubilees as a Witness to the Editorial Processes 165
VI. The Temple Scroll . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
New Moon of the First Month Festival 170
The Passover in the Temple Scroll . . 172
Pagan Mourning Practices . . . . . . 175
The Idol Worshippers in Temple Scroll 55: 15 - 21 176
Prophets and Dreamers of Dreams . . . . . . . . 177
The Temple Scroll as a Witness to the Editorial Processes 178
VII. Omission as a Means of Ideological or Theological Censorship 183
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
The Omission of Polytheistic Conceptions in Deut 32:8-9 . 185
The Omission of Polytheistic Conceptions in Deut 32:43 . . 187
Theological Corrections-Can God Be Seen? . . . . . . . 191
An Addition That Created an Omission in Exod 24:9-11 . 195
Contents 7
Shiloh or Shechem in Josh 24:1, 25 . 197
The Omission of a Statue ofYhwh in Josh 24:26 197
A Small Omission with a Large Impact. . . . . . 199
Theological Omissions in the Hanna Story in 1 Sam 1 - 2 . 200
The Watering Down of a Water Pouring Ritual . . . . 210
Gods of the Philistines Changed to Idols in 2 Sam 5 :21 . 211
Asherah Omitted in 2 Sam 5:24. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
References to the Temple ofYhwh Omitted in 2 Samuel 213
The Temple ofYhwh in Hebron Omitted in 2 Sam 15:8. 221
Uzzah is Killed before God in 2 Sam 6 :6 - 7 . . . . . . . 222
The Omission of References to the Sun-god . . . . . . . 224
Was a Reference to the Temple of Yhwh in Samaria Omitted? 231
References to a Syncretistic Cult Omitted in 2 Kgs 10:23 234
Omission of a Reference to the People in the Temple 237
Massebah Omitted in 2 Kgs 12:10 . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Gods of the Samaritans Omitted in 2 Kgs 18:34 . . . . . 241
A Possible Omission of the Temple of Baal in Jerusalem 243
A Non-theological Omission in Deut 13:10 245
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
VIII. Chronicles as a Witness to the Editorial Processes 253
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Large Expansions in the Account on Jehoram's reign . 262
Editorial changes in the Account of Jehoiada's Rebellion 269
Extensive Rewriting of King Joash's Reign . 280
Summary and Discussion 287
IX. First Esdras . . . . . . . . 295
Introduction . . . . . . . 295
Additions in First Esdras and Ezra-Nehemiah . 298
Ideological Omissions in First Esdras 301
Omission of Repetitions and Tensions 310
Summary ............... . 314
x. Radical Editorial Processes in the Book of Esther 319
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Substantial Editorial Changes in the Story in Es th 2: 17 - 23 322
Omissions and Rewritings in Esther 7:1-5 . 328
The Omission of Mordechai in Esther 8 :7-11 331
Comprehensive Rewriting in Esther 9: 1-6 . . 337
8 Contents
The Feast of Purim Established-Esther 9:29-32 342
Summary .. 346
XI. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Documented Evidence Points in Different Directions . 351
Dichotomy of Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Textual Development within Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts 362
Gradual or Punctual Evolution? 369
Literary Criticism 372
Summary. 384
Bibliography . . 387
XII. Index of Authors . 407
XIII. Index of Ancient Sources 411
Acknowledgements
Many people have influenced this work. I would particularly like to thank PD Dr.
Reinhard Miiller (Munich), Prof. Christoph Levin (Munich), Prof. Anneli Aej
melaeus (Helsinki), Prof. Dr. Francis Borchardt (Hong Kong), Dr. Jutta Jokiranta,
Dr. Tuukka Kauhanen (Helsinki), Dr. Marko Marttila (Helsinki), Prof. Dr. Martti
Nissinen, Dr. Urmas Nommik (Tartu), Dr. Mika Pajunen (Helsinki) and Dr.
Hanne von Weissenberg (Helsinki). Discussions with them have given me im
portant ideas and insights, for which I am grateful. The joint Helsinki-Tartu
Munich meetings in Tallinn, Tartu, Riga, Bergvik and Helsinki were especially
fruitful in this respect. I thank all who participated in the discussions at these
meetings.
I am also grateful to Prof. Dr. Jacob L. Wright, who kindly hosted my research
period at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta in 2010-
11, to Prof. Dr. Hugh G.M. Williamson for hosting my research stay at Oxford
University in 2012, to Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Zwickel for hosting my research pe
riods at the University of Mainz (JGU) in 2011 and 2012, and to Prof. Dr.
Christoph Levin for hosting my research periods at the University of Munich
(LMU) in 2007 and 2008. For correcting and improving my English, I warmly
thank Dr. Robert Whiting. I am grateful to Kaisa Vaittinen for editing the
manuscript. I would also like to thank the staff at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew
and Jewish Studies for their kind hospitality. Finally, I would like to express
warm thanks to the editors of FRLANT for accepting my manuscript for pub
lication in this series as well as to Christoph Spill (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) for
helping me with the layout.
This investigation was made possible by generous EURYI funding from the
EuroHORCs (European Heads of Research Councils, predecessor of Science
Europe) and the European Science Foundation for 2007-2012.
Helsinki, January 22, 2013 Juha Pakkala
