Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch: A Systematic and Comparative Approach

349 Pages·2021·7.483 MB·English

by  Christophe Nihan, Julia Rhyder

text and ritual
in the pentateuch
A Systematic and Comparative Approach
edited by christophe nihan and julia rhyder
TexT and RiTual in The PenTaTeuch

Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch
A Systematic and Comparative Approach
ediTed by
chRisToPhe nihan and Julia RhydeR
eisenbRauns | University Park, Pennsylvania
The publication of this book has been made possible thanks to the financial support
of the Institut Romand des Sciences Bibliques (IRSB) and the Centre Interdiscipli-
naire d’Histoire et des Sciences des religions (CIHSR) at the University of Lausanne,
Switzerland.
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Nihan, Christophe, 1972– editor. | Rhyder, Julia, 1987– editor.
Title: Text and ritual in the Pentateuch : a systematic and comparative approach /
edited by Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder.
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : Eisenbrauns, [2021] | Includes biblio-
graphical references and index.
Summary: “A collection of essays examining the conceptual and methodological
issues that currently inform the study of text and ritual in the Pentateuch”—Pro-
vided by publisher.
Identifiers: lccn 2021016498 | isbn 9781646021413 (hardback)
Subjects: lcsh: Bible. Pentateuch—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Rites and ceremo-
nies in the Bible. | Ritual—Middle East—History—To 1500. | Judaism—Liturgy. |
lcGFT: Essays.
Classification: lcc bs1225.52 .T49 2021 | ddc 222/ .106—dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021016498
Copyright © 2021 The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
Eisenbrauns is an imprint of The Pennsylvania State University Press.
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University
Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-f ree paper. Pub-
lications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate-
rial, ansi z39.48–1992.
conTenTs
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Christophe Nihan
Chapter 1. Rituals in the Spells of the Book of the Dead
in Ancient Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Giuseppina Lenzo
Chapter 2. Between Utterance and Dedication: Some Remarks
on the Status of Textuality in Greek Ritual Practices. . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Dominique Jaillard
Chapter 3. Inscriptions and Ritual Practices in the Neo-A ssyrian
Period: The Construction of a Building as an Example . . . . . . . . . . .78
Lionel Marti
Chapter 4. Between Text and Ritual: The Function(s) of the Ritual
Texts from Late Bronze Age Emar (Syria) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Patrick Michel
Chapter 5. The Textualization of Priestly Ritual in
Light of Hittite Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Yitzhaq Feder
Chapter 6. Diversity and Centralization of the Temple Cult
in the Archeological Record from the Iron II C to the Persian and
Hellenistic Periods in Judah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Rüdiger Schmitt
vi Contents
Chapter 7. Texts Are Not Rituals, and Rituals Are Not Texts,
with an Example from Leviticus 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
James W. Watts
Chapter 8. The Texture of Rituals in the Book of Numbers:
A Fresh Approach to Ritual Density, the Role of Tradition, and the
Emergence of Diversity in Early Judaism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Christian Frevel
Chapter 9. Speaking with a Divine Voice: The Rhetoric
of Epistolary Performance in Numbers 6:22–27 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Jeremy D. Smoak
Chapter 10. The Ritual Texts of Leviticus and the Creation
of Ritualized Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Dorothea Erbele-K üster
Chapter 11. The Reception of Ritual Laws in the Early Second
Temple Period: Evidence from Ezra-N ehemiah and Chronicles . . . . . . 255
Julia Rhyder
Chapter 12. Text and Ritual in the Dead Sea Scrolls . . . . . . . . . . 280
Daniel K. Falk
Chapter 13. “And They Would Read Before Him the Order
for the Day”: The Textuality of Leviticus 16 in Mishnah Yoma,
Tosefta Kippurim, and Sifra Aḥare Mot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
William K. Gilders
List of Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Index of Ancient Sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
PReFace
In recent decades, scholarship on the relationship between text and ritual in
the Pentateuch has been significantly enhanced, as biblical researchers have
increasingly engaged with ritual studies and ethnographic descriptions of ritu-
als and explored the construction of pentateuchal rituals in light of comparative
evidence. However, so far this analysis of the ritual texts of the Pentateuch has
been treated largely from distinct perspectives, with no monograph or volume
yet integrating the various approaches and results that characterize the field at
this time.
The present volume seeks to map the main conceptual and methodological
issues that currently inform the study of text and ritual in the Pentateuch, and
to gain new insights by contrasting the relationship between text and ritual
in ancient Israel with that of other ancient Mediterranean and Western Asian
societies. The majority of the essays in this volume originated in a conference
held at the University of Lausanne in May 2016, entitled “Text and Ritual in the
Pentateuch: A Systematic and Comparative Approach,” although all the chapters
have been updated in the light of peer commentary during and after the confer-
ence, and several additional chapters have been commissioned.
The publication of the volume could not have been achieved without the
assistance of several institutions. The conference was funded by the Swiss
National Science Foundation (SNF project number 160441), as well as by the
Institut romand des sciences bibliques of the University of Lausanne. The Fac-
ulty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Lausanne also pro-
vided additional funding to assist with the publication of this volume. We are
grateful to these institutions for their support. We would also like to express our
thanks to Ms. Aude Lovey and Ms. Anita Dirnberger for their valuable technical
assistance with the preparation of the manuscript.
—Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder
vii

abbReviaTions
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David Noel Freedman.
6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
AfOB Archiv für Orientforschung: Beiheft
AIL Ancient Israel and Its Literature
Ant. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities
AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
ATANT Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments
BaM Baghdader Mitteilungen
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BETL Bibliotheca Ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium
BJS Brown Judaic Studies
BKAT Biblischer Kommentar, Altes Testament
BN Biblische Notizen
Bo Inventory numbers of Bogazköy tablets excavated 1906–12
BZABR Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische
Rechtsgeschichte
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CGRN J.-M. Carbon, S. Peels, and V. Pirenne-Delforge. A Collection of
Greek Ritual Norms. Liège: University of Liège, 2016–. http://
cgrn.ulg.ac.be.
CM Cuneiform Monographs
CTH Emmanuel Laroche. Catalogue des textes hittites. Paris: Geuth-
ner, 1963.
Descr. Pausanias, Description of Greece
DJD Discoveries in the Judaean Desert
DSD Dead Sea Discoveries
ix