Presentation Title
Didactic Logic and the Authorship of Leviticus
Presenter Status
Professor of Hebrew Bible & Ancient Near Eastern Languages, Department of Old Testament
Location
Newbold Auditorium
Start Date
31-10-2014 1:10 PM
End Date
31-10-2014 1:30 PM
Presentation Abstract
The presentation summarizes findings from my essay with this title that is to be published in Current Issues in Priestly and Related Literature: The Legacy of Jacob Milgrom and Beyond (Resources for Biblical Study series), which I am editing with Ada Taggar- Cohen. The essay opens up a new approach to a biblical book by probing evidence for teaching logic in Leviticus and the implications of this logic for the purpose and authorship of the book. The first part of the essay identifies examples of ten literary relationships that could function as effective didactic strategies. The second part weighs the likelihood of pedagogical authorial intention against the possibility that what appear to be teaching strategies may have resulted secondarily from other literary factors. The third part enters preliminary exploration of the question, “Who was trying to teach what to whom by writing this book?” by pointing out some aspects of the didactic background and foreground of Leviticus. The essay concludes by considering implications of didactic logic for the authorship of the book, which counter the current theory of historical-critical scholarship that Leviticus was composed within a priestly scribal matrix during the Persian period after the Babylonian exile.
Didactic Logic and the Authorship of Leviticus
Newbold Auditorium
The presentation summarizes findings from my essay with this title that is to be published in Current Issues in Priestly and Related Literature: The Legacy of Jacob Milgrom and Beyond (Resources for Biblical Study series), which I am editing with Ada Taggar- Cohen. The essay opens up a new approach to a biblical book by probing evidence for teaching logic in Leviticus and the implications of this logic for the purpose and authorship of the book. The first part of the essay identifies examples of ten literary relationships that could function as effective didactic strategies. The second part weighs the likelihood of pedagogical authorial intention against the possibility that what appear to be teaching strategies may have resulted secondarily from other literary factors. The third part enters preliminary exploration of the question, “Who was trying to teach what to whom by writing this book?” by pointing out some aspects of the didactic background and foreground of Leviticus. The essay concludes by considering implications of didactic logic for the authorship of the book, which counter the current theory of historical-critical scholarship that Leviticus was composed within a priestly scribal matrix during the Persian period after the Babylonian exile.