Murmuring Against Moses

John S. Bergsma, Ph.D. is Professor of Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is the author of The Jubilee from Leviticus to Qumran (VTSup 115; Brill, 2007); A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: Old Testament (Ignatius, 2018), and Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Penguin Random House, 2019). His peer-reviewed scholarship on Old and New Testament topics and the Dead Sea Scrolls have appeared in the journals Biblica, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Dead Sea Discoveries, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vetus Testamentum, and in essay collections, festschrifts, dictionaries, and encyclopedias published by Brill, Continuum/T&T Clark, Eerdmans, Eisenbrauns, Harrassowitz, Kohlhammer, Oxford, and Westminster/John Knox Press. Jeffrey L. Morrow, Ph.D. is Professor of Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University. He is also the author of Pretensions of Objectivity and Alfred Loisy and Modern Biblical Studies.

• Introduction ix PART 1: Moses and the Sources: A Survey of Challenges to the Documentary Hypothesis Chapter 1: Stylistic Unity: The First Fifty Years of Literary Challenges to the Documentary Hypothesis 3 Chapter 2: The Pentateuch, Moses, and Ancient History: The Initial View from Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology 25 Chapter 3: More Recent Directions in the Study of the Pentateuch’s Origins: Challenges to the Documentary Hypothesis from the End of the Twentieth Century to Today 55 PART 2: New Evidence for the Antiquity of the Pentateuch Chapter 4: The Law before the Prophets or the Prophets before the Law? 81 Chapter 5: The Elephant Not in the Room: The Implications of the Absence of Zion and the Northern Israelite Character of the Pentateuch 125 Chapter 6: Did Post-Exilic Judaism Really Abandon Zion Theology? 145 PART 3: The History of Pentateuchal Source Criticism Chapter 7: Challenging Moses: The Earliest Theo-Political History of the Documentary Hypothesis 173 Chapter 8: Copies of Copies: The Early Modern Foundations of the Documentary Hypothesis 201 Chapter 9: Pentateuchal Criticism through Wellhausen: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 227 Works Cited 255

Meticulously researched, this work recovers academic voices long silenced by the reigning paradigms in Pentateuch study and adds refreshing new evidence to argue for the unity and antiquity of the Pentateuch. Members of all faiths holding a high view of Scripture will find in it a treasured resource." - Joshua Berman Bar-Ilan University"A fascinating book that combines in a unique way an overview of dissident Pentateuchal research in the last 150 years, a revelation of the major shortcomings of Pentateuch models (especially the very obvious absence of any Zion theology in the Pentateuch that urgently asks for a convincing explanation), and a research history on Pentateuchal research from antiquity to the classic formulation of the Documentary Hypothesis by Julius Wellhausen. Students and colleagues will benefit greatly from it and will be encouraged to break new ground in their own Pentateuchal studies." - Benjamin Kilchör Staatsunabhängige Theologische Hochschule, Switzerland"This is exactly the sort of book I was looking for when I was teaching graduate student seminars and expositional courses on the books of the Pentateuch. The authors discuss in great detail not only the history of critical scholarly 'murmurings against Moses' but also the 'inconvenient facts' that proponents of Wellhausenian versions of the Documentary Hypothesis of the origins of the Pentateuch have overlooked or intentionally refused to admit to the discussion for more than a century. . . . If this volume gets the reading it deserves, the paradigm shift we currently observe in Pentateuchal studies will gain momentum." - Daniel Block Wheaton College"A thoroughly researched and well-argued presentation. . . . If the authors are correct, which I believe they are, then there should be no 'future' to this long-lived hypothesis in Pentateuchal studies." - Edwin M. Yamauchi Miami University