Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch

Christophe Nihan is Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at the University of Münster. He is the author of From Priestly Torah to Pentateuch: A Study in the Composition of the Book of Leviticus, coauthor of Opening the Books of Moses, and coeditor of several volumes, including most recently Writing Laws in Antiquity. Julia Rhyder is Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. She is the author of Centralizing the Cult: The Holiness Legislation in Leviticus 17–26 and coeditor of Re-evaluating the Concept of Authorship in Hebrew Bible Studies.

• PrefaceList of AbbreviationsIntroductionChristophe NihanChapter 1. Rituals in the Spells of the Book of the Dead in Ancient EgyptGiuseppina LenzoChapter 2. Between Utterance and Dedication: Some Remarks on the Status of Textuality in Greek Ritual PracticesDominique JaillardChapter 3. Inscriptions and Ritual Practices in the Neo- Assyrian Period: The Construction of a Building as an ExampleLionel MartiChapter 4. Between Text and Ritual: The Function(s) of the Ritual Texts from Late Bronze Age Emar (Syria)Patrick MichelChapter 5. The Textualization of Priestly Ritual in Light of Hittite SourcesYitzhaq FederChapter 6. Diversity and Centralization of the Temple Cultin the Archeological Record from the Iron II C to the Persian and Hellenistic Periods in JudahRüdiger SchmittChapter 7. Texts Are Not Rituals, and Rituals Are Not Texts, with an Example from Leviticus 12James W. WattsChapter 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 JudaismChristian FrevelChapter 9. Speaking with a Divine Voice: The Rhetoric of Epistolary Performance in Numbers 6:22–27Jeremy D. SmoakChapter 10. The Ritual Texts of Leviticus and the Creation of Ritualized BodiesDorothea Erbele-KüsterChapter 11. The Reception of Ritual Laws in the Early SecondTemple Period: Evidence from Ezra- Nehemiah and ChroniclesJulia RhyderChapter 12. Text and Ritual in the Dead Sea ScrollsDaniel K. FalkChapter 13. “And They Would Read Before Him the Orderfor the Day”: The Textuality of Leviticus 16 in Mishnah Yoma,Tosefta Kippurim, and Sifra Aḥare MotWilliam K. GildersList of ContributorsIndex of Ancient SourcesSubject Index

“Text and Ritual in the Pentateuch is a rich collection of data and interactions with scholarship, and the numerous insights in this volume make it an important resource for advanced students of pentateuchal ritual texts.”—Roy E. Gane Andrews University Seminary Studies