TEXTS IN EXODUS DOCUMENTING THE PLENARY RECEPTION OF REVELATION
2.2 Exod 19:5-6a: All-Israel as Priestly Kingdom and Holy Nation
90
The accounts of the transmission of the law at the Sinai and Horeb high places comprise interwoven composites reflecting the unique concerns of their authors and redactors, which are affected by the religious and sociopolitical contexts in which they lived. The discussion of the identity of the originators and shapers of these traditions, for example, scribes, priests, priest-prophets, quasi-priests, and laity, will come up at many points in this study, especially in Chapters Four through Six.
Before treating the Pentateuchal passages that straightforwardly document the plenary reception of revelation, let us first look at a composite text that figures prominently in the Sinai complex and associates thematically and exegetically with some key extra-
pentateuchal texts (e.g., in passages in Third Isaiah
409). If one views the canon as a whole,
the Sinai complex functions as both backdrop (“looking back to Sinai”) and, viewed
through the lens of Exod 19:5-6a (cf. Deut 7:6; 14:21aβ; 26:18; 28:9aα, 10), a pulsating
beacon for the future of the Israelites, their high calling and capabilities for functioning as
YHWH’s agents in Israel and the earth. In doing this the significance of the pan-canonical
analysis that has become an increasingly necessary component in the critical examination
of the Pentateuch and Hexateuch, certainly in this study, will become apparent.
91
Komplexität, konzeptionell bemerkenswert geschlossene Komposition.”
413Operative within this sprawling compilation is a “narrating theology” reflecting on the fundamental possibilities of the relationship between YHWH and Israel. Blum’s assessment may hold true with Exod 19:5-6a, which while not manifesting the PRR nonetheless connects conspicuously with the shared theme of the deity’s desire to dwell among the people of Israel
414(cf. Exod 29:43f., a priestly passage privileging the Aaronide-Levites).
415For some, the unit Exod 19:3b-8 functions as the prologue to the Sinai pericope.
416The following analyses of Exod 19:5f. contribute to the exegesis of the Exod 19:5f. for (a) how it functions within a pentateuchal framework; (b) its general, cross-canonical Wirkungsgeschichte value, and, more specifically; (c) its significance as an ancillary theme for the PRR. Thorough examinaton of the passage requires both the search for its origins and the use of proto-canonical approaches. The latter requires analyses at post-P and post-dtr stages of textual development that include engagement with postexilic prophetic traditions well into the fourth-century BCE.
417Among the many interpretations of Exodus 19:6 one finds the notion that it pertains to all-Israel in the preexilic era of the amphictyony,
418with priests ruling over a holy nation.
Another interpretation dates it to the exile in spite the lack of explicit, temporal clues in the text.
419Part of the richness of v. 6 is its enigmatic terminology, which poses serious challenges to both translators and interpreters. The proposal that תכלממ and יוג should be considered synonyms has some force,
420especially in the light of the linguistic and
413 Ibid., 47.
414 John A. Davies, A Royal Priesthood: Literary and Intertextual Perspectives on an Image of Israel in Exodus 19.6 (vol. 359 of JSOTSS; London/New York: T & T Clark, 2004).
415 Eckart Otto, “Das Heiligkeitsgesetz im Narrative des Pentateuch (Review Article),” ZA(B)R 13 (2007):
79-86; 83; idem, “Nähe und Distanz von nachexilischen Priestern und Propheten (Review Article),”
ZA(B)R 13 (2007): 261-70, 270.
416 E. Aurelius cited in Blum, “Pentateuch—Hexateuch—Enneateuch?,” 74.
417 Exod 19:5f. receives additional treatment in Chapter Six in the discussion of H.
418 W. L. Moran connected 19:6a to the time of the amphictyony, with priests ruling over a holy nation; cf.
Beyerlin, Origins, 67-77, who dates the Kern of the Elohistic 19:3b-8 to “Israel’s early history” (ibid., 74), with a “Sitz im Leben in the exhortation of worship … produced of liturgical exhortation” (75, 76); cf.
Cornelius Houtman, Exodus (ed. C. Houtman et. al; 4 vols.; vol. 2; Kampen: Kok Publishing House, 1996), 2:445.
419 See the summary in ibid., 446.
420 Houtman (ibid., 445) believes the terms תכלממ and יוג function as synonyms in 19:6, so also Georg Steins, “Priesterherrschaft, Volk von Priestern oder was sonst? Zur Interpretation von Ex 19,6,” BZ 45/1 (2001): 20-36, 26, though more reservedly.
92
thematic parallels in Ps 105:13/1 Chr 16:20.
421And yet the provocative formulation in Exod 19:6 burdens the thesis of synonymity. That the two terms should moreover be taken in a metaphorical sense seems special pleading.
422In terms of the immediate context, Martin Noth regarded vv. 5-6a as part of vv. 3b- 9.
423Although vv. 3b-6 contain dtn phrases (deuteronomische Wendungen), the dtn elements in v. 5 stand out. The verse and its Umrahmung
424comprise a later addition anticipating the ratification of the covenant and impartation of the law.
425M. Weinfeld drew attention to dtn/dtr concepts in vv. 5f.
426With some confidence one may say the hapax legomena םינהכ תכלממ, “kingdom of priests” shares a conceptual horizon with יוג שודק “holy people.” That seems a secure basis with which to begin. The latter terms will undergo examination first.
2.2.1 שודק יוג
In both Exodus and Deuteronomy the concept of a holy people appears in contexts concerned with the revelation and observance of law.
427Whereas Deuteronomy
421 See n. 434 below regarding Ps 105:13.
422 In contrast, for arguments in favor of a concrete meaning beginning with August Dillman, see Steins,
“Zur Interpretation von 19,6,” 30f.
423 zweite Buch Mose, 126f; ET 157f. Blum (Studien, 98) proposes vv. 3b-8, generally considered to be a later Interpretationsstück, as a plausible building-block (Baustein) of the tradition of his D-Komposition;
cf. Gianni Barbieri, “MAMLEKET KOHANIM (Ex 19,6a): i sacerdoti al potere?” Riv bib 37 (1989): 427- 46, 430 who characterizes 3b-8 as “una unità omogenea”; Steins, “Zur Interpretation von 19,6,” 21f.; cf.
Hans Joachim Kraus, “Das heilige Volk: Zur Alttestamentlichen Bezeichnung ‘am qādōš,” in Freude am Evangelium, FS. A. de Quervain (vol. 44 of BEvTh; München, 1966), 50-61, 46: “Im Kapitel Ex.19 handelt es sich in V. 3b-9a (9b) um einen ‘späteren Zuwachs.’ Insbesondere in V. 5 and V. 6 ist eine gehobene Sprache wahrzunehmen.”
424 German Umrahmung translates as “setting,” “framing.” In musical contexts it indicates music before and after (thus, “mit musikalischer Umrahmung” translates “with music before and after”). With Umrahmung Noth therefore means to include v. 5 and the surrounding material.
425 Themes include Israel as treasured possession, hearing God’s voice, keeping the covenant, though the scope of the use of the term תירב extends beyond dtn/dtr usage; cf. Noth, zweite Buch Mose, 126; ET 157;
note ET’s (p. 157) incorrect rendering of deuteronomische as “deuteronomistic,” rather than
“deuteronomic.” For connections between vv. 3b-6 and H, see, e.g., Ska, “Exode 19,3b-6.”
426 Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1972), 327f., includes מע ול היה ,הלוגח םע, and שודק םע in his appendix of dtn terms. For a brief, insightful summary of dtn/dtr language, see also Félix García López, El Pentateuco: Introducción a la lecture de los cinco primeros libros de la Biblia (Estella: Editorial Verbo Divino, 2003), 281f; Crüsemann (Torah, 360) characterizes Exod 19:3ff as “certainly a Deuteronomistic text,” noting as well the importance of the
“deuteronomistic reception of the priestly concept of holiness.”
427 Achenbach (“Story,” 134) argues that the development of the revelation at the holy mountain in Exod 19 into a covenantal declaration, which included adapting the concept of Deut 7:6 into Exod 19:3b-8, bases itself on the fundamental covenantal declaration of Israel as a holy people. Laws supporting this tenet are subsequently added to H, which contains a “radical new concept of dtr Dtn” based on concepts in the
93
ostensibly prefers the syntagm שודק םע (Deut 7:6; 14:21; 26:18; 28:9), Exod 19:6 has יוג שודק. Gerhard von Rad rejected the idea the latter syntagm comported with dtn/dtr theology, basing his judgment on the grounds that “einen goy qadosh kann es in der Vorstellungswelt gar nicht geben.”
428G. Barbieri regards שודק יוג and הלגס
429as dtn concepts that have undergone dtr reformulation
430and that now appear in the late text of Exod 19. Support for this view may surface in the similar priestly nomenclature and conceptions of Deut 4:1-40 (see the following section and §3.1.4), often characterized as a Persian period composition
431and attributed to dtr tradents.
432The transformation Barbieri posits from dtn שודק םע to dtr שודק יוג
433would await the impact of post-dtr traditions in the Persian period.
2.2.2 Exod 19:5f. and Gianni Barbieri’s Notion of the Reconceptualization of Yahwistic Nationhood
Barbieri believes that Dtr interjected a strain of election theology into this international conception of the nation of Israel.
434Deuteronomy 4 recognizes Israel as לודג יוג among
Priestly Code. “So the concept of covenant making/covenant breaking/covenant renewal which served the Hexteuch-Redactor is now used by a Pentateuch-redactor in order to introduce the idea of a constitution of the “holy people” which embraces the whole of law-giving in Ex 20–Lev 26.”
428 Von Rad cited in Barbieri, “MAMLEKET KOHANIM,” 436. Kraus (“heilige Volk,” 40) notes that םע שודקnever appears in the tradition complex of P or H (one instead expects להקor הדע), and that the holiness of Israel only appears in plural forms of qdš. According to Dozeman (God on the Mountain, 93-8), whereas Exod 19:5b promotes a dtr [for us, post-dtr] notion that the people are already holy (as in Deut 7:6), 6a’s suggestion that holiness is to be attained belongs to P (ibid., 97); Crüsemann (Torah, 360) sees in םינהכ תכלממ “a critique of the priestly conception” whereby the nation becomes a priestly kingdom along the lines of Isa 61:6.
429 Exod 19:5bα. For elucidatory comments on the Akkadian cognate sikiltum, see Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 104. In the biblical materials the term הלגס appears in the dtn theology of the covenant (Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18). As in Exod 19, it is preceded by ־ל היה. In two cases (7:6; 14:2) it is followed by םימעה לכמ. Only in Mal 3:17a (הלגס השע ינא רשא םויל תואבצ רמא יל ויהו) does one find precise replication of Exod 19:5bα (Barbieri, “MAMLEKET KOHANIM,” 435f.).
430 “Ritroviamo dunque la stessa situazione [with שודק יוג] che abbiamo notato per segull: conetti dt reilaborati” ibid., 436; see also Kraus, “heilige Volk,” 47.
431 Cf. Römer, So-called, 124, n. 30: “Almost everyone agrees that ch. 4, which presents a monotheistic ideology coming close to Second Isaiah, is an addition from the Persian period.”
432 Recent research is however demonstrating that Deut 4:1-40, which also includes priestly language, most likely belongs to a post-dtr stage.
433 Barbieri, “MAMLEKET KOHANIM,” 436.
434 Ibid. Steins (“Zur Interpretation von 19,6,” 24, n. 20) perceives other, earlier group determinations as possible precursors (e.g., Prov 5:19; cf. also Ezra 2:69/Neh 7:10,72; Hos 6:9) to the later conception in Exod 19:6; cf. also the parallels between Exod 19:6 and Ps 105:13, the latter ( הכל ְּמ ַמ ִמ יוג־לא יוגמ וכלהתיו רחא םע־לא) is reproduced in 1 Chr 16:20 (ibid., 26).
94
the םיוג (vv. 6, 7, 32, 32).
435But this seems an unlikely concept for a Deuteronomist to accept.
436Furthermore, if based on Deut 4, the election theology then becomes postexilic and post-Dtr.
The description of the nation of Israel in the Song of Moses may propose a similar notion: “For they are a nation (יוג) void of counsel, and understanding is not in them”
(Deut 32:28
437). A criterion other than ancestry is operative here. Yahwistic-Israelite identity and nationhood appear to be undergoing renegotiation resulting in a revised perception of distinctiveness and purpose.
438On first blush the criterion appears to be the internal possession and outward observance of dtn/dtr law, since without these Israel cannot obtain the wisdom (המכח) needed to understand and discern its destiny (v. 29).
439But the late text of Deut 4 alludes to criteria beyond law observance or the possession of wisdom. There is also the matter of moving in the prophetic ( םתירחאל וניבי v. 29b).
440Similar to the PRR, the importance of the community’s prophetic competence remains in the margins of the received tradition. To be sure, the people’s disobedience to prophetic warnings looms large, but this seems not so much a matter of prophetic discernment (i.e., distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate instructions and dicta) as disobedience
435 Barbieri, “MAMLEKET KOHANIM,” 436-38; cf. J. Le Roux, “A Holy Nation was Elected (The Election Theology of Exodus 19.5-6),” OTSSA 25/26 (1984): 59-78, 74.
436 Le Roux (“Holy Nation,” 74) argues that in the transformation from שודק םעto שודק יוג “Deuteronomy’s proposition of election remains unchanged. Even under these circumstances, Israel maintains her position of honour among the םיוג.” The terminological development in this text, fairly described as programmatic, does not necessarily reflect a reappraisal of “the proposition of election.” We have here instead a proposal broadening of the scope of Yahwism whereby the transition from שודק םעto שודק יוג reflects a reshuffling of the concept of ethnic particularity. Similarly, the terminology לודג יוג in the promise to Abram in Gen 12:2 appears to be inclusive of the non-Israelites among Abram’s progeny, i.e, not solely the line descending through Sarai/Sarah, Isaac, and then Rebecca and Leah.
437 Darby’s English translation of הנובת םהב ןיאו המה תוצע דַב ֹא יוג־יכ (Deut 32:28).
438 It must be emphasized, however, that hope in the unconditional promises to the ancestors remains alive in both Deut 4 and 32 (e.g., Deut 4:31, 37; 32:36, 43, 52). The tension between the contrasting conceptions of the people of YHWH in just these two chapters alone witnesses to the intensity of the postexilic discourse respecting Israelite identity, a debate concerned with not only membership in Israel but also its very survival. Not a few participants in the discussion held to the view that the nation must be/become a people capable of receiving divine revelation, absorbing interpreted teaching (e.g., through the Mosaic office), and discerning the ongoing prophetic word themselves and through other Yahwistic representatives; on this last point see below, §§6.4.17; 6.5.3 and Christian, “Middle-Tier Levites.”
439 םתירחאל וניבי תאז וליכשׂי ומכח ול.
440 Rofé believes that bundled up with the traditions of the people receiving the Dec directly from God is the desire to portray the exodus generation as a prophetic people (Alexander Rofé, Deuteronomy: Issues and Interpretation [ed. D. Reimer; London: T & T Clark, 2002], 16; 22); cf. Num 11:26-29; Joel 2:28f.
95
to commands whose Yahwistic origin is not really in question, whether delivered by lawgivers or prophets.
2.2.3 Acquiring Cultic and Prophetic Competence
With regard to legal competency, the term שודק יוג would suggest a community that possesses a meaningful grasp of sacral law,
441for example the brotherhood (םיחא) of Lev 17–26 (H). Lev 22:31-3 and Exod 19:6 work hand-in-hand to illustrate YHWH’s plan of sanctifying his people and commissioning them to live as his holy nation.
442Cultic proficiency among the laity in H surpasses that of the community envisioned in the office laws (Deut 16:18–18:22),
443where more emphasis is placed on supporting and heeding cultic officiants (17:8-13; 18:1-8). In H, the sanctified community acquires cultic knowledge through a combination of priestly instruction, demonstration and communal participation in that demonstration.
444The office laws conversely place special emphasis on the individual’s responsibility to exercise prophetic discernment, achievable through reception of a divine endowment and prophetic instruction/admonition (perhaps also enhancement through contemplation on the law, as clearly advocated in Pss 1, 19, and 119). Together, the endowment and admonition enable the discerning of what is and is not Yahwistically “true,” even in highly charged, divinatory contexts (Deut 18:9-15).
445In this regard the conceptual similarity with Jer 31:31-34
446stands out, particularly v.33aβ ( םברקב יתרות־תא יתתנ הנבתכא םבל־לעו).
441 The increased importance attached to the observance of Shabbat appears to become something of a litmus test for true Yahwism during the postexilic period—irrespective of nationality (cf. Isa 56:1-8).
Observance must be strict, however. Such would presume a fairly widespread, basic understanding of Yahwistic sacral law.
442 Klaus Grünwaldt, “Amt und Gemeinde im Heiligkeitsgesetz,” in Textarbeit: Studien zu Texten und ihrer Rezeption aus dem Alten Testament und der Umwelt Israels (ed. K. Kiesow and T. Meurer; vol. 294 of Alter Orient und Altes Testament; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003), 227-44, 233; see also § 6.4.20.1, below.
443 In Third Isaiah, Hanson (Dawn, 69) sees the democratizing terms narrowing to a more discerning segment of the population with avadim and bechurim, “in a conspicuous exclusion of other elements of the community,” namely those opposing the reform program of the avadim and bechurim.
444 See the discussion of the sodality in H in Chapters Five and Six. In the latter, §§6.3.1; 6.4.10, it is argued that non- or quasi-priests take on priestly duties.
445 See also §6.5.3.1, below.
446 Cf. Jer 31:34a-bα: “No longer shall they teach (דמל pi’el) one another, or say to each other, ‘Know (עדי) the Lord,’ for they shall all know (עדי) me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.” Mark Leuchter, The Polemics of Exile in Jeremiah 26–45 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 164, speaks of the people’s “direct engagement” with Yahwistic knowledge “no longer mediated by priestly