This book discusses the the beginning of writing and the Beginning of Biblical Literature. Making the claim that the poetic descriptions of God's appearance from Sinai and the giving of commandments are older than the story in the Torah, this book looks at the drama of the redesign of Sinai traditions and their transfer from the oral poetic expression to the creation of written story. Taking place against the background of the intensification of literacy in the ancient Israeli society in the eighth century BC, the book argues that the emergence of scriptural prophecy is the other side of the same coin. This work is an important read for scholars of early Christianity.
Introduction.- Chapter 1. The Beginning of Writing; the Beginning of Biblical Literature.- Chapter 2. The Location of Mt. Sinai in Hebrew Biblical Poetry.- Chapter 3 Mt. Sinai and the Midianites-Kenites.- Chapter 4. Tablets and Covenant in Ancient Poetry.- Chapter 5: Revelation and the Covenant and its Breaking at the Waters of Meribah.- Chapter 6: The Waters of Meribah and the Waters of Marah.- Chapter 7: The Tradition of the Spring, the Tradition of the Mountain and the Beginning of Literacy in the Northern Kingdom.- Chapter 8. The Northern Author and the Book of the Covenant.- Chapter 9: An Egalitarian Revelation by the Water, a Private Revelation at the Mountain.- Chapter 10: The Northern Author and the Prophetic Tent.- Conclusion.
Israel Knohl is the Yehezkel Kaufmann professor of Hebrew Bible (emeritus) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute Jerusalem. He served as a visiting professor at Harvard, Berkeley and Stanford Universities and the Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of 11 books and many articles.
