On the Threshold of the Promised Land

The Account of the Preparations for Entering Canaan and the Formation of the Pentateuch

By:

Itamar Kislev

Preview

This study examines the Pentateuchal account of Israel’s preparations for entering Canaan, appearing within the concluding section of the Book of Numbers. Literary-critical analysis reveals that each of the passages that comprise this account is the product of several stages of composition, with each literary stratum reflecting the ideological tendencies of the authors responsible for its creation. It emerges that ideological disputes that raged in Judea of the Persian period, when these texts were composed, manifested themselves in historiographical accounts describing a much earlier time – that just prior to the entry into Canaan. The wilderness period, seen as decisive for Israel’s past, and the notion of the Mosaic Torah believed to have been given during this formative era, along with the obvious parallel to these Judean authors’ own days, those of the return from exile, led them to depict the events at the end of Moses’ time in ways that addressed the burning questions of Yehud of the Persian period. The textual and historical analysis reveals that a previously unrecognized substratum, running throughout the account, has been augmented by several editorial additions. This recognition in turn sheds new light on the Pentateuch’s formation and on the historical circumstances reflected in its composition.

Sgula, by: Yamima Hovav, December 2013
Dr. Lea Mazor, interview with Dr. Itamar Kislev, September 2013

eBook
for Magnes App

$18

$39
Print

$23

$39

eBook sale

$39 $18

Add to cart

More books by the same author

More books on the same subject

Books on sale

Our recommendations

On the Threshold of the Promised Land

The Account of the Preparations for Entering Canaan and the Formation of the Pentateuch

Reset your password for magnes