Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 19:2 (NA 2009)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BBR 19:2 (2009) p. 275

Book Reviews

Gary N. Knoppers and Bernard M. Levinson, eds. The Pentateuch as Torah: New Models for Understanding Its Promulgation and Acceptance. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2007. Pp. xvi + 352. ISBN: 978–1-57506–140–5. $59.50 cloth.

This compilation of essays stems from four panels on Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law in conjunction with the 2006 SBL International Meeting in Edinburgh. Thecentral theme of the panels was “to investigate the promulgation and acceptance of the Pentateuch as prestigious writing in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods” (p. 1). The essays are divided into four parts: Ratifying Local Law Codes in an International Age; Prophets, Polemics, and Publishers: The Growing Importance of Writing in Persian Period Judah; The Torah as a Foundational Document in Judah and Samaria; and The Translation, Interpretation, and Application of the Torah in Early Jewish Literature. Limitations of space prohibit reflection on all 14 essays in this volume, so I will select a few that may be of particular interest to the readership of this journal.

Konrad Schmid (“The Persian Imperial Authorization as a Historical Problem and as a Biblical Construct: A Plea for Distinctions in the Current Debate,” pp. 23–38), charts the rise to prominence and subsequent decline of the “Persian imperial authorization” theory, which states that the so-called Persian (“Achaemenid” is a more specific term since it refers to the empire founded by Cyrus the Great—one of several Persian empires) officials permitted the adoption of the Torah as a local legal corpus. Breaking with the current trend in scholarly circles, Schmid sees the wholesale rejection of this theory as mistaken. Instead, he corrects some misunderstandings of the theory as well as advocates for a more nuanced view that sees tacit Persian authorization as a factor in the rise in prominence of the Torah.

Gary N. Knoppers and Paul B. Harvey Jr. (“The Pentateuch in Ancient Mediterranean Context: The Publication of Local Lawcodes,” pp. 105–41) place the promulgation of the Pentateuch as prestige writing in the wider context of Greek and Roman states of the late 7th and mid-4th centuries. In an intriguing departure from conventional thought, they highlight the transition of legal material not from oral to written but from written texts to oral performance. In some contexts, laws are not in force until they are read in public. In these situations, not only does the written precede the oral but the written and oral enjoy a reciprocal relationship. Joachim Schaper (“The ‘Publication’ of Legal Texts in Ancient Judah,” pp. 225–36) describes this process in more detail by focusing on Deut 1:5,