Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:3 (Sep 2022)
Article: Reading Genesis, Seeing Moses: Narrative Analogies With Moses In The Book Of Genesis
Author: Seth D. Postell

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Reading Genesis, Seeing Moses: Narrative Analogies With Moses In The Book Of Genesis

Seth D. Postell*

^* Seth D. Postell is the academic dean of Israel College of the Bible in Netanya, Israel. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: While analogies between Moses and other figures in the Prophets, Writings, and New Testament have received a great deal of attention, no study has systematically explored narrative analogies with Moses in the Book of Genesis. This paper posits the presence of narrative analogies between the major figures in Genesis (God, Noah, Abram, Jacob, and Joseph) and Moses. Gaps in the analogous narratives in Genesis, moreover, suggest that a knowledge of the narratives about Moses in Exodus–Deuteronomy is required for the interpretation of Genesis.

Key words: narrative analogy, allusion, inner-biblical interpretation, compositional strategy, text-centered

In his classic traditio-historical treatment of Moses, George W. Coats noted the critical role Moses plays for the structure of the Pentateuch. According to Coats, “Moses traditions lend unity to the narratives from Exodus through Deuteronomy.”1 Coats then poses a question with respect to Genesis, a question I hope to answer in this paper:

What, then can be said concerning the relationship between the Moses narratives and Genesis? One of the pressing problems, as yet unresolved in the scholarly discussion of the Pentateuch, concerns the relationship between the patriarchs and Moses or between the “God of the Fathers” dimension of religion in the early tradition of Israel and the religious structure of Yahwism. The point at issue here, however, is not the relationship between the patriarchs and Moses but rather the structure of the Pentateuch/Hexateuch.2

In this study, I argue that Moses is not only the unifying figure in Exodus-Deuteronomy, but that his presence looms large in Genesis as well, in that the major characters in Genesis are literarily linked to Moses in Exodus–Deuteronomy by means of narrative analogies.3 In several cases, a knowledge of the analogous stories

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about Moses in Exodus–Deuteronomy is required for the interpretation of the corresponding narratives in Genesis, suggesting that Genesis functions as a prologue to the life and work of Moses.4

In the first part of this study, I present evidence for narr...