Sep 26: Hebrew Bible Workshop *Monday special*: Mark Leuchter *5:15*

Monday, September 26 ~~ 5:15pm ~~ Semitic Museum 201

The Hebrew Bible Workshop presents:

Mark Leuchter

"Pentateuchal Law and Mythmaking in the Book of the Twelve"

 
Scholars were once of the opinion that the biblical law collections carried statutory dimensions, i.e., they were conceived to be carried out/implemented. This view is no longer maintained for the monarchic or exilic periods that likely saw the formation of these laws, but a greater division of opinion accompanies the view of how these laws functioned in the Persian period. While there is some evidence that Pentateuchal law (or some of them, at any rate) translated into practical contexts, an assemblage of Persian period sources suggest that they served a more symbolic and even mythopoeic purpose in the formation of group identity under the shadow of foreign imperialism. With this in mind, an examination of allusions or references to the Pentateuchal laws in the Book of the Twelve (a product of the late Persian period) may shed some additional light on how Pentateuchal law was understood and annexed by at least one scribal group in Jewish antiquity, in a period when the concept of law and the authority to transmit it was a matter of heated debate.