Retelling the Torah - (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies) by John E Harvey (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Deuteronomistic Historian patterned more than four dozen of his narratives after those in Genesis-Numbers. The stories that make up Genesis-Numbers were indelibly impressed on the Deuteronomistic Historians mind, to such an extent that in Deuteronomy-Kings he tells the stories of the nation through the lens of Genesis-Numbers.

Book Synopsis

The Deuteronomistic Historian patterned more than four dozen of his narratives after those in Genesis-Numbers. The stories that make up Genesis-Numbers were indelibly impressed on the Deuteronomistic Historian's mind, to such an extent that in Deuteronomy-Kings he tells the stories of the nation through the lens of Genesis-Numbers.

John Harvey discusses the eight criteria which may be used as evidence that the given stories in Deuteronomy-Kings were based on those in Genesis-Numbers. Unified accounts in the Deuteronomistic History, for instance, often share striking parallels with two or more redactional layers of their corresponding accounts in Genesis-Numbers, showing that the given accounts in the Deuteronomistic History were written after the corresponding accounts in Genesis-Numbers had been written. Furthermore, the Deuteronomistic Historian calls the reader's attention to accounts in Genesis-Numbers by explicitly citing and referring to them, by using personal names, and by drawing thematic and verbal parallels. Retelling the Torah, the first book to focus on these parallel narratives, contains far-reaching implications for Hebrew Bible scholarship.

Review Quotes

'Harvey has done a great service in enabling us to read stories from Genesis to 2 Kings in their entirety...his thesis will stimulate and challange Old Testament exegetes and theologians...its implications are both novel and fa-reaching'--Sanford Lakoff "Expository Times "

Review in International Review of Biblical Studies, Vol 51: 2004/05

About the Author

John E. Harvey has a Ph.D in Old Testament from St. Michael's University College in Toronto, Ontario. He is the registrar of the Thorneloe University School of Theology, and is a deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada.