Description

The studies collected in From the Pentateuch to the Prophetic Torah reconstruct the complex genesis of these books in the Hebrew Bible and provide insights into the development of early Jewish theological thought within the literary discourses in Israel and Judah. They start with the late period of the kingdoms and end with an analysis of the editorial design of the scrolls in the Second Temple period. The studies are divided into three parts. The first refers to the process of theological transformation in relation to aniconism and the invisibility of the divine, divine warfare, Deuteronomistic and priestly concepts of the origins of ritual and law, diverse ideas on divine presents in a sanctuary and the roots of an intercultural understanding of a universal divine being. The second part traces the development of the distinction between Sabbath- and ritual law. And the third part examines the relationship between editorial layers in the Pentateuch and the Prophets and outlines early forms of measures for international law on the grounds of Jewish monotheistic thinking. The volume is completed by a treatise on genocide and the right of resistance against pogroms in the Hellenistic Book of Esther.