Exploring the Composition of the Pentateuch, Volume 3/2

This volume reexamines the composition of the Pentateuch by focusing on literary reuse as a means by which to better understand the relationship between the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible. Instead of beginning with inherited source divisions or hypothetical redactional sequences, it starts from the texts themselves and asks how shared language, motifs, and structures can identify cases of literary reuse and clarify the direction of dependence. The essays develop methodological criteria for identifying reuse and evaluating competing claims about priority. Through detailed case studies, the contributors argue that many texts traditionally assumed to predate the Torah in fact reuse and presuppose it. Examples include the reuse of creation traditions in Exodus, covenant curses in the prophets, discussions of cultic centralization in the Former Prophets, and wisdom literature that reflects Deuteronomic language and concepts. Across these studies, the contributors argue for disciplined, evidence-based analysis grounded in verifiable evidence, while also recognizing the limits of the available evidence and the need to distinguish what can be concluded from what remains uncertain. This volume shows how attention to literary reuse can challenge long-standing assumptions about the relative dating of biblical texts and advance more methodologically transparent and empirically grounded approaches to Pentateuch studies. It will be essential reading for scholars interested in biblical studies, the Torah, and the composition of the Hebrew Bible. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Koert van Bekkum, Richard M. Davidson, Felipe A. Masotti, Richard L. Schultz, and Markus Zehnder.