Konrad Schmid, «Genesis and Exodus as Two Formerly Independent Traditions of Origins for Ancient Israel», Vol. 93 (2012) 187-208
This paper is a response to Joel Baden’s article, which claims that the material in Genesis and Exodus was already literarily connected within the independent J and E documents. I suggest an alternative approach that has gained increased acceptance, especially in European scholarship. The ancestral stories of Genesis on the one hand and the Moses story in Exodus and the following books on the other hand were originally autonomous literary units, and it was only through P that they were connected conceptually and literarily.
194 KONRAD SCHMID
II. The Joseph Story as a bridge
between the patriarchs and the exodus?
Having said this, I still agree with Baden that continuity is not
only established by explicit verbal links between two textual cor-
pora. Nevertheless, Baden is overstating the evidence of Genesis
37–50 when he writes: “The entire narrative is built on the premise
that Joseph’s descent to Egypt and rise to power there paved the way
— through the behind-the-scenes workings of divine providence —
for the rest of Jacob’s family to migrate to Egypt†(167). Of course,
in the current textual flow of the Pentateuch, the Joseph story in-
deed explains how Israel came to Egypt in order to leave from there
under the guidance of Moses. But there are several elements in Gen-
esis 37–50 that reveal that this is only true for the canonical shape
of the Joseph story. And even on this literary level, it is an over-
statement to claim that “the entire narrative†is only aimed towards
the eisodos theme which is preparing the exodus. First of all, the
differences between Genesis 12–36 and 37–50 show that the Joseph
story apparently was a literary fixed piece in its own right before
having been incorporated into the book of Genesis. Rachel’s death
is reported in Gen 35,18-20; she is supposed to be alive in Gen 37,8.
In Genesis 12–36, only Dinah shows up as Jacob’s daughter; Gen
37,35 mentions several sons and daughters. Jacob’s sons have chil-
dren of their own in Genesis 37–50 as opposed to Genesis 12–36;
Joseph is introduced in 37,3 as son born to Jacob when already quite
old, which is not presupposed in Genesis 30–31. Reuben and
Simeon, who are presented as compromised in Gen 34,30; 35,22
take positive roles in Genesis 37–50. All these differences are not
very important in terms of the narrative, but especially their unpre-
tentious quality suggests that the Joseph story was a literary entity
unto itself before having been attached to Genesis 12–36 and sub-
sequently filled out as a bridge to the exodus material 13.
The differences between Genesis 37–50 and Exodus 1–15 point
in the same direction. The depictions of Israel and Pharaoh are so
See for more detail K. SCHMID, “Die Josephsgeschichte im Pentateuchâ€,
13
Abschied vom Jahwisten. Die Komposition des Hexateuch in der jüngsten
Diskussion (eds. J.C. GERTZ – K. SCHMID – M. WITTE) (BZAW 315; Berlin –
New York 2002) 83-118; R.G. KRATZ, The Composition of the Narrative
Books of the Old Testament (London – New York 2005) 274-279.
© Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati