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- Title
‘Moses Used to Take a Tent’? Reconsidering the Function and Significance of the Verb Forms in Exodus 33:7–11.
- Authors
Rogland, Max
- Abstract
Exodus 33:7–11 is typically understood as describing Moses’ repeated, habitual setting up of the tent of meeting outside the Israelite camp. Such an interpretation, however, results in a number of exegetical, literary, and historical problems that have perplexed critical as well as pre-critical exegetes. While source- and redaction-critical explanations of these difficulties are common in modern scholarship, they have failed to provide a clear redactional rationale for the current literary placement of the pericope in the golden calf narrative. The present article argues that the difficulties encountered by a habitative reading of the verbal forms are alleviated if one interprets them as having an injunctive force instead. In other words, the passage is to be understood not as narrating Moses’ habit of setting up the tent but rather as directing him to relocate it outside of the camp. The article examines a number of grammatical, literary, and exegetical factors that favour such an interpretation.
- Subjects
BIBLE. Exodus; MOSES (Biblical leader); GOLDEN calf (Bible); SCHOLARLY method; NARRATIVES
- Publication
Journal of Theological Studies, 2012, Vol 63, Issue 2, p449
- ISSN
0022-5185
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/jts/fls112