LAUSR

Joshua Berman, senior lecturer in the Department of Hebrew Bible at Bar-Ilan University, has provided the field of biblical studies with a groundbreaking monograph. Though certain chapters have been published previously (e.g., chap. 3 was previously published as “Histories Twice Told: Deuteronomy 1–3 and the Hittite Treaty Prologue Tradition,” Journal of Biblical Literature 132 [2013]: 229–50), the present volume is seamless in its prose and the argument unfolds without disturbance or strain. The book comes as a much-needed response to peers in the field engaged in the historical-critical reading of the biblical text. It is a “response” to the extent that, after the major 2013 conference in Israel, Convergence and Divergence in Pentateuchal Theory: Bridging the Academic Cultures of Israel, North America and Europe, that resulted in the 2016 Mohr Siebeck volume The Formation of the Pentateuch, Berman wishes to offer a further contribution to a model of biblical criticism that was defended at that conference. Berman argues for an empirical approach toward the Bible’s compositional history. Whereas traditional source-critical scholars have “rooted their compositional theories for the growth of the biblical text entirely in their own intuition of what constitutes literary unity [i.e., internal coherence]” (3), Berman advocates for a paradigm change. The shift Berman desires has been made possible because of the vast quantities of extant ancient Near Eastern texts that now can be employed in comparative studies. Questions regarding scribal habits, legal innovation, or what counts as narratival or legal inconsistency can now be answered through the employment of empirical evidence rather than ad hoc theories tested against the biblical text alone. Berman’s call for a methodological shift is a response to materials that were not available when the traditional source-critical methodologies were first developed. The book itself is divided into three parts. In part 1, Berman addresses the issue of internal inconsistency in biblical narrative and in part 2, internal inconsistency in biblical law; in part 3, Berman casts his critical eye at traditional models of literary criticism. Straightaway, part 1 demonstrates the methodological merits of the empirical approach of Berman and others who argue similarly. He begins Book Reviews