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Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)
Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)
Abstract
The wilderness material constitutes an important part of the book of Exodus. Compositionally, it connects the two centers of the book: the liberation from Egypt (Exod 1-14) and the divine revelation at Mount Sinai (19-40). With regard to content, it reflects the difficulties of Israel's way to freedom. The long Song of Moses (15:1-18) accompanied by the short Song of Miriam (15:21) together, at the beginning of the unit, constitute a heavy compositional marker that interrupts the narrative flow and seems to conclude the entire process of Israel's liberation from Egypt in the first part of the book (Exod 1:1-14:31). The unit of Exod 15:22-18:27 not only shows blurred limits, it also has no clear structure. The uncertain limits and the inconsistent structure of the present form of Exod 15:22-18:27 point to a long formation of the wilderness material, which included divergent editions.
Abstract
Having used the term „personal piety“ in contrast to the thesis of collectivism, which denied any individual belief in older Ancient Israel during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the author now pleads for „family and household religion“ as the more appropriate term for denoting the religious and ritual environment of the individual. This kind of religion supports all social functions of the family, that means reproduction, socialization, consumption, and production, and uses the ideal child–mother/father relationship stamped by trust and dependence as a model for constructing its symbol world. Anyhow, as much as the individual was embedded in his family, the prayer rituals performed for him were a real training of individuality. In the encounter with his personal God he learned to become aware of his own person. Here, the concept that everybody is personally created by God, which is testified by personal names since the 9th century BCE at least, can be identified as the religious basis of individuality. Such an individuality in Ancient Israel, however, was never a distinctive peculiarity in a modern sense, but always related to the identity of one’s family.