David J. A. Clines

The theme of the Pentateuch

This popular textbook regards the Pentateuch as a literary whole, with a single theme that binds it together. The overarching theme is the partial fulfilment of the promises to the patriarchs. Though the method of the book is holistic, the origin and growth of the theme is also explored using the methods of traditional source analysis. An important chapter explores the theological function of the Pentateuch both in the community for which the Pentateuch was first composed and in our own time. For this second, enlarged edition, the author has written an Epilogue reassessing the theme of the Pentateuch from a more current postmodern perspective.

The Significance of the 'Sons of God' Episode (Genesis 6:1-4) in the Context of the 'Primeval History' (Genesis 1-11)

Most studies of the ’Sons of God’ pericope (Gen. 6:1-4) have busied themselves with the narrower exegetical problems within the pericope itself as an independent, not to say intrusive, piece of ’heathen mythology’ /1/ or as a partly demythologised ’foreign particle’ /2/ within the biblical text. My purpose here is to examine, via the exegetical problem of the identity of the ’sons of God’ and via the backward and forward links between the material and its surroundings, the function of the pericope within the larger whole of the ’Primeval History’. Without calling into question the consensus of opinion that the material of the piece derives from a pre-Israelite myth, I am concerned here essentially with the ’final form of the text’ /3/.

Nehemiah 10 as an Example of Early Jewish Biblical Exegesis

Nehemiah 10, despite its forbidding portal of 27 verses of proper names, is in reality a small treasure house of post-exilic interpretations of earlier Israelite law /1/. As far as I know, it has not previously been looked at closely from the perspective of its interpretations of older texts /2/; if in this respect the present paper has something novel about it, in respect of its Gattung it is a conventional study of &dquo;innerbiblical exegesis&dquo; not unfamiliar in current scholarship. How-

Sin and Maturity

Is sin necessary to or conducive to maturity? Evidence supporting a positive reply is explained as founded either in cases where “sin” is only apparently such, or in cases where the sin is the lesser of two evils, and so comparatively a “good.” It is argued that sin and maturity are not connected casually but come to be associated through risk-taking, which can both tend to develop maturity and lead to sin. In fact, Christian ideals of innocence and maturity are not easily harmonized with psychological standards of maturity. It is only the sin that is suffered that can promote maturity.