71

REVIEW

Sven Tengström, Die Hexateucherzählung. Eine Literaturgeschichtliche Studie . Coniectanea Biblica:

Testament Series

7;

CWK

Gleerup:

Lund, 1976;

pp.187,

Old SKr 81.

The work under review appeared about toe same time as i~endtorffs Das iiberlieferunms eschichtliche Problem des Penteteuch, already reviewed in this Journal Issue 3, ~Tuly 1977 . However it exhibits very different tendencies. Ten-str8ms stated aim is not to offer a new delimitation of literary strata and a study of their relative chronology; his method is described as literaturF;eschichtlich because the business of literary criticism must be to interpret

literary layers in the light of the presuppositions of the This study deals only with the period and milieu of each. earliest layer, and in fact only with that layers most These call radically into question obvious characteristics. the widespread assumption that the Hexateuchs oldest source was composed in Jerusalem around the time of Solomon.
Many of Tengstrbmls results are different from those of the older literary critics with whom he would part company. Yet his work shares two characteristics with that of say In the constant quest for the next episode in Eissfeldt. any given stratum he is too often satisfied with the argument: Then he If this is not impossible, then it is likely. version of the the earliest to assume that possible appears Tlexateuch story will be serviceable for the historian of
Israels beginnings.
His argument is developed in two brief and two more The first extended chapters, chiastically presented. chapter notes the programmatic significance of Abrahams first ourney. The wandering described in Gen. 11:27 - 13:18 without the intrusive 12:10-20) is stimulated by promise, stresses obedience, and constitutes a symbolic taking of the The final chapter deals in greater detail with the land. promises to the fathers and their fulfilment. Gallings thesis is deemed the only plausible one of recent decades: that the Exodus tradition was primary and originally independent, its link with the patriarchal tradition being entirely literary.

72

Gen. 35:1-7, like Jos. 24, marks the end of a narrative that While has recorded how Yahweh has fulfilled his promises. within the and of smaller additions number a larger conceding Abraham narratives, Tengstrdm claims much of the text for his To assign Gen. 16 and 21 to different strata basic narrative. (J and E) he finds quite unjustified, while Gen. 22 must belong In fact the Samaritan text to the liexateuchs basic stratum. makes it likely that the Abraham story had originally finished as well as started in Shechem (IYIoreh).
lie next isolates the main elements of the basic narrative The theme of Abraham being made of the rest of the Hexateuch. a great nation is reflected at the end of the Jacob story in And the Gen. 46:1-5 and in the first chapter of Exodus. in Exodus the has land that begins clearly promised to story The major exclusion from the Abraham as its goal (Ex. 3:7). The original version basic narrative is the Sinai tradition. recounted only visits to Horeb, in Ex. 3:1 - 4:18 and Ex. 18. Apart from the arrival at Horeb, it had only three brief narratives between the departure from Egypt and the spy and stories at the core of Idum. 13-14 - Ex. 15:22a, 23-25a; The last element in the kernels of Ex. 16 and Num. 11. Numbers that can be attributed to it is the kernel of chapter 32. Then, while there are Deuteronomic elements in both Deut. 31 :1-8 (vv.2b-6) and Jos. 1 :1-9 (vv.7-9), the older materials in these chapters make sense together and could This speech in 1:1-6 introduces belong to the old story. chapters 1-8 (the achievement of Shechem); that in 9:1-2, Then the chapters 9-11 (military exploits from Shechem). Gibeonites at the beginning of the second section constitute a similar exceptional group within the indigenous population to Rahab and her family at the beginning of the first. The Joshua story is more than the narrative goal of the lIegateuch: it marks its theological conclusion. On the one hand the promise to the patriarchs is recalled in Deut. 31 and Jos. 1; on the other, the altar building which might have been expected to follow the revelation of the divine name in Ex. 3 is delayed until conditions are right (cf. Ex. 3:7ff) - that is, until Shechem is achieved in Jos. 8 (the first two verses of the otherwise Deuteronomic Jos. 8:30-35 are presumed the original

core).

If the study opens and closes with the promises to Abraham and the narrative of their fulfilment, its heart is formed by two chapters on Shechem. Chapter 2 notes its importance from Abrahams visit to the reburial of Joseph,

73

while at the

beginning of the Joseph story it has appeared naturally as the place where the other sons of Israel are Material like Gen. 14 witli its gathered as shepherds. Jerusalem connections is quite exceptional.
In the

extended chapter, the city is series of concentric circles of portrayed Israelite tribal groupings. Tengstrtim first suggests that of Joseph is a summary term for two tribes separated by the Canaanite city but united by tleir It was adherence to a common sanctuary close to the city. here that Josephs dream had first been recounted. And since the whole story of Joseph in Gen. 37-50 assumes a twelve-tribe grouping in which Joseph has priority and 3enjamin special status, it is likely that this uniting of ~phraim and 1&dquo;.anasseh at Shechem served the formation of the twelve-tribe unit which they also led.

following

more

as

the focus of

house/people

is born in Palestine. near 3ethel and border - cf. Josephs probably also close to the Gilgal too, important in grave between Sphraim and Ioanasseh. Joshua for the very existence of the tribes west of the Jordan, was at the border of all three Rachel tribes.

Benjamin,

alone of the

twelve,

Rachels death and burial at Iphrat had been

Benjamin/Joseph

As for the traditions of all twelve tribes, Tengstrbm follows lioth in deeming prior the form that lists Levi and Joseph in the twelve; but against him he prefers as original the tribal order in the birth narratives of Genesis to that of Jacobs Blessing (Gen. 49). The former reflects a system of tribal geography that gradually focusses on the centre of the country, and is the Shechemite or classical 12-tribe canon. The very name Israel is closely linked to Shechem. No sooner

has Jacob received his new name (Gen. 32:23-33) than he goes to Shechem, buys a plot of land, and names a shrine on it Zl, god of Israel (Gen. 33:18-20).

Tengstrdm insists that it was in the premonarchic period conception of an Israelite twelve-tribe unit The story of Joshuas assembly makes this claim; originated. and something such is required as background to the story of Then Shechem is important Israels revolt against Jeroboam. in Deuteronomy; and, alone of the cultic centres of the northern kingdom, it escapes prophetic criticism. Indeed it
that this
may be that the original ideological background to Deuteronomistic hatred of Jeroboam was his break with the Shechem establishment

74

that had brought him to power - his moving of capital to Such opposition, Tirzah and cult centre to 3ethel and Dan. though originally Shechemite, readily served later Jerusalemite purposes.
This study contains many interesting observations about the structure and interpretation of the first six books of the But it is not at all clear that these bear the weight Bible. loaded on them. (1) The importance of Shechem is well underYet granted its importance for Deuteronomy and its lined. freedom from criticism by the classical prophets, a preDavidic, pre-Jerusalemite situation is far from the only obvious setting for the primitive Hexateuch narrative. (2) Jos. 1:7-9 and 8:32-35 may be Deuteronomic and later than Yet it does not follow that the latter 1:1-6 and 8:30-31. In his treatment of Ex. 3, Tengstrtim are pre-Deuteronomic. urges plausibly that each main section has been simply But a smilar analysis of the appended to the one before. beginning of Jos. 1 and end of Jos 8, in terms of development within an Deuteronomic milieu, is not even considered for

rebuttal.

(3) Given the continuing lively debate about Tetrateuch-Pentateuch-Hexateuch, his summary treatment of Num. 32, Deut. 31 and Jos. 1 is quite inadequate, and only

underlines his readiness to clutch at just possible straws. (4) The case for a premonarchical grouping of twelve tribes Even in their final and including Judah is fragile. presumably southern form, the books of Joshua and Judges have The Song of Deborah ignores scanty reference to the south. And the one the south and lists rather different names. thing which the story of Jeroboams revolt does not do is mention or even hint clearly at a prior twelve-tribe unit. Tengstrdm acknowledges his debt to de Vaux and Herrmann and their demonstration that Israels traditions of a continuum of exodus, desert-wandering, and settlement do mirror historical reality. Yet he offers no defence against their arguments that the biblical systems of twelve tribes reflect a later reality, and are but an idealised reflection of that later reality.

A. Graeme Auld, New College, University of Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2LX.