Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site eosp1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!fisher!eosp1!robison From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Biblical scholarship; the Tamar story Message-ID: <1298@eosp1.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Dec-84 11:54:44 EST Article-I.D.: eosp1.1298 Posted: Mon Dec 17 11:54:44 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 02:45:20 EST References: <552@homxa.UUCP> Reply-To: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton Lines: 25 Summary: The Tamar story, and the story of Josph's brothers bloddying his coat, contain a similar verb regarding the recognition of signs of office. ( Jacob is asked to recognize the coat; Judah to recognize his staff and ring.) These are, I think, the ONLY uses of that verb in Torah, and there is a lot of commentary about this link. The grand tradition of assigning different authorships to parts of Torah belongs to some 19th century German scholars. Their work may have been brought up to date, but it originally suffered from a lack of may kinds of textual analysis that are now routine. Of particular importance is the study of historical anachronisms. In many cases, texts that are claimed to originate at different times because of differences instyle show the same attitude toward events that supposedly occurred after one of the texts was written. The similar attitude argues strongly for consistent origin. For more on this topic, see the Hertz Soncino Chumash, which discusses in great detail, for example, arguments that the 5th book is of later origin, and disposes of most of the arguments. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) {allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robison