Pentateuchal diversity

Jewish biblical scholar Jon Levenson notices the discrepancies between Exodus and Deuteronomy, specifically regarding the length of time for eating unleavened bread (Exodus 12:18; Deuteronomy 16:8). The Rabbis noticed them too. Instead of concluding that this is a signal of multiple sources, he follows the rabbis in suggesting that (in Matthew Levering’s summary) “the operative law is to be discovered by taking both passages into account. The unity of the Mosaic Torah requires that all data be considered.”

That’s an important lesson, for Christian interpreters no less than rabbinic ones.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Deliver Us from Evil

Kari Jenson Gold

In a recent New York Times article entitled “Freedom With a Side of Guilt: How Food Delivery…

Natural Law Needs Revelation

Peter J. Leithart

Natural law theory teaches that God embedded a teleological moral order in the world, such that things…

Letters

Glenn C. Loury makes several points with which I can’t possibly disagree (“Tucker and the Right,” January…