BJ
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SUPPLEMENTATION AND THE STUDY
OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
Program in Judaic Studies
Brown University
Box 1826
Providence, RI 02912
BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES
Edited by
BJ
S
Mary Gluck
David C. Jacobson
Maud Mandel
Saul M. Olyan
Rachel Rojanski
Michael L. Satlow
Adam Teller
Nelson Vieira
Number 361
SUPPLEMENTATION AND THE STUDY
OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
edited by
Saul M. Olyan and Jacob L. Wright
SUPPLEMENTATION
AND THE STUDY OF
THE HEBREW BIBLE
edited by
BJ
S
Saul M. Olyan and Jacob L. Wright
Brown Judaic Studies
Providence, Rhode Island
© 2018 Brown University. All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly
permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests
for permission should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions
Office, Program in Judaic Studies, Brown University, Box 1826, Providence, RI
02912, USA.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
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Names: Olyan, Saul M., editor.
Title: Supplementation and the study of the Hebrew Bible / edited by Saul M.
Olyan and Jacob L. Wright.
Description: Providence : Brown Judaic Studies, 2018. | Series: Brown Judaic
studies ; Number 361 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018001754 (print) | LCCN 2018007962 (ebook) | ISBN
9781946527066 (ebk) | ISBN 9781946527059 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781946527073 (hbk : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Old Testament—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Classification: LCC BS1171.3 (ebook) | LCC BS1171.3 .S87 2018 (print) | DDC
221.6/6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001754
Printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction
Saul M. Olyan and Jacob L. Wright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part 1: Psalms and Lyrical Literature
Supplementation in Psalms: Illustrations from Psalm 145
Marc Z. Brettler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Textual Supplementation in Poetry: The Song of Hannah
as a Test Case
Reinhard G. Kratz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Part 2: Narrative Texts of the Pentateuch
Genre Conventions and Their Implications for
Composition History: A Case for Supplementation in Exodus 16
Angela Roskop Erisman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
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Joseph and the Egyptian Wife (Genesis 39):
A Case of Double Supplementation
Thomas Römer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Part 3: Deuteronomistic Historical Narrative
Outbidding the Fall of Jerusalem: Redactional
Supplementation in 2 Kings 24
Konrad Schmid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The Evolution of the Gideon Narrative
Jacob L. Wright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
v
vi
Contents
Part 4: Prophetic Anthologies
“Biblicist Additions” or the Emergence of Scripture
in the Growth of the Prophets
Anja Klein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Fire and Worms: Isaiah 66:24 in the Context of Isaiah 66
and the Book of Isaiah
Saul M. Olyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Part 5: Legal Texts
Making a Case: The Repurposing of “Israelite Legal
Fictions” as Post-Deuteronomic Law
Sara J. Milstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Supplementing Leviticus in the Second Temple Period:
The Case of the Wood Offering in 4Q365 Fragment 23
Christophe Nihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Index of Passages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
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Index of Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Abbreviations
AB
AfOB
AOAT
AR
ATANT
ATD
AYBRL
BBB
BBET
BCOTWP
BdH
BETL
BEvT
Bib
BibInt
BKAT
BN
BThSt
BZAW
BWANT
CBET
CBQ
CBQMS
CBSC
Conc(D)
CurBR
DJD
DSD
ECC
EHS.T
Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu
Göttingen: Philologisch-historische Klasse
Anchor Bible
Archiv für Orientforschung: Beiheft
Alter Orient und Altes Testament
Archiv für Religionswissenschaft
Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments
Das Alte Testament deutsch
Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library
Bonner biblische Beiträge
Beiträge zur biblischen Exegese und Theologie
Baker Commentry on the Old Testament Wisdom and
Psalms
La Bible dans l’histoire
Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium
Beiträge zur evangelischen Theologie
Biblica
Biblical Interpretation
Biblischer Kommentar, Altes Testament
Biblische Notizen
Biblisch-theologische Studien
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament
Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology
Catholic Biblical Quarterly
Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Concilium (German)
Currents in Biblical Research
Discoveries in the Judaean Desert
Dead Sea Discoveries
Eerdmans Critical Commentary
Europäische Hochschulschriften, Theologie
BJ
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AAWG.PH
vii
Abbreviations
FAT
FB
FIOTL
FOTL
FRLANT
GAT
HACL
HB
HBS
HCOT
HK
HKAT
HS
HSM
HSS
HThKAT
HUCA
ICC
JAOS
JBL
JHebS
JNES
JQR
JSJSup
JSOTSup
JSPSup
JSSMS
KHC
MT
NBL
NETS
NICOT
NMES
NRSV
OBL
OBO
OED
Forschung zum Alten Testament
Forschung zur Bibel
Formation and Interpretation of Old Testament Literature
Forms of the Old Testament Literature
Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und
Neuen Testaments
Grundrisse zum Alten Testament
History, Archaeology, and Culture of the Levant
Hebrew Bible
History of Biblical Studies
Historical Commentary on the Old Testament
Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament
Handkommentar zum Alten Testament
Hebrew Studies
Harvard Semitic Monographs
Harvard Semitic Studies
Herders Theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament
Hebrew Union College Annual
International Critical Commentary
Journal of the American Oriental Society
Journal of Biblical Literature
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
Journal of Near Eastern Studies
Jewish Quarterly Review
Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic,
and Roman Period Supplement Series
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement
Series
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Supplement
Series
Journal of Semitic Studies Monograph Series
Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum Alten Testament
Masoretic Text
Neues Bibel-Lexikon, ed. Manfred Görg and Bernard Lang
(Zurich: Benziger, 1988–)
A New English Translation of the Septuagint, ed. Albert
Pietersma and Benjamin G. Wright (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2007)
New International Commentary on the Old Testament
Near and Middle East Series
New Revised Standard Version
Orientalia et biblica Lovaniensia
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis
Oxford English Dictionary
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viii
Abbreviations
SSEJC
SSN
STDJ
TB
TGl
THAT
ThW
UTB
VT
VTSup
VWGth
WBC
WC
WMANT
WUNT
ZABR
ZAW
ZTK
Orientalia
Old Testament Library
Old Testament Studies
Oudtestamentische studiën
Probleme der Ägyptologie
Palestine Exploration Quarterly
Revue biblique
Resources for Biblical Study
Stuttgarter biblische Aufsatzbände
Stuttgarter Bibelstudien
Studies in Biblical Theology
Sources for Biblical and Theological Study
Svensk exegetisk årsbok
Schriften der Finnischen Exegetischen Gesellschaft
Studia Judaica
Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft.
Geisteswissenschaftliche Klasse
Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Studia Semitica Neerlandica
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah
Theologische Bücherei
Theologie und Glaube
Theologisches Handwörterbuch zum Alten Testament, ed. Ernst
Jenni, 2 vols. (Munich: Kaiser, 1971–1976)
Theologische Wissenschaft
Uni-Taschenbücher
Vetus Testamentum
Supplements to Vetus Testamentum
Veröffentlichungen der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft
für Theologie
Word Biblical Commentary
Westminster Commentaries
Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen
Testament
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
Zeitschrift für altorientalische und biblische Rechtsgeschichte
Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche
BJ
S
Or
OTL
OTS
OtSt
PÄ
PEQ
RB
RBS
SBA
SBS
SBT
SBTS
SEÅ
SESJ
SJ
SKG.G
ix
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Introduction
Saul M. Olyan and Jacob L. Wright
Then Jeremiah took another scroll
and gave it to the scribe Baruch ben Neriah,
who wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the scroll
that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire.
And many similar words were added to them.
—Jer 36:321
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eremiah 36 depicts the Judean king, on one cold day in the winter of 605
BCE, destroying the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies by casting it piece
by piece into the brazier burning before his throne. In response, Jeremiah
and Baruch are said to prepare a new scroll containing all the words of
the destroyed one. The account concludes with an oft-overlooked remark
from the narrator: “And many similar words were added to them” (ועוד
)נוסף עליהם דברים רבים כהמה. Regardless of whether the scroll to which these
additions were allegedly made ever existed, the statement suggests that
the author of Jer 36 and his original audience were familiar with the phenomenon of supplementation. It also raises important questions about any
supplemented text: Who might have been responsible for the additions?
When and why were they added to the text? And can the contemporary
reader distinguish between the older words and supplements to them?
The essays in the present volume, originating from a symposium at
Brown University in May 2016, investigate the same kinds of questions
posed by this verse from Jeremiah, but they do so from the perspective
of a wide range of biblical texts. Such texts include not only prophetic
writings but also psalms and other lyrical texts, prose narratives, and legal
materials. Against the tendency in some circles to bracket the Pentateuch
and view its compositional history as sui generis, the volume demonstrates
that no section of the biblical corpus escaped the hands of readers who
added “many similar words” to the texts they received.
Our interest in the phenomenon of supplementation takes us back to
the beginnings of modern biblical criticism and the succession of formi1. Trans. Jacob Wright.
xi
xii
Introduction
dable scholars who set their sights on the origins of the Pentateuch, which
became the center of attention for many generations of biblical criticism.
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn’s Einleitung in das Alte Testament from 1783
analyzed the Pentateuch in terms of just two running sources. The compiler who synthesized these sources proceeded in his task with “sacred
reverence” (heilige Ehrfurcht), resisting any urge to refine the formulation
of his inherited texts as he deftly wove them into a rich narrative-legal
tapestry.2 Yet Eichhorn recognized that his theory could not fully account
for the Torah’s complexity, and thus he assigned considerable space to
interpolations.
To do justice to the text’s complexity, subsequent analyses multiplied
the number of running sources as well as “fragments” from these sources.
Karl David Ilgen, known as the founder of the “Older Documentary
Hypothesis,” explained the origins of Genesis in 1798 as a combination of
not fewer than seventeen writings transmitted in three separate sources.3
Along with other proponents of the “Fragment Hypothesis,” Wilhelm
M. L. de Wette argued that the “Jehovist” had reworked the “Elohim
source,” integrating in the process an array of oral and written materials.4
Similarly, K. H. Graf postulated a narrative substratum that a later author
heavily revised and supplemented; the most extensive of the supplements
included the exilic insertion of the book of Deuteronomy into an older
Hexateuch and the postexilic addition of the materials that belonged to
what is now known as the P source.5
Graf paved the way for Abraham Kuenen and Julius Wellhausen to
formulate the definitive form of the “Four-Source (or Newer) Documentary Hypothesis,” and both scholars relied heavily in their theory mak-
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2. Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Leipzig: Weidmann,
1783). For this citation, including the quotation, see Konrad Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase
zur nachendredaktionellen Fortschriebung: Die Geschichte der Erforschung der nachpriesterschriftlichen Redaktionsgeschichte des Pentateuch,” in The Post-Priestly Pentateuch:
New Perspectives on Its Redactional Development and Theological Profiles, ed. Federico Giuntoli
and Konrad Schmid, FAT 101(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015), 1–18, here 2 n. 8. This essay has
recently been published in English translation (“Post-Priestly Additions in the Pentateuch:
A Survey of Scholarship,” in The Formation of the Pentateuch: Bridging the Academic Cultures
of Europe, Israel, and North America, ed. Jan C. Gertz et al., FAT 111 [Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2016], 589–604).
3. As pointed out by Thomas Römer, “Zwischen Urkunden, Fragmenten und Ergänzungen: Zum Stand der Pentateuchforschung,” ZAW 125 (2013): 2–24, here 4. Ilgen’s work
is Die Urkunden des ersten Buchs von Moses in ihrer Urgestalt, vol. 1 of Die Urkunden des jerusalemischen Tempelarchivs in ihrer Urgestalt (Halle: Hemmerde und Schwetschke, 1798), cited
by Römer.
4. Römer, “Zwischen Urkunden,” 5. Wilhelm Martin Leberecht De Wette, Beiträge zur
Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 2 vols. (Halle: Schimmelpfennig, 1806–1807), cited by Römer.
5. Römer, “Zwischen Urkunden,” 6. K. H. Graf, “Die sogenannte Grundschrift des Pentateuch,” Archiv für die wissenschaftliche Erforschung des Alten Testaments 1 (1869): 466–77, cited
by Römer.
Introduction
xiii
ing on the assumption that later readers amplified the received sources
with substantial supplements that cannot be assigned to any of the four
sources. Wellhausen insisted that the composition of the Pentateuch was
not complete with the compilation of sources (JE and P) and emphasized
throughout his Composition that he was presenting a heavily simplified
version of his views, that the literary process was much more complicated, and that the Supplementary Hypothesis must be given a place in
any theory.6
In formulating their views on the supplementation of the combined
pentateuchal sources, both Kuenen and Wellhausen appealed to the role
of the “Diaskeuasten.” Long used in classical philology to describe the
editors who amplified the poetic texts they transmitted, the term was
introduced to biblical studies by Julius Popper, a scholar who had a major
impact on our theories even if he has been largely forgotten today.7 In
his study of Exodus, Popper demonstrated the exegetical character of the
“Amplifikationen” that he isolated and argued that the additions in the
Samaritanus and Septuagint must be viewed as part of the same activity of
“Diaskeuase” that fashioned the final form of the Pentateuch transmitted
in rabbinic Judaism.8
In the scholarship that followed Keunen and Wellhausen, we can witness, as Konrad Schmid has recently shown, a tendency to downplay the
creativity of those who combined the sources and supplemented them in
various ways.9 The case is especially apparent in the work of Hermann
Gunkel and Martin Noth. Yet, while both sought to diminish significantly the contribution of the compiler, they did not hesitate to admit that
noteworthy additions continued to be made after the combination of the
sources. In the words of Gunkel, “With this is the activity of the redactor in
Genesis concluded as a whole. But in the details, the work (‘Diaskeuase’)
on the text continued much longer.”10 Thus, earlier generations of critics
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6. Julius Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bücher des Alten
Testaments, 3rd ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1899), 207: “Der Einfachheit wegen abstrahire ich meistens davon, dass der literarische Process in Wirksamkeit complicirter gewesen ist und die
sogenannte Ergänzungshypothese in untergeordneter Weise doch ihre Anwendung findet.”
For this citation and quotation, see Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase,” 3 and n. 11.
7. Wellhausen honored Popper in his writing as the “gelehrte Rabbi,” as Schmid notes
(“Von der Diaskeuase,” 4, citing Die Composition des Hexateuchs, 146). On Popper, see further Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase,” 3–6; and Ran HaCohen, Reclaiming the Hebrew Bible:
German-Jewish Reception of Biblical Criticism, SJ 56 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010), 137–41, the latter
cited by Schmid. On Popper’s influence on Kuenen, see Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase,” 5.
8. Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase,” 4–5; Julius Popper, Der biblische Bericht über die Stiftshütte: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Composition und Diaskeue des Pentateuch (Leipzig: Hunger,
1862).
9. Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase,” 5-7.
10. Trans. Jacob Wright. The original reads: “Damit ist im allgemeinen die Tätigkeit der
Redaktoren an der Genesis abgeschlossen. Aber im einzelnen geht die Arbeit (‘Diaskeuase’)
xiv
Introduction
acknowledged the role of supplementation in the development of the Pentateuch, even if it was not their primary focus.
Interest in the phenomenon of supplementation has waned in some
quarters of contemporary North American scholarship. In 2006, John Van
Seters published his broadside against the “editor,” and it has been positively received among “Neo-Documentarians.”11 Members of this group
have worked over the past decade to revitalize interest in the Four Source
theory, and, in doing so, they have gone even further than Gunkel and
Noth in their curtailment of the role of the final redactor, viewing him
essentially as a compiler and insisting that the Pentateuch as we know it
is mainly a result of an “almost mechanical” juxtaposition of the sources.12
The isolation of these sources should be our primary concern, since the
finished form of the Pentateuch, as analyzed by this group of interpreters,
is an “incoherent” text resulting from the compiler’s formalistic mode of
assembling his sources.13 Although Neo-Documentarians acknowledge
the presence of “post-compilational redactional activity” of various sorts
in the text, this is neither attributed to the compiler, nor is it of particular
interest to these scholars.14
Meanwhile, European scholarship has continued to pursue its
long-standing concern with the earliest precursors to the biblical texts, but
beginning in the 1970s it turned its attention to the process by which these
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am Text noch lange weiter.” See Hermann Gunkel, Genesis, HKAT 1.1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901), XCIX. For this quotation, see Schmid, “Von der Diaskeuase,” 6.
11. John Van Seters, The Edited Bible: The Curious History of the “Editor” in Biblical Criticism (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2006). Joel Baden characterizes this work as “an extensive and valuable history of the concept of the ‘editor’ in biblical scholarship” (The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis [New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2012], 316 n. 1).
12. For a brief introduction to the work of this group, see Baden, “The Re-Emergence
of Source Criticism: The Neo-Documentary Hypothesis,” http://www.bibleinterp.com/
articles/bad368008.shtml (2012). For a more detailed treatment, see, e.g., Baden, Composition
of the Pentateuch; and Jeffrey Stackert, A Prophet like Moses: Prophecy, Law, and Israelite Religion
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), esp. 19–26. For examples of the compiler’s rare
interventions, see Baden, Composition of the Pentateuch, 221–24. For the characterization of
the compiler as “almost mechanical” in his work, see Baden, “Re-Emergence of Source Criticism.” Stackert characterizes the compiler as “working with a consistent method” characterized by several “principles” (Prophet like Moses, 21).
13. For the final form of the Pentateuch as “incoherent” or “incomprehensible,” see,
e.g., Baden, “Re-Emergence of Source Criticism”; and Stackert, Prophet like Moses, 22.
14. Stackert, Prophet like Moses, 21 on “post-compilational redactional activity.” See also
Baden, who states, “Literary activities that do not participate in the process of combining the
source documents—glosses, secondary additions, theological revisions—these are not part
of the compiler’s work, and are not attributed to the compiler” (“Re-Emergence of Source
Criticism”). See similarly his comments in Composition of the Pentateuch, 248: “The Documentary Hypothesis does not deny that each source has a history, nor does it deny that the Pentateuch itself has a history after the compilation of the documents. It is a restricted answer
to a restricted question.”
Introduction
xv
texts achieved the unity and coherence evinced in their final forms.15 This
renewed interest in the final forms of texts, and in the gradual process of
“Fortschreibung” that gave rise to them, notably did not take its cue from
the older research on the Pentateuch reviewed above but rather from the
analysis of prophetic writings, especially from Walther Zimmerli’s monumental Ezekiel commentary (published in fascicles from 1955 to 1969).16
During the same period, scholars such as Michael Fishbane and James L.
Kugel in North America sought to map the dynamics of inner-biblical exegesis, a phenomenon that included textual expansions and reworking of
various sorts evidenced across the biblical corpus.17 In short, scholarship
in both North America and Europe have begun to identify and explore
compositional phenomena such as supplementation that contributed to
the final form of the biblical text across the canon.
The present volume represents an attempt to contribute to the further
development of a pan-biblical compositional perspective by significantly
advancing our understanding of the role of supplementation in the development of the Hebrew Bible as a whole. It explores the phenomenon of
supplementation in four sections, organized by literary type: Psalms and
Lyrical Literature (Brettler, Kratz); Narrative Texts of the Pentateuch (Erisman, Römer); Deuteronomistic Historical Narrative (Schmid, Wright);
Prophetic Anthologies (Klein, Olyan); and Legal Texts (Milstein, Nihan).18
Each essay is an original contribution to the study of supplementation,
and, taken together, the ten studies demonstrate clearly just how common, variegated, and significant the phenomenon of supplementation in
the Hebrew Bible is. Supplementation may be found in minor additions
to a text intended to aid pronunciation, fill in abbreviations, or clarify
ambiguous syntax (Brettler). It may also be observed in far more elaborate changes such as the introduction of larger interpolations within
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15. For more in depth discussion of this turn in the 1970s, see further Schmid, “Von der
Diaskeuase,” 7–8.
16. Walther Zimmerli, Ezechiel 1–48, 2 vols., BKAT 13.1–2 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1969).
17. E.g., Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon,
1985); and James L. Kugel, “Early Interpretation: The Common Background of Late Forms of
Biblical Exegesis,” in James L. Kugel and Rowan A. Greer, Early Biblical Interpretation, LEC 3
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), 13–106. Fishbane speaks of “exegetical supplements” in
his treatment (e.g., 528–29). On inner-biblical exegesis and supplementation, see Reinhard
Gregor Kratz, “Innerbiblische Exegese und Redaktionsgeschichte im Lichte empirischer Evidenz,” in Das Judentum im Zeitalter des Zweiten Tempels, FAT 42 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck,
2013), 126–56.
18. The ordering of the essays is somewhat arbitrary and obviously not driven by
canonical concerns. Brettler’s essay is placed first mainly because in it the author attempts
to map types of supplementation in Psalm 145 as well as the reasons for it in a useful way,
providing an entry into thinking systematically about the phenomenon in its various permutations.
xvi
Introduction
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a work of prose (Wright, Schmid, Römer, Erisman), in a prophetic text
(Klein, Olyan), or in a legal text (Milstein, Nihan). Supplementation also
includes the addition of an introduction, a conclusion, or an introductory
and concluding framework to a particular text, whether lyrical, legal, prophetic, or narrative (Kratz, Brettler, Milstein, Olyan) or the augmentation
of a poetic text by adding internal refrains (Brettler). It may also be found
in the reworking of older legal texts to produce new legislation, as in the
case of 4Q365 23 (Nihan) or, famously, the slave laws of Exod 21:2–6 and
Deut 15:12–18.
How do scholars identify supplements and how do they unravel the
growth of a text that has experienced supplementation? In order to identify a supplement, one might appeal to the stylistic distinctiveness of a
text or passage, as does Römer with regard to Gen 39. Scholars frequently
point to evidence of a tight connection linking sections of text on either
end of what appears to be a supplement, as does Wright on Judg 8:28,
which follows 8:18–21 smoothly, suggesting that 8:22–27 is intrusive, or
Schmid on 2 Kgs 24:1 and 5, which flow well if uninterrupted by 24:2–4.
A passage might be identified as supplementary if it draws on other passages in a creative way to produce a new text (Kratz, Nihan, Milstein) or if
it seems to stand alone, with the narrative in which it is embedded making
no reference whatsoever to it (Römer on the larger Joseph story in relation
to Gen 39). Supplements may themselves be supplemented, sometimes
several times, as the examples of Gen 39 and Isa 66:15–24 show. On occasion, external evidence points to supplementation, as in the case of Judg
6:7–10, missing in 4QJudga (Wright) or the refrains of MT Ps 145, missing
in the LXX (Kratz).
Reconstructing the stages in the growth of a supplemented text is often
very challenging, and it is not unusual for scholars to acknowledge the
limits of what we can know (Erisman, Wright, Olyan). In order to unravel
the growth of such a text, scholars often focus on tracking dependency:
upon which particular texts is a supplement dependent or, put differently,
which particular texts does it assume through allusion or citation? A case
in point is Isa 66:24, universally acknowledged to be a late addition to
the series of supplements that round out the book of Isaiah (66:15–24).
Olyan argues that 66:24 depends on 66:15–16, 22–23 and 1:28; that it may
assume 66:14 and 14:11; and that there is no evidence it knows of 66:17
or 18–21, given that it does not engage the content of these verses. Thus,
Isa 66:24 must postdate 66:15–16, 22–23 and 1:28 but not necessarily 66:17
or 18–21, which may be earlier or later. We simply do not know enough
about the stages in the growth of Isa 66:15–24 to decide. Thus, tracking
textual dependency does not always provide us with all that we seek to
know about the stages of a supplemented text’s growth, although it can
tell us something of value, as the example of Isa 66:24 illustrates.
Supplementation may have a variety of functions, including but not
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limited to the following: It may correct perceived errors in a text, as in
11QPsa v. 3, in which a scribe apparently adds a letter to a word in order
to correct his own error (Brettler); it may change the focus of a text, as
does the framing of the Song of Hannah, which shifts the emphasis of the
poem from Yhwh’s actions and abilities to the fate of a particular individual—the king—and that of his enemies (Kratz); it may forge connections
with texts elsewhere, as does Isa 66:24, which alludes to Isa 1:28 through
its mention of transgressors against Yhwh (Olyan), or Isa 41:21, which
alludes unmistakably to Exod 15:13 and 16 in its evocation of a “New Exodus” (Klein). Supplementation may contemporize a text for a new context, as the example of the Ashrei prayer demonstrates (Brettler); it may
address perceived ambiguities in a passage by means of clarification, as in
Isa 66:17, which tells us who exactly are the offenders of 66:15–16 (Olyan);
it may create symmetry or harmony as in 11QPsa v. 4, which renders a
singular verb as a plural to produce agreement (Brettler). Supplementation may add details to a text or elaborate on its content, as in Ezek 38–39,
a pericope that elaborates extensively on Yhwh’s promise in Ezek 36:22
to take action to sanctify his profaned name (Klein); it may transform
the representation of a literary character, even radically, as in the case of
Gideon, who goes from being a skilled warrior to a fearful farmer in need
of constant reassurance from Yhwh, a transformation that brings Yhwh’s
power into relief (Wright). A second example of character transformation
by means of supplementation is the case of Joseph, who becomes a model
of loyalty and chastity through the addition of Gen 39 to the Joseph story
(Römer). Supplementation may fill in perceived gaps, as does the wood
offering in 4Q365 (Nihan); it may better integrate new material into an
extant work, as does the introductory frame in Deut 17:2–7 with regard to
what Milstein calls “Israelite Legal Fictions” (ILFs). In all of these examples, supplementation might be described as a creative and “strategic”
(Nihan) activity, with one or more functions.
In his contribution to this volume, Brettler asks whether we can
identify types of supplementation that are peculiar to particular literary genres. This is a very apt question that we can only begin to address
here. Certainly the addition of refrains to psalms or other poetic texts
seems peculiar to lyrical literature by definition, while supplementation
intended to transform the character of a literary figure such as Gideon
(Wright) or Joseph (Römer) seems at first blush to be a phenomenon of
narrative specifically. In contrast, adding introductions, conclusions or
introductory and concluding frames is a characteristic of supplementation throughout a range of literary genres (e.g., narrative, poetry, law).
Similarly, the tendency of supplements in psalms and other poetic compositions to pursue theological interests (Kratz) is not unique to lyrical literature, as examples from narrative (Schmid, Wright), legal texts (Milstein),
and prophetic materials (Klein, Olyan) show. Thus, this book has much to
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say about supplementation in relation to different genres, yet a detailed
investigation of this question is clearly a desideratum for future research.
Can supplementation be viewed as a diachronic phenomenon? Klein’s
essay makes a striking case for change over time in the nature of the supplementation she identifies in prophetic collections, which she relates
to the emergence of an idea of scripture. Whether her insight regarding
“dynamic” supplementation in prophetic anthologies might be more
broadly attested in other parts of the Hebrew Bible is an exciting question
for the coming studies of supplementation that this volume promises—
hopes—to inspire.