Egypt on the Pentateuch's Ideological Map

Constructing Biblical Israel's Identity

Franz V. Greifenhagen

• Publisher: Sheffield Academic Press
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780826462114
• eBook ISBN: 9780567391360
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

This book explores the references to Egypt in the Pentateuch--twice as dense as in the rest of the Hebrew Bible--in the context of the production of the text's final form during the Persian period. Here, as Greifenhagen shows, Egypt functions ideologically as the primary "other" over against which Israel's identity is constructed, while its role in Israel's formation appears as subsidiary and as a superseded stage in a master narrative which locates Israel's ethnic roots in Mesopotamia. But the presentation of this powerful neighbour is equivocal: a dominant anti-Egyptian stance coexists with alternative, though subordinate, pro-Egyptian views, suggesting that the Pentateuchal narrative was produced within a context of ideological conflict over attitudes towards a land that provided a home for Jewish fugitives and emigrants.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
• Chapter 2 EGYPT IN GENESIS
• Chapter 3 EGYPT IN EXODUS
• Chapter 4 EGYPT IN LEVITICUS, NUMBERS AND DEUTERONOMY
• Chapter 5 THE PRODUCTION AND PROMULGATION OF THE 'FINAL TEXT FORM' OF THE PENTATEUCH
• Chapter 6 THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT: EGYPT AND ISRAEL
• Chapter 7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
• Appendix: THE TERM [Omitted] AND ITS OCCURRENCES IN THE HEBREW BIBLE AND THE PENTATEUCH
• Bibliography
• Index of References
• Index of Authors