The Convocation at Sinai: A Study in Biblical InterpretationThe biblical narrative of the revelatory events at Mount Sinai, and the covenant with God entered into by the children of Israel, deals with the critical formative event in the religious and cultural history of ancient Israel. However, the narrative also contains a number of enigmatic passages that have long troubled readers of Scripture. In this book, the author undertakes to unravel some of these enigmas and to show how they contribute to a fuller understanding of the narrative. The focus in The Convocation at Sinai is on what the biblical text is telling us, explicitly as well as implicitly, about the world in which the ancient Israelites became transformed from a mass of ethnically related people into a nation bound by a divine covenant, and the extraordinary role that the covenant between God and Israel played in the creation of the religious civilization known as Judaism. In the effort to comprehend and explain the highly complex biblical text, the author has consulted a wide range of commentaries and studies written over a period of some two millennia that have sought to understand the biblical texts from a wide variety of perspectives, many of which are presented for the reader's consideration, including many sources inaccessible to those without a working knowledge of Hebrew. |
Contents
The Song at the Sea | 1 |
The Road to Sinai | 25 |
Moses and Jethro | 69 |
The Theophany on Mount Sinai | 84 |
The Covenant Broken | 113 |
The Covenant Restored | 142 |
Endnotes | 169 |
| 193 | |
Back Cover | 205 |
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The Convocation at Sinai: A Study in Biblical Interpretation Martin Sicker No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
Abraham Amalek Amalekites appear argued assertion Bahya ben Asher Bekhor Shor Biur al haTorah bread camp Canaan Cassutto children of Israel commandments commentators concern covenant Decalogue divine Egypt Egyptian elders Elohim Exodus on Ex firstborn gathered Gersonides God’s golden calf hand haTorah on Ex HaTorah vehaMitzvah Hebrew text Hirsch Ibn Ezra implication instructed Israelites Jacob Jethro Joshua JPS Torah Commentary land of Egypt Malbim manna Mekilta de-Rabbi Ishmael Midrash Miriam Moreover Mount Sinai mountain narrative nation Nonetheless noteworthy Pentateuch and Haftorahs Pentateuch on Ex Perush al haTorah Perush al Sefer Perushei haTorah Perushei Rashi phrase presumably prophet Ramban Rashbam Rashi Rashi on Ex refers regard Rephidim Sabbath sages Sarna saying Sea of Reeds Sefer Shemot Shemot on Ex Shirata song tablets Tetragrammaton Thou hast thou shalt thy Elohim tion told translated understood unto Moses unto thee unto YHVH vehaMitzvah on Ex verse wilderness words YHVH hath