Anderson, Gary A., Literary Artistry and Divine Presence, in: Ganzel, Tova (Hg.), Contextualizing Jewish Temples (The Brill Reference Library of Judaism, 64), Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2021, 85–102. Show MoreAbstract from OTA: ln this essay, I have three aims. First, I intend to show that the chapters dedicated to the appearance of God at the Tabernacle (Exodus 40 and Leviticus 8-9) have been composed in artful fashion: one must attend to what is said as well as how it is expressed in order to understand the content. Second, to demonstrate that the relationship of chronological time (the actual order of events) to narrative time (how those events are ordered in the story) is more complex than a first read-through might imagine. … Third, and finally, to suggest that the chronological challenge of the narrative has some significant theological ramifications. [p. 85, adapted]—I began this paper with the claim that the two stories of God’s appearance at the Tabernacle were composed in an artful fashion. We noted that although the pattern of command and sevenfold completion occurs three different times in the Tabernacle narrative. Exod 40:1-16 distinguishes itself by pointing forward to the close of chap. 40 and Leviticus 8. The author of Exodus 40 was clearly aware of this and put the final completion formula, not at the end of the chapter where we might have expected it, but rather at the end of the command section (v. 16), in order to indicate that the narrative is incomplete as it presently stands. This element of incompleteness was also felt by most early readers of these chapters who attempted to coordinate the two theophanies. Why did our author structure the material in this deliberately awkward fashion? I have suggested that the aim was to embed within the Torah two distinct goals of the divine liturgy: the manufacture of a place for God to dwell and a place for the priests to serve at the altar therein. [p. 102, adapted – C.T.B.]

Grossman, Jonathan; Hadad, Eliezer, The Ram of Ordination and Qualifying the Priests to Eat Sacrifices: JSOT 45, 2021, 476–492. DOI: 10.1177/0309089220963436 Show MorePublished abstract: The priests qualified for their priestly function in three main ways: being robed in the priestly vestments; being anointed; and undergoing the ceremony of the days of ordination. This article is intended to clarify the contribution of each of the three components of the procedure, but especially that of the ram of ordination. A semantic and literary analysis demonstrates that donning the vestments qualifies the priests to minister in the tabernacle; anointing them makes them ‘holy’; and the ram ceremony qualifies them to eat the sacrifices that are offered on the altar.

Himbaza, Innocent, La Bénédiction d’Aaron en Lévitique 9,22 et le Pentateuque Samaritain, in: Himbaza, Innocent (ed.), The Text of Leviticus. Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, held in Fribourg (October 2015) (OBO 292), Leuven: Peeters, 2020, 69–81.