Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yon_saf AT bezeqint.net>]

David Stabnow wrote:

> Liz wrote: "You have both P and J intertwined in the Noah story. Have you
> noticed that?"
>
> While your observation reflects a viewpoint that has been widely held for
> over a century, Gordon Wenham and Robert Longacre have both written
> articles arguing that the Flood Narrative is in fact a literary unit.  The
> items that are given by others as evidence of multiple sources and
editions
> are seen by them as literary devices.
>
One can make a similar observation (and in fact Cassuto has - and, I
believe, Nachmanides before him - regarding the Ten Plagues Narrative:
The narrative can be divided nto 3 sets of 3 plagues with the 10th as a
climax.
In each set, the first plague is in the morning, in the second Moses is
commanded bo 'el par'oh - "come ot Pharaaoh", and the third comes without
warning. For more details, see Umberto Cassutos commentary on Exodus,
published by Magnes, Jerusalem.
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Chairman
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Israel