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  • From: Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Iron and Curses in Deuteronomy 28
  • Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:48:45 -0800

Karl wrote

If Moses were brought up in the royal court as Exodus claims he was, then
would he not be familiar with the language of diplomacy and other
governmental processes? Since he repeatedly pictures God's relation between
God and Israel in the legal status as lord over vassal nation, is it any
surprise to see here another indication of such legalese?

So you're saying that the curses of Sin, Shamash, Ninurta, et.al. were known to Moses from the court, and he thought it appropriate to replicate them in a prophecy about Yahweh's punishment of Israel? Isn't this a strange theology? And isn't it odd that we have no other documents so closely matching it except from the 7th century?

But in any case, what about the internal structure of Deut.28? What would account for its jumbled state besides scribal reworking? Doesn't it look like verses 2-10 belong together with verses 15-20 (+25&37)? Then isn't it odd that the part leftover from this coherent subtext corresponds closely to part of another document? Can you explain this by sloppiness on the part of Moses? Or is it possible that Moses produced a more coherent text that has been mangled by subsequent transmission? (But that's a slippery slope...)


Gabe Eisenstein







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