This dissertation argues that memory is a central idea in the two major religions of the Pentateu... more This dissertation argues that memory is a central idea in the two major religions of the Pentateuchdeuteronomic and priestlyand that examination of memory both offers new insights into these religions and their relationship to each other, and lends coherence to, and integrates, various levels of those religions: their terminology; religious programs; textual presentation; theologies and cosmologies. It seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of memory in the Pentateuch through three kinds of analysis. First, by exploring the language associated with memory in each tradition, it demonstrates that D conceptualizes memory in verbal terms while for P, memory is associated with sensual, mainly visual, experiences. As well, in D, memory is mainly an Israelite activity while in P, God"s memory is most important. Part two relates the respective conceptualizations of memory to the religious programs of each tradition by making use the Divergent Modes of Religiosity model of anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse which correlates the type of memory privileged in a religion with the character of its ritual. The study concludes by considering the relationship between the religious programs devised by the authors of D and P and their respective cosmologies as represented by the two creation accounts which open the Pentateuch. The study also sheds light on particular issues in Pentateuchal scholarship: the debate between proponents of actualization and proponents of practice as the primary focus of deuteronomic religion; the absence of prayer in deuteronomic religion; the significance of creation for a historically oriented religion; the tension embedded in priestly literature between a theology predicated on creation and one predicated on revelation as well as the function of revelation in P; the primacy of P to H; and the identification of a number of passages as either P or H.
At five years of age -Scripture; at ten, Mishnah; at 13, Mitzvoth." This passage from Mishnah Avo... more At five years of age -Scripture; at ten, Mishnah; at 13, Mitzvoth." This passage from Mishnah Avot 5:21 is the oft-quoted source for the ritual now known as Bar Mitzvah.
This dissertation argues that memory is a central idea in the two major religions of the Pentateu... more This dissertation argues that memory is a central idea in the two major religions of the Pentateuchdeuteronomic and priestlyand that examination of memory both offers new insights into these religions and their relationship to each other, and lends coherence to, and integrates, various levels of those religions: their terminology; religious programs; textual presentation; theologies and cosmologies. It seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of memory in the Pentateuch through three kinds of analysis. First, by exploring the language associated with memory in each tradition, it demonstrates that D conceptualizes memory in verbal terms while for P, memory is associated with sensual, mainly visual, experiences. As well, in D, memory is mainly an Israelite activity while in P, God"s memory is most important. Part two relates the respective conceptualizations of memory to the religious programs of each tradition by making use the Divergent Modes of Religiosity model of anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse which correlates the type of memory privileged in a religion with the character of its ritual. The study concludes by considering the relationship between the religious programs devised by the authors of D and P and their respective cosmologies as represented by the two creation accounts which open the Pentateuch. The study also sheds light on particular issues in Pentateuchal scholarship: the debate between proponents of actualization and proponents of practice as the primary focus of deuteronomic religion; the absence of prayer in deuteronomic religion; the significance of creation for a historically oriented religion; the tension embedded in priestly literature between a theology predicated on creation and one predicated on revelation as well as the function of revelation in P; the primacy of P to H; and the identification of a number of passages as either P or H.
At five years of age -Scripture; at ten, Mishnah; at 13, Mitzvoth." This passage from Mishnah Avo... more At five years of age -Scripture; at ten, Mishnah; at 13, Mitzvoth." This passage from Mishnah Avot 5:21 is the oft-quoted source for the ritual now known as Bar Mitzvah.
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Papers by Barat Ellman