{"id":1079,"date":"2010-05-10T19:45:06","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T19:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2010\/05\/the-story-of-sin--a-dark-tale-part-six.html"},"modified":"2010-05-10T19:45:06","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T19:45:06","slug":"the-story-of-sin-a-dark-tale-part-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/05\/the-story-of-sin-a-dark-tale-part-six.html","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Sin— A Dark Tale Part Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thumbnail<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

In the fifth chapter of his study of sin,  <\/span>Gary Anderson probes some material in
\nLeviticus 25-26, and here some of his critical assumptions about Leviticus
\nbecome crucial.  <\/span>Like many, but certainly
\nnot all scholars, Anderson believes that
\nLeviticus is a book that has some materials in it that go back to the First Temple
\nperiod (i.e. the time of Solomon), but not necessarily much further.  <\/span>He then also assumes, again with many OT
\nscholars that the final editing of this material is even later— in other words
\nthat it was likely redacted in the exilic or post-exilic era.  <\/span>On p. 56 he reaches a crucial conclusion
\n(crucial that is to his overall thesis, namely weight images of sin were
\nreplaced by debt images of sin over the course of time). Here is what he claims:
\n“The fact that Israel’s
\nsins are conceived of as debts in the
\nlatest redactional layer of Leviticus 26 <\/i>is sound proof of its exilic
\nprovenance.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

            <\/span>As a
\nconclusion of a critical OT scholar, this is not surprising, but what is
\nsurprising, is that he would talk about ‘proof’ after in the first place
\nbuilding his conclusion on the foundation on an assumption, I might add an
\nunproveable assumption about the composition history and final editing of
\nLeviticus. It is furthermore, an assumption not based on any textual or text
\ncritical evidence, nor, so far as a I can see, is it based on any linguistic
\nevidence either (i.e. that the grammar and syntax and vocabulary of the edited
\nbits and additions are noticeably difference from the earlier stuff in
\nLeviticus, particularly in Lev. 26.43).  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here we are building one
\nhypothesis on another, and then claiming we have ‘ sound proof’ that if sin is
\ncalled debt, it must have come from the exilic period or later.   <\/span>What Anderson
\ndoes not bother or pause to explain is why exactly its so unthinkable that
\nmaybe sin was occasionally imaged as debt even in the pre-First Temple period.   <\/span>I bring this point up because in fact, if
\nmemory serves, we have evidence of the use of commercial language for sin in
\nANE texts as well, texts that certainly could pre-date the exilic period of
\nJudean Jews (see Pritchard’s collection of ANE texts and inscriptions).  <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

            <\/span>So let us
\nsuppose for a moment that: 1) we have earlier evidence that sin was sometimes
\nseen as debt, in early Israelite history, and 2) as I have already mentioned we
\nhave NT evidence that sin was sometimes seen as a weight to be carried in the
\nNT period.  <\/span>What does this do to Anderson’s theory about
\nsin having a rather clear and compelling history, or better said, how sin is
\nimaged has a history?  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Well it would not
\nchange the fact that the commercial language for sin becomes more prominent the
\nlater we go in time, but it would certainly remove the neat and tidy notion of one
\nimage being almost entirely supplanted by the other as time went on.   <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Much depends on how early Lev. 26.43 really
\nis which says that both the Hebrew people and the land must pay the debt for
\ntheir sins, an interesting notion where the land itself has a sin debt.  <\/span>You will notice Anderson says nothing whatsoever about the
\npossibility that Lev. 26.43 might actually be Mosaic in origin.  <\/span>That would really put a monkey wrench in his
\nthesis. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While I certainly don’t object in principle to the plausible notion
\nthat Leviticus underwent some editing in the exilic and post-exilic
\nperiod,  <\/span>what I do object to is the
\nassumption that the old tired form critical theories about a priestly source
\nand a holiness source for Leviticus are still as valid as they always
\nwere,  <\/span>despite recent studies like that
\nof Karel van der Toorn’s Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible,
\n<\/u>which calls into question the whole way we view ancient scribes as editors
\nof documents.  <\/span>I’m thinking that just as
\nin NT studies some of the old form critical shibboleths have been rightly
\nquestioned, or dismissed or mostly shelved, that it might be about time for an
\nextreme makeover of such assumptions in OT studies in light of new things we
\nnow know about scribes and oral cultures to mention but two items.   <\/span>What is indisputable is that Lev. 26 and
\nwhat is says about sin had an influence on later figures like Jeremiah, and to
\nthat we will turn in the next installment of this review of Anderson’s study of sin.  <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span> <\/span>  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the fifth chapter of his study of sin,  Gary Anderson probes some material in Leviticus 25-26, and here some of his critical assumptions about Leviticus become crucial.  Like many, but certainly not all scholars, Anderson believes that Leviticus is a book that has some materials in it that go back to the First Temple…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Story of Sin- A Dark Tale Part Six - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2010\/05\/the-story-of-sin-a-dark-tale-part-six.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Story of Sin- A Dark Tale Part Six - 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A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}