The Significance of Sinai: Traditions About Sinai and Divine Revelation in Judaism and Christianity (Themes in Biblical Narrative)

The theme of this collection of essays is ancient and modern Jewish and Christian views of the revelation at Sinai. The theme is highlighted in studies on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Paul, Josephus, rabbinic literature, art and philosophy. The essays here show that Sinai as the location of the revelation soon became less significant than the narratives about it. Those narratives were themselves transformed, not least to explain problems in the text's plain sense. Miraculous theophany, anthropomorphisms, the role of Moses, and the response of Israel were all handled with exegetical skills by each new generation of readers. Furthermore, the content of the revelation, especially the covenant, was rethought in philosophical, political, and theological ways. This collection of studies is particularly useful in showing something of the complexity of how scriptural traditions remain authoritative and lively for those who appeal to them in subsequent generations in very different contexts.