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Review of Biblical Literature Blog

Sin at Sinai: Early Judaism Encounters Exodus 32
Lindqvist, Pekka

Turku, Finland: Åbo Akademi University, 2008 pp. 391. $49.95

Series Information
Studies in Rewritten Bible, 2

Description: Sin at Sinai is a study in the interpretive life of the biblical drama played out around the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. In the course of the history of post-biblical Jewish reception the episode - which may not be the climax of the entire pentateuchal story, but due to its narrative setting is at the core of the Covenant theology - rises into a position of a central junction. It troubles authors and sages of post-biblical Judaism throughout the centuries: a controversial incident, a portrait of an archetypal rebellion, which compels the commentators to seek the truth beyond obscure words and turns of the intrigue. This study illuminates the questions of how early Judaism rewrites the story, how it reacts to it, and why it does so in the way it does. The book sheds new light over the controversies inside Judaism as well as between it and the gentile world. It also contributes to an increased understanding of the Jewish-Christian controversy during the first centuries.

Subjects: Bible, Hebrew Bible / Old Testament, Pentateuch, Exodus, Literature