The Theophany Form
Most critical scholars of the Bible would argue that the
Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) were compiled from multiple
sources by a later editor. This is contrary to the traditional understanding
that Moses penned the words sometime after the Exodus of the Israelites from
Egypt, in the ballpark of 1500 BC. This critical line of reasoning is called
the Documentary Hypothesis and has assigned each of the material to one of four
sources labeled as JEDP. Each letter signifies the tradition which the content
is thought to have been derived from; J –
Jehovah/Yahwistic, E – Elohim, D – Deuteronomist, and P – Priestly. The
argument is that these were all separately developed traditions that only
centuries later were edited together into one cohesive whole.
This Sunday we will look at a story from the Pentateuch, the
story of the burning bush. This is the story where God reveals himself to
Moses, and in the process re-reveals his divine name of Yahweh to Moses. Within
this story, skeptics would argue that it contains 3 of these 4 sources (J, E,
P). But this is where historical context
is an important clue into the history of this passage. Chapters 3 and 4 follow
a literary pattern that is well attested in both the Bible and other Ancient
Near Eastern writings. It is called the Theophany Form.
In this literary form there are a number of elements in
which the deity appears to a mortal to provide some form of “holy words,”
utterances to the mortal, all including the quelling of human fear and the back
and forth between further inquiry and protest from the hearer. (For a more
complete synopsis of the theophany form see Stuart, Doug. Exodus: New American
Commentary, pp 106-108)
So why is this important? What this means is that even
before the time of Moses, this form was a recognizable literary structure in
the region where the Israelites dwelled. This means that while skeptics try to
mix and match their sources with elements of the narrative, their efforts are
in vain. The theophany form explains all of the different elements of the story
in one cohesive whole, leaving no stray elements behind that need to be
explained away by later editors or sources.
This is an important concept. It means that we can hold fast
to our traditional understanding of the authorship and transmission of the
Bible. This is one example of the historicity of the Bible and thereby the
continued authority of the Word as God’s words to us. This was not a story that
was invented by a Jewish editor, or the summarization of various myths about
God. This experience Moses had with God fits right into the cultural
understanding of such an event. We can trust the validity of this experience.
- In this post I suggested that this was a “re-revelation" of the name of God, Yahweh. Why do you think a reminder of God’s name was necessary?
- How does this story of the burning bush fit into the larger narrative of Scripture leading to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
