The Continuity of the Non-Priestly Narrative from Genesis to Exodus The question of whether the non-priestly narrative was continu- ous from the patriarchs to the exodus is a pressing one in current pen- tateuchal scholarship. I am very pleased to have been given the opportunity to engage in discussion on this topic with Konrad Schmid, who has published most extensively on this issue. One of the primary aims of this discussion is to illuminate the disparate ways that the text can be read and understood. To that end, Schmid and I have agreed to limit significantly the references to secondary scholarship, and to con- centrate on the biblical text and on methodological questions. It is hoped that this procedure will help to reveal more clearly the differ- ent methods and assumptions that we each bring to the text. Because Schmid has published at length on this topic 1, I will write in response to his claims, rather than pretend that the conversation arises in a va- cuum. Thus the following will consist of both my views on the con- tinuity between the patriarchs and exodus in the non-priestly text and my reactions to the argument that there is no such continuity. To quickly sum up the basics of the discussion: Schmid holds that the non-priestly narrative was not always a continuous whole from the patriarchs to the exodus, but rather that it was originally two dis- tinct texts about how Israel came to possess the land of Canaan, one relating the patriarchal story and one relating the exodus story. The first text deliberately to connect the patriarchs and the exodus, ac- cording to Schmid, was P — a document, not a redactional layer, that, in its independently composed and self-standing presentation of the early history of Israel, connected the stories of the patriarchs with those of their descendants. Because P was the first to accomplish this connection, according to Schmid, the links we find between the non-priestly patriarchs and exodus accounts are to be ascribed to a See K. SCHMID, Erzväter und Exodus. Untersuchungen zur doppelten Be- 1 gründung der Ursprünge Israels innerhalb der Geschichtsbücher des Alten Tes- taments (WMANT 81; Neukirchen-Vluyn 1999); English Translation: Genesis and the Moses Story. Israel’s Dual Origins in the Hebrew Bible (Siphrut 3; Winona Lake, IN 2010). BIBLICA 93.2 (2012) 161-186 © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati