184 JOEL S. BADEN 13,18, in the law of ḥerem, Moses says that for obeying the law God will “in his compassion increase you as he promised your fa- thers on oath”. These passages pose a fundamental challenge to the idea that D does not know of the patriarchs, since it is only in the patriarchal narratives that the promise of progeny is given. In one deuteronomic passage the patriarchs are referred to without any mention of the promise: “Give thought to your servants, Abra- ham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deut 9,27); there can be no question of sim- ply deleting the names of the patriarchs here, since the phrase “your servants” is used to refer almost exclusively to either the patriarchs or Moses (who is speaking) 20. In two other D texts the descent into Egypt is mentioned: “Your ancestors went down to Egypt” (Deut 10,22), and, famously, “My father was a fugitive Aramean; he went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there” (Deut 26,5). As in Deutero-Isaiah, the idea that Israel went down to Egypt — especially using the word “sojourn” — presupposes Israel’s origins in Canaan, and thus the patriarchal narrative. In short, there are numerous passages in D that clearly signal D’s knowledge of the patriarchs, of the promises made to them, and of their descent into Egypt. Even if, for the sake of argument, we grant that in many places the reference to God’s promise of land in fact could be intended to mean the promise to the generation of the Exodus, the existence of these other passages that cannot be so un- derstood demonstrates D’s knowledge of the patriarchal and exodus narratives as a continuous whole. It may, once more, be argued that all of these deuteronomic texts are post-priestly insertions into D. But, again, these linking passages are scattered irregularly through- out D — in the first historical speech of Deuteronomy 1–3, in the rhetorical section of Deuteronomy 4, in the second historical speech of Deuteronomy 5–11, in the laws of Deuteronomy 12–26, in the speeches after the laws — and, again, there is no compelling rea- son to assign them all to secondary layers except as an attempt to keep all connections between the patriarchs and exodus out of the pre-priestly literature. The sole exceptions are the use of the term to describe Caleb in Num 20 14,24, which has no relevance here, and the Israelite people as a whole in H, in Lev 25,42.55, which is later than D. © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati