185 THE CONTINUITY OF THE NON-PRIESTLY NARRATIVE V. The notion of independent narratives In the end, we may consider the very basic question of whether in- dependent non-priestly patriarchal and exodus narratives could in fact have existed in the first place. Taking the patriarchs first: it is difficult to imagine that the non-priestly patriarchal story could have stood on its own. The premise of the independent patriarchal narrative is that it would have been an account of how Israel came to possess the land of Canaan through the internal spread of Abraham’s descendants, without any descent to Egypt, exodus, wilderness wandering, or con- quest from without. Yet the patriarchal narrative does not tell that story. If the promises are included as part of the original non-priestly patriarchal narrative, then the text is certainly incomplete. At the end of the non-priestly patriarchal narrative, the Israelites are in Egypt, without any land of their own, and thus the promise of land is unful- filled; furthermore, Israel comprises but a single family, of fewer than a hundred people by any reckoning, and thus the promise of progeny is similarly unfulfilled. Even if the promises are seen as secondary, however, the same problem persists. The non-priestly patriarchal ac- count cannot function as a description of how the Israelites came to possess the land of Canaan. Unlike P, in which Jacob’s family at least has one permanent land-holding at Machpelah, in non-P the patriar- chal family never attains permanent possession of land. Rather, they move constantly from place to place, from generation to generation and even within single generations. Even if we discount the Joseph story, the non-priestly patriarchal narrative concludes not with any large-scale possession of land in Canaan, but rather with the entire family located in a single place (beyond Migdal-Eder; Gen 35,21– 22). There is no acknowledgment anywhere in the non-priestly story that the patriarchal family has begun the process of attaining posses- sion of the land. Similarly, the non-priestly exodus narrative is incomplete on its own. It begins with the Israelite people enslaved in a foreign country — yet how did these foreigners get to Egypt? Who are they? Why does God care about them? The exodus narrative presumes that the reader knows the background to the exodus story. And that background is provided in the story of the patriarchs: the lineage of the family, their descent into Egypt, the establishment of their relationship with God. The non-priestly patriarchal narrative demands some sort of con- tinuation, in which it is described how the descendants of Jacob came © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati