The Tetrateuch and Psalm 78

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Secret Alias
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The Tetrateuch and Psalm 78

Post by Secret Alias »

Until now the idea that a Tetrateuch preceded the finalized 'Pentateuch' has been mostly theoretical. It is based on differences in the Hebrew of Deuteronomy (deuteronomion = 'second[ary] law' = deuteros "second" + nomos "law") and the first four books.

Even when I lunch with my Samaritan friend he will (1) acknowledge the differences in the Hebrew but (2) nevertheless maintain the current orthodoxy that Moses wrote the whole book (recognizing at the same time paradoxically that Moses could not have described his own death).

The question of course that has always existed for me at least, recognizing that the Tetrateuch must have been more original is why and how Deuteronomy was added to the canon. Some questions may never get answered of course and some methodologies are worse or at least worse sounding than others. But I happened a few days ago to apply the Jewish formula for the word Tanakh to the Tetrateuch and came up with a surprising result.

As is well known 'tanakh' is not a real word but an acronym. It designates the Jewish 'book' as being made up of three sections explaining the T and N and K (Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim). The thought occurred to me - why is the Torah written in 4 or 5 books as opposed to a straight out narrative? I wondered if the three sections of the Jewish book might have been based on the four books spelling out something like Tanakh.

So it is that I came up with בשוב by taking the first letters of each book of the Tetrateuch.

Genesis—Bereshith (בראשית)
Exodus—Shemot (שמות)
Leviticus—Vayikra (ויקרא)
Numbers—Bamidbar (במדבר)

With help I determined that בשוב looks like the preposition bet with the infinitive construct of shûb, which, depending on the context, means "in the returning of X," or more idiomatically, "when x returns." That was stunning for me because the Samaritan religion is centrally fixated on the verb shûb as their Ta'eb (roughly the equivalent of the Jewish messiah) is developed from the Aramaic equivalent. The Ta'eb is the 'restorer' the Moses who comes back or returns but his role is centrally predicated on the restoration of the tabernacle.

Of course my Samaritan interest is led me to assume that the thing being 'restored' or 'brought back' was the Ta'eb, the one like Moses. Nevertheless it was odd to have an ambiguous unknown or 'X.' So I thought to myself 'maybe there is another word in the next 'acrostic' layer of the Tetrateuch. The next four letter word is quite interesting - רמימ. 'Heights' or 'high ones.'

I have to admit I was stumbling around trying to make sense of the phrase - בשוב רמימ - until I looked up Psalm 78 where we see a clear example of Samaritan primacy and the very Christian-like argument that god's favor had moved away from 'Ephraim' (i.e. the old priesthood centered at Gerizim). The Psalm makes the case that even though the Samaritan holy site was chosen by god (something reflected in the Qumran texts) 'the promise' (to use Christian terminology) had now in a later age passed on to Judah owing to the sins of the Samaritans.

The reason the last lines of the Psalm are so interesting is that they seem to echo the בשוב רמימ acrostic from the Tetrateuch.

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary as the heights,
like the earth that he established forever (וַיִּ֣בֶן כְּמֹו־רָ֭מִים מִקְדָּשֹׁ֑ו כְּ֝אֶ֗רֶץ יְסָדָ֥הּ לְעֹולָֽם).

70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them.

I find it striking that the tabernacle is here likened to the heights (רמימ). This is clearly the idea being expressed for the first time - likely at Gerizim - by whomever wrote the Torah. In the original Tetrateuch we see the argument that - exactly as in Psalm 78 - the tabernacle is the heights or perhaps the abode for the angels called רמימ. But this is undoubtedly the reason why we see for instance in Josephus that a Samaritan Ta'eb claims to have rediscovered the 'instruments' of Moses which had actually been destroyed by John Hyrcanus more than a century earlier.

Given the early dating for Psalm 78 - i.e. at the beginning of the Jewish claims to have a rival temple or altar as Gerizim - the argument seems to acknowledge the Hebrew acrostic in the Tetrateuch. The sense is that when the high ones or heights return with the tabernacle, divine favor is restored.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: The Tetrateuch and Psalm 78

Post by Secret Alias »

He built His sanctuary like the heights: “The MT’s ‘like the high ones’ (ramim) does not specify what the height of the sanctuary is being compared with. It may denote the high mountains or the heavenly temple.” (Van Gemeren)

The LXX has 'unicorn' (= remim) which is of course odd - https://books.google.com/books?id=DNbgw ... 22&f=false

Consider this account of the tabernacle/temple as heavenly abode - https://books.google.com/books?id=VzaW_ ... 22&f=false
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: The Tetrateuch and Psalm 78

Post by Secret Alias »

The ramim are angels in Job 21:22
Can anyone teach God knowledge and he judge the angels [רָמִ֥ים]
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
Posts: 18362
Joined: Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:47 am

Re: The Tetrateuch and Psalm 78

Post by Secret Alias »

The romim as the place of the angels in Psalm 148:

Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.

The Greek equivalent (LXX) of 'romim' here is ὑψίστοις which is interesting for its identification in the gospel as the Christian god:

Mark 5:7 he cried in a loud voice "what to me and to you Son of the Most High God?" (θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου ὁρκίζω σε)
Mark 11:10 Hosanna in the highest! (ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις)
Matthew 21:9 Hosanna in the highest (ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις)
Luke 1:32 the Son of the Highest (καὶ υἱὸς Ὑψίστου)
Luke 1:35 upon you, and the power of the Most High (καὶ δύναμις Ὑψίστου)
Luke 1:76 the prophet of the Most High (προφήτης Ὑψίστου)
Luke 2:14 Δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις (God in the highest) upsistos here is a Hebraism for m'romim
Luke 6:35 and you will be sons of the Most High (ἔσεσθε υἱοὶ Ὑψίστου)
Luke 8:28 Son of the Most High God (θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου)?
Luke 19:38 in heaven and glory in the highest (δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις)!
Acts 7:48 However, the Most High does not dwell (οὐχ ὁ ὕψιστος ἐν χειροποιήτοις)
Acts 16:17 are bond-servants of the Most High God (θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου εἰσίν οἵτινες),
Hebrews 7:1 priest of the Most High God (θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου),
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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