Sárospataki Füzetek 20. (2016)

2016 / 2. szám - ARTICLES / STUDIEN - György Kustár: Ont he Slopes of Sinai - Some Hermeneutical Questions in Light of the Kabbalistic and Historical Critical Exegesis

On the Slopes of Sinai - Some Hermeneutical Questions

ing with a Midianite priest55 and the people of Israel at the Mountain of God.56 This mountain is believed to be a sanctuary where the Midianites offered sacrifice to YHWH. The hypothesis goes on to assume that the Israelite’s YHWH cult originates from the constant encounter with the Midianites on the place that became a common locus of pilgrimage for both tribes.57 Almost every commentary offers an attempts to locate the numinous mountain. Some place it near Kadesh, some at the traditional site, Jebul Musah (‘The Mount of Moses’) and some “even to one of the extinct volcanic peaks in north-west Arabia, because of the volcanic imagery in the account of the theophany in Exodus 19.”58 This origin of the religion hypotheses proved to be unconvincing, leaving the historical speculation even more obsolete. The best we can say, according to B. Childs, is that there is a historical core in the narrative that reflects an early common cult between Israel and Midian, but nothing more.59 What is obvious after this short glimpse into the operation of historical method is the distance between the textual emphasis on the meeting of Jethro and Moses and the emphasis of the historical study to explain the historical origin of the YHWH cult by using this story.

We should turn our attention to the appearance of God on the mountain. According to the critics, the signs accompanying the descent of the divine, the smoke, alongside with the sound of the trumpet refer to the use of incense and trumpet in the ancient worship practice, where in the presence of the worshipping assembly YHWH was concealed and revealed at the same time.60 The sound of the trumpet as a part of the worship is described as a later development, maybe in the age of monarchy,61 which was used in order to dramatically represent the voice of God, and in this way actualize the Theophany at Sinai.62

We should stop here for a methodological consideration. The story of the revelation, as we can see, is examined in these works from a historical perspective. The main concern goes beyond the text to the history of the religious development of Israel. Moreover, all the theological conclusions and textual references are subject to the historical understanding. To be more precise, the phenomena at the mountain are not discussed from the perspective of the happenings as they are narrated. The

55 Noth is careful not to identify this priest with Jethro too hastily as he considers the name a later insertion. Noth: Exodus, 148.

56 The'Mountain of God'is not without a question identical with Mount Sinai (Ibid., 147-148.)

57 Gerhard von Rad's Old Testament Theology embraces this theory; likewise Beyerlin (op. cit., 145-46.), who connects the mountain with the tradition to the area of Kadesh, in order to harmonize the so called 'Kadesh narratives' (being part of the Exodus tradition) with the Sinai Tradition. The debate about the connection between the two corpus of traditions, see Nicholson: Exodus and Sinai in History and Tradition.

58 Nicholson: op. cit, 62.

59 Childs, Brevard S.: The Book of Exodus, A Critical, Theological Commentary (The Westminster Press: Philadelphia, 1974.), 322-3.

60 Beyerlin: Origins and History of the oldest Sinaitic Tradition, 134.

61 Beyerlin: op. cit., 35., based on the reference to the practice in 2Sam 6,14f, 2Cron 5,11 b-13a.

62 Ibid., 135.

2016-2 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 41