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
György Kustár original definition of mimesis78 moves in a synchronic direction and demands the prototype to function as a constant referential point in the repetitive process. However, the historical standpoint dissolves this dynamics of constant referential point into the developmental theory of the tradition, and sets serious limits to the prototype nature of the original story. If we claim that a text is a product of development, we can hardly apply, in explanation of its genesis, a synchronic model. Dozeman concludes that the mimetic model is not sufficient to describe the dialectic between the grounding story and its redaction. That is the point where he initiates the “ungrounded repetition model” to explain the relation of the two redac- torial stages to each other, which emphasizes the disconnectedness of the traditions, and refers to their present co-existence as accidental.79 In the last analysis, the main purpose to connect the diachronic and synchronic dimensions is abandoned, and the discontinuity between redactions is emphasized. Dozeman implicitly has to admit the discontinuity between the perspective of the historicity of the text as a developing and changing reality and the perspective of the canonical-solid textual view. Martin Ravndal Hauge provides an excellent example of the fact that the problem of the relation of history to the text is still not resolved. In his work The Descent from the Mountain, he examines the narrative sequence from the Revelation to the erection of the Tabernacle (Ex 19-40).80 What he is striving for in this fascinating work is to explain that the intra-textual references construe a meaningful and wholesome structure, and most of the ruptures, repetitions and inconsistencies can be explained by compositional techniques. His conclusion is that the narrative flow, through digressions though, is directed at a particular aim by repetition of motifs, themes and recurring patterns. However, what is striking in this study is the complete absence of historical considerations. In the introductory chapter, through the clarification of his method, he argues against historical analysis only on the first four pages! He cites Man Seters and Wybray, two radical scholars, the first arguing against the possibility to reconstruct the real history of Israel by denying the independence of the Elohist source and dating the Jahwist to the exile,81 the other rejecting the New Documentary Hypothesis replacing the concept of multiple redactors with the work of a controlling genius.82 Readily embracing their skepticism, he is unhesitant to commence explaining the general framework of his linguistic-literary critical method. In the actual corpus of the exposure he evades the historical question by referring to structures, scenes, patterns, episodes, and the problem of inconsisten78 He uses J. Hillis Miller's "Fiction and Repetition"to define the concept of repetition. Cf. Dozeman: op.cit., 147-148. 79 Ibid., 153. He defines the relationship of P and D as "unharmonized" and "separated" in the canonic Torah, and as we have seen, the relationship of the oldest tradition with the redactions as "no longer constructive". 80 Ravndal Hauge, Martin: Descent from the Mountain - Narrative Patterns in Exodus 19-40, Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. 81 McKenzie - Hayes (eds.): To Each its Own Meaning, 28., Fíavndal Hauge: The Descent from the Mountain, 13. 82 McKenzie - Hayes (eds.): To Each its Own Meaning, 45. 46 Sárospataki Füzetek 20. évfolyam 2016-2
