The Canon and the Cult: The Emergence of Book Religion in Ancient Israel and the Gradual Sublimation of the Temple Cult

The traditional distinction between cultic and book religions¹ has fallen out of vogue because of its alleged privileging of literacy over orality and its indebtedness to a theological, evolutionary model.² Nevertheless, it remains sufficiently clear that the religion of Judaism transitioned only gradually from a primarily "ritual coherence" to a primarily "textual" focus.³ This claim holds true even if these two aspects remain somewhat interdependent in some sense. The fact that this process merits a detailed examination is likewise incontestable. One may therefore ask how texts took on functions that previously belonged to the cult during the emergence of book religion in ancient Israel.⁴

The following argument proceeds in four parts: (1) an assessment of the difference between biblical and historical perspectives on the Hebrew Bible's status as a sacred text; (2) an exploration of the historical situation of the canon's cult-related function following the loss of the temple in 70 C.E.; (3) an exploration of the similar historical situation resulting from the destruction of the First Temple in 587 B.C.E.; and (4) a concluding summary.

I. The Biblical versus the Historical View of the Hebrew Bible as Scripture

As is often the case in biblical studies, the biblical portrayal of the formation of "scripture" is not identical to historical perspectives on this process. Generally speaking, the Hebrew Bible does not reason historical-critically but rather resultative-historically: it views historical processes in terms of their present repercussions. The Bible narrates that all Israel was in Egypt and all Israel experienced the exodus, but not because this was actually the case. In contrast, the reason for this presentation is so that the exodus will be regarded as the founding event for all Israel. The Pentateuch's interest in the past functions mythically inasmuch as its stories answer important questions by telling stories of origins. Thus, questions about why things are the way they are receive answers in terms of how they have come to be the way they are. A related corollary is that the more basic something is, the farther back the Bible anchors its origin in the biblical story.

To a certain extent this is true also for the Bible's self-presentation as "scripture." While the concept of "scripture" in the Bible is neither preexistent, that is, preceding the creation of the cosmos, nor an original element of the creation, it nevertheless emerges quite early in the story line of the Hebrew Bible, developing gradually from the book of Exodus onward. The Hebrew Bible thus reflects an awareness of the fact that Israel's religion did not begin as a book religion. The law was first given and written down under Moses, whereas the patriarchs of Genesis knew no law.⁵ Postdating the Hebrew Bible, the second-century B.C.E. book of Jubilees responds to this perceived "deficiency" by giving the heavenly tablets of the law to the patriarchs so that they might live according to its precepts.⁶ However, the Bible itself anchors the law only as far back as the period of Moses, and this law was soon forgotten, reappearing only during Josiah's temple restoration (2 Kings 22-23). The law again fell into oblivion when catastrophe struck Judah and Jeru salem and was not reintroduced until the period of Ezra's leadership. In short: Moses be queathed Israel the Jewish book religion that eventually found acceptance under Ezra.⁷

Such is the biblical perspective in its briefest form. However, biblical scholarship has determined that the religion of ancient Israel, viewed historically, developed only little by little into a book religion. According to this perspective the function of texts in the religious history of ancient Israel varied greatly, revealing a fourfold paradigmatic distinction among (a) religious texts; (b) normative texts; (c) scripture; and (d) a complete canon. Indeed, these functions seem to develop gradually and sequentially, but some of them also exist simultaneously alongside one another.

A religious text is one that functions as...