Storymaking, Textual Development, and Varying Cultic Centralizations

Benjamin D. Giffone explores how the coexistence of at least three models of cultic centralization within the Pentateuch—including northern, Benjaminite, and southern traditions—helps determine the degree of theological consistency that can reasonably be expected from the biblical texts. The scholarly tendency to view biblical narratives as late, tendentious fictions is insufficient to account for the final shape of the texts. Giffone explains how the use of earlier narrative and legal materi…