Genesis xv has puzzled many generations of readers. It exhibits leitmotifs and structural features that suggest unity, but also inconsistencies and doublets that suggest the opposite. Rather than gloss over the latter or play down the former, this investigation tries to account for both. A transposition of the two major promise themes, offspring and land, reveals a coherent narrative: vss. 1a, 7-18*, 3-6. Comparison of complex promise speeches in "P" with their "non-P" counterparts shows that the present offspring-land sequence is a great favourite with "P", while "non-P" uses the land-offspring sequence whenever it suits the context. A P-inspired redactor was probably responsible for moving the offspring-centered dialogue to the beginning of Genesis xv, reworking it as a separate episode (vv. 1-6). Th is hypothesis is further supported by an examination of transposition and redactional practice elsewhere, particularly in Gen. xxxv 9-12.
Qoh 4:17-5:6 has been titled "the most explicit example of intertextuality" in Qoheleth, but the Jacob-Bethel tradition (e.g., Gen 28:10-22; 31:13; 35:1, 7, 14) has so far played a marginal role in the exegesis of this passage. This article argues for the inclusion of this group of texts among the intertexts to the Qoheleth passage. The argument is based on (1) numerous common features (e.g., "House of God," link between heaven and earth, a problematic vow, a dream) whose co-occurrence is unique to text and intertext; (2) special contribution to the interpretation of the Qoheleth passage, its irony and its coherence, particularly in Qoh 4:17; 5:2, 5-6. The significance of evoking Bethel is explained in terms of the late history of that tradition and of Qoheleth's forms of expression.
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