Applied Ritual: The Application of Blood and Oil on Bodies in the Pentateuchal Sources

Abstract

Source critical analyses of the Pentateuch in recent scholarship have focused primarily on literary means for detecting distinct literary voices, and, in some recent publications, historical aspects of, particularly, the P source. In this article, I formulate a distinct approach to source criticism that supports this resurgence of documentary analysis, examining in particular the ritual of blood and oil daubing on bodies in Exod. 19–24, Lev. 8 and 14. After summarizing the main point at issue (namely, access to the divine), I offer a documentary approach using ritual theory in the study of these texts. Finally, I highlight the manner in which the ritual study of Exod.19–24, Lev. 8 and 14 is consistent with both key historical and recent arguments in the documentary approach to the composition of the Pentateuch.