The Psalms of Asaph and the Pentateuch

Download or read book The Psalms of Asaph and the Pentateuch written by Michael D. Goulder and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1996-12-01 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Asaph psalms (50, 73-83) are a unity. They often call God 'Elohim' and 'El', and the people 'Joseph', as Amos does; they appeal to Israelite history, the exodus and the covenant; they are written in the face of military catastrophe. In this suggestive and brilliant work, Goulder argues that they were composed in Bethel in the 720s for use as the psalmody for the autumn festival. This gives us vital new evidence for the history of the Pentateuch: there was at Bethel a historical tradition from at least the time of the oppression in Egypt to the Solomonic Empire; the Asaphites took this tradition to Jerusalem and their descendants were the Deuteronomists.