The Torah of Moses as a Discursive Reliquary
How does "torah" function in postexilic literature? The torah of Moses is mentioned repeatedly in Ezra-Nehemiah. But these books—otherwise brimming with documentary citation—are shy about citing torah directly. In this article, I begin at the two moments of "almost citation" that...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
The catholic biblical quarterly
Year: 2025, Volume: 87, Issue: 4, Pages: 591-609 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Torah
/ Moses
/ Ezra
/ Nehemiah
/ Ezra 4.
/ Malachi
|
| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
4 Ezra
B citation B Ezra-Nehemiah B reliquary B Torah B Malachi B Moses |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | How does "torah" function in postexilic literature? The torah of Moses is mentioned repeatedly in Ezra-Nehemiah. But these books—otherwise brimming with documentary citation—are shy about citing torah directly. In this article, I begin at the two moments of "almost citation" that surface in Ezra 9:11-12 and Neh 8:15 and explain torah’s "absent-presence" as an activating sign of covenant relation after the rupture of exile. I further contend that torah’s productive force depends on its lack of clear "content." David Lambert has recently argued that torah is a speech act, that is, "an utterance which accomplishes a task." Mark Lester has theorized that Deuteronomy’s ark of the covenant stands as a "reliquary," which simultaneously renders the covenant present while protectively obscuring its contents. I put these ideas into conversation, contending that the phrase "the torah of Moses" demonstrates qualities of a discursive reliquary: it is a phrase that generates covenantal presence while partially obscuring its contents. These concealed contents—that is, the lack of overt citation—are the very feature that makes possible the phrase’s generative power. |
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| ISSN: | 2163-2529 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The catholic biblical quarterly
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/cbq.2025.a974779 |
