Joel Baden: Layers and Unities in Biblical Texts

Joel Baden (Yale)
Since the rise of critical biblical scholarship, it has been recognized that few biblical texts are monolithic units, but rather that most are the products of successive layers of editing and revising, often over the course of multiple generations. Not all layers are created equal, however: they may be revisions to some but not all of a given textual unit, they may interact either with only one or with more than one textual unit, and they may either subtly or radically reorient their source text. When considering
questions of composition, it is necessary to delineate between these various types of layers, to develop methods for identifying layers, and to understand the distinct roles that these layers play in the formation of the biblical text.
Sponsored by the
UCLA Center for Jewish Studies
Cosponsored by the
UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

[@arikantola2815]

How on earth such a video has less than 8000 views in 9 years? People want to believe not to know. I am keeping notes.

[@elpkhan]

This is a refreshing approach to the Torah and how the book must have been put together. It leaves wiggle room for Jews who have a belief in the Divine but have trouble swallowing the Torah.

[@MarthaEllen88]

Fascinating and illuminating. I think a lesson in learning to appreciate contradictions and not seeking to unify... appreciate a text for its messy humanity and not a perfect truth or divine message.... or is the message to understand life is all about two things being true at once? Suddenly I am thinking of Schroedinger's cat...

[@antonius_006]

The sound is low.

[@matthewperry5121]

Can not hear it

[@lloydgush]

Someone please get a talk between him and peterson.

[@elhirba]

How come for more than 3000 years the different authors would leave a sloppy edition? Why didn't they erase the double stories and correct the apparent contradictions? The Torah is not an history book telling cute stories. There are a lot of teachings in the Oral Torah which is the Decoder of the written text. Every letter matters, every word.