William A Tooman – författare

The Torah Unabridged is a detailed examination of legal reasoning in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the exegetical operations by which biblical laws related to intermarriage were applied to circumstances and persons that lie outside the sphere of their explicit content, this book reconstructs the ways in which laws regarding intermarriage evolved, were interpreted, and were applied across time and place.William A. Tooman argues that the “exegetical impulse” to expand upon the gaps left by laws relating to marriage in the Torah is expressed in several distinctive ways in later texts in the Hebrew Bible. Adopting a diachronic approach, Tooman examines the techniques biblical writers used in their appropriation, expansion, and manipulation of legal ideas within earlier biblical texts in order to apply the laws to more situations, circumstances, and people. Tooman’s analysis reveals that from Exodus to Ezra-Nehemiah, legal reasoning on intermarriage moved in a singular direction: toward an ever-greater restriction of marriage between Israelites/Jews and gentiles. The final chapter sums up the ways that this was accomplished, summarizing the logical and exegetical operations executed in the process of expanding the relevance of these laws, and describing the hermeneutical assumptions that motivated the process.Grounded in a detailed philological analysis of the Hebrew texts, this tightly argued monograph is an important impetus to further debate in the field. It will be welcomed by biblical scholars and by specialists in the history of law.

The Torah Unabridged is a detailed examination of legal reasoning in the Hebrew Bible. Focusing on the exegetical operations by which biblical laws related to intermarriage were applied to circumstances and persons that lie outside the sphere of their explicit content, this book reconstructs the ways in which laws regarding intermarriage evolved, were interpreted, and were applied across time and place.William A. Tooman argues that the “exegetical impulse” to expand upon the gaps left by laws relating to marriage in the Torah is expressed in several distinctive ways in later texts in the Hebrew Bible. Adopting a diachronic approach, Tooman examines the techniques biblical writers used in their appropriation, expansion, and manipulation of legal ideas within earlier biblical texts in order to apply the laws to more situations, circumstances, and people. Tooman’s analysis reveals that from Exodus to Ezra-Nehemiah, legal reasoning on intermarriage moved in a singular direction: toward an ever-greater restriction of marriage between Israelites/Jews and gentiles. The final chapter sums up the ways that this was accomplished, summarizing the logical and exegetical operations executed in the process of expanding the relevance of these laws, and describing the hermeneutical assumptions that motivated the process.Grounded in a detailed philological analysis of the Hebrew texts, this tightly argued monograph is an important impetus to further debate in the field. It will be welcomed by biblical scholars and by specialists in the history of law.

Die Art und Weise, wie ältere Texte in den Gog-Orakeln (Hesekiel 38-39) wiederverwendet werden, ist der Schlüssel zu deren Zweck und Bedeutung. Die fortlaufenden Anspielungen weisen auf mehr hin, als nur auf einen Verfasser mit einer Vorliebe für Idiome aus heiligen Texten. Vielmehr zeigt sich hier eine wohl durchdachte und disziplinierte Verweistechnik auf ausgewählte Texte zu ausgewählten Themen. William Tooman macht in seiner Studie deutlich, dass die Beschäftigung mit diesen Anspielungen unerlässlich für ein Verständnis der Rolle der Kapitel innerhalb des ganzen Buches, seines Aufbaus und seiner Stellung in der antiken jüdischen Literatur ist. Er untersucht die Methoden, die Wirkung und die Motivation für die Wiederverwendung älterer heiliger Texte innerhalb der Gog-Orakel und zeigt, dass diese Kapitel eine eigene Dichtung sind, die als Ergänzung zum Buch Hesekiel geschaffen wurde, um so die Botschaft des Buches zu ergänzen und es anderen prophetischen Schriften anzupassen.