1 How, When, Where, and Why Did the Pentateuch Become the Torah? Gary N. Knoppers and Bernard M. Levinson Introduction The origins of this volume lie in the four special panels on Biblical and An- cient Near Eastern Law that convened at the 2006 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Edinburgh (2–6 July). The panels were orga- nized to investigate the promulgation and acceptance of the Pentateuch as a prestigious writing in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods. Drawing on the talents of a distinguished body of internationally-recognized scholars, the four special sessions were designed to obtain a better grasp of the means, cir- cumstances, factors, and setting of the Pentateuch’s rise to prominence as a foundational collection of Scriptures in early Judaism and Samaritanism. In set- ting a thematically coherent research project as the goal of the program unit, we sought to continue the approach employed so productively by the Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Law section at earlier international SBL meetings (Berlin in 2002 and Cambridge in 2003). The panels there dealt with the challenges in interpreting the multiple and overlapping roles played by the book of Deuter- onomy in biblical literature. 1 These earlier sessions dealt with Deuteronomy and the Tetrateuch, Deuteronomy as part of a Pentateuch, Deuteronomy as part of a Hexateuch, Deuteronomy as part of a larger and later Deuteronomis- tic History, and Deuteronomy as part of an Enneateuch. The research goals of the sessions in Edinburgh extended the methodological concerns of these ear- lier sessions while embarking in new directions. The Pentateuch (or Proto- Pentateuch) as an existing literary entity served as the point of departure as we sought to investigate its growing acceptance as a prestigious and constitutional document in the larger life of the community during the Achaemenid and Hellenistic periods. 1. The proceedings were later published as Deuteronomium zwischen Pentateuch und Deuterono- mistischem Geschichtswerk (ed. Eckart Otto and Reinhard Achenbach; FRLANT 206; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004). Knoppers, Gary N., and Bernard M. Levinson. Pentateuch As Torah : New Models for Understanding Its Promulgation and Acceptance, Eisenbrauns, 2007. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ndlib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3155566. Created from ndlib-ebooks on 2017-09-14 13:14:54. Copyright © 2007. Eisenbrauns. All rights reserved.