Tales of Fire and Flood

Yhwh attempts to destroy an entire community on eight occasions within the Pentateuch. Scholarship has predominantly read these stories as isolated incidents. Jonathan Schneider-Woods asks in this study whether a more intricate connection exists between the Pentateuchal divine destruction stories. And if such a connection exists, does this provide greater insight into the purpose of these destruction stories for the community who wrote and read them?

This book identifies a close intertextual relationship between the Flood, Sodom, Reed Sea, and Golden Calf stories. The development of theological ideas occurs as the narrative moves from a passive acceptance of destruction in Genesis 6-9 to the prevention of destruction in Exodus 32-34. The theological sophistication and contextual uniqueness of the Pentateuchal destruction texts make them essential to understanding how the writers of the Hebrew Bible conceived of the relationship between God and humanity.