Like Unto Moses: The Constituting of an Interruption

James Nohrnberg

May 1995 · Indiana University Press

About this ebook

"This exhaustive and important study of the meaning of Moses in the Bible demonstrates conclusively 'the Mosaicization of the canon'... Nohrnberg possesses a remarkable typological imagination. No summary can do justice to the sheer brilliance of the congruities and disparities he discovers on every page." -- Journal of Religion

"LIKE UNTO MOSES proposes a series of challenging perspectives on theprocess of canon-formation in the Bible. James Nohrnberg's ability totrace connections among different elements of the biblical corpus isunflaggingly resourceful, sometimes provocative, and often deeplyinstructive." -- Robert Alter

"... an insightful study of the traditions of Moses in the Bible." -- Choice

"This is a formidably argued, large book.... It is also certainly the most sophisticated book on Moses and one of the most sophisticated readings of the Bible which I have ever had the pleasure of reading.... I think it is a brilliant achievement and would recommend it to every reader of the Bible." -- R. P. Carroll, The Society for Old Testament Study Book List

The Moses of the Bible is a veiled figure who exists both inside and outside the text which describes and defines him. "Moses" is a creation of Israelite literary and scriptural tradition, an ideological construct, a reinvented memory, a projection of what Israel wished to see in Moses. Nohrnberg examines the texts of "Moses" for their representation of the tradition's self-doubt and its revisionary, "deuteronomic" content.

About the author

JAMES NOHRNBERG is Professor of English at the University of Virginia and the author of The Analogy of The Faerie Queene.