Big Ideas · 13 · Ezra
From consulting oracles to studying texts
King David 'inquired of Yhwh' through mysterious devices like the Urim and Thummim. After the exile, the same verb, 'to seek,' describes studying written texts.
Interpretation replaced divination.
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Scholar Michael Fishbane calls this a new stage of legal rationality, when a text becomes an oracle for reasoned interpretation. The shift became possible once foreign kings sat on David's throne.
Bible reference: Ezra 7:10
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 215–216
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