Texts · 16 · Isaac and Rebekah
How to spot a later addition
Read Genesis 26 closely and some lines interrupt the flow, like a note so intrusive most translations put it in parentheses. These are clues to how scribes expanded the text.
The seams in a text tell its history.
Dig deeper
Biblical Hebrew strings together clauses with a simple 'and,' making texts easy to expand. Scholars start with whole clauses that clearly interrupt, then ask what might have prompted a scribe to add them.
Bible reference: Genesis 26:15
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 254–258
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