HEBREW תֵּבָה : A KOMPOSITIONS- UND REDAKTIONSGESCHICHTE

Abstract

תבה , the term designated for the vessels of Noah (Gn 6-9*) and Moses (Ex 2*), has been a conundrum for biblical scholarship on several levels, namely the identification of the source language and its definition, and translation variation amongst daughter versions. After these aforementioned issues are surveyed and expounded, a redactional construction is proffered which attempts to legitimise the majority consensus that תבה is Egyptian in origin and explicate why this term is present in the flood and foundling narratives. Thus it is argued that the non-P redactor, at the time of the Persian period, edited the vessel terminology in the flood from P’s ×רון to תבה for polemical – and political/theological – reasons portending to new life, not death (á¸bÈ.t).