Stonewall by Jean Fritz

Stonewall by Jean Fritz

Israel Knohl offers a new perspective on the history and theology of the Priestly source of the Pentateuch. By means of an analysis of specific texts--for example, those that deal with the Sabbath and the Festivals--Knohl demonstrates the existence of two separate Priestly sources, loosely speaking, the two sources that we have referred to as P and the Holiness Code. The Holiness School is shown to have been active subsequent to the school that produced the Priestly Torah and, in fact, to have been responsible for the great enterprise of editing the Torah. Knohl examines the conceptions of divinity and ritual reflected in Priestly thought and legislation in ancient Israel and the changes revealed in these conceptions over time. The priesthood appears as an elite group that was closeted within the walls of the Sanctuary of Silence, drawn toward the hidden, noble divinity ensconced within its shrine. The later stratum of Priestly writings expresses a desire to transcend the limits of the temple and go out into the broad avenues of the nation, even at the price of surrendering the loftiness of earlier faith and practice. The conclusion describes the changes that occurred in the priests' world view as an attempt to come to terms with the socioreligious crisis that had brought about a disjunction between ritual and ethics. In response to this crisis, the priests developed a wider conception of holiness, one that integrates ethics and ritual in one sphere.

This is a reprint of the 1995 Fortress Press edition.

On November 16, 1915, acclaimed biographer Jean Fritz was born in China to American missionaries. She developed a lifelong interest in American history as a result of her time there, which lasted until she was almost thirteen years old. Homesick, My Own Story, a Newbery Honor Book and National Book Award winner, is about her youth in China. Fritz wrote forty-five books for children and teenagers. Many of them are about historical American characters, earning her a reputation as the leading author of children's and young adult biographies.

Fritz has also received the National Humanities Medal, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture Award, among other honors. Several ALA Notable Books of the Year, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, and ALA Booklist Editors' Choice Awards have been won, including the Christopher Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Non-Fiction Award, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and numerous ALA Notable Books of the Year, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, and ALA Booklist Editors' Choice Awards. On May 14, 2017, she passed away.