Empirical Models of Textual Growth: A Challenge for the Historical-Critical Tradition

Abstract

The last decade has seen a growing interest in empirical models from the cognate literature to trace the growth of Hebrew scriptures. Yet, deeply rooted intellectual commitments within the history of the diachronic study of the Bible retard the incorporation of this approach within source-critical theory. Intellectual winds of the Enlightenment and German historicism and romanticism contributed to this situation and a reconsideration of some basic premises of source-critical method is needed.