Sabbatical patterns in the Book of the Covenant

The Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22-23:33) is strongly influenced by the Sabbath and significantly develops its theology. The Sabbath of the Book of the Covenant is connected to and depends on the preceding primary sabbatical passages (Gen 2:2-3; Exod 16:22-30; 20:8-11), but its theology is also deepened in the Book of the Covenant by way of new terminology (e.g. [special characters omitted]) and by a direct connection to the Sabbath year and the festivals that are mentioned for the first time in the Canon. The Book of the Covenant thereby begins the secondary sabbatical passages and lays the foundation for their later elaboration and sabbaticalization (e.g. Lev 23 and Deut 15).;Chapter 1 provides an overview of the multiplicity of methods used and the major scholarly works written on the Book of the Covenant, before setting out the synchronic-canonical methodology of the present thesis. Chapter 2 establishes the criteria for an investigation of sabbatical influences by studying the Pentateuchal primary (Sabbath-day) and secondary (Sabbath year, Jubilee, Festivals) sabbatical texts. The intertextuality of the sabbatical passages on the lexical, thematic, and structural levels as well as the developing sabbatical theology produce sabbatical patterns. These in turn are the criteria to study the sabbatical influences on other biblical texts, like the Book of the Covenant. Chapter 3 explores the impact of the Sabbath on the Book of the Covenant by arguing for the sabbatical influence mainly on the two pericopes of special times (23:10-19) and debt-slave laws (21:2-11) that together form an inner sabbatical frame (21:2-11; 23:10-12) for the overall Book of the Covenant, which is related to the outer cultic frame that envelops it (20:22-26; 23:13-19).