11
thus Exodus 20-23 represents flashback. If the resumptive-repetition view is correct, then the
narrator has abandoned strict chronological arrangement to fulfil topical purposes. This is not
unique: A good case can be made that Exodus 18 is out of chronological sequence as well.
26
What we wish to explore is the question of why, in Exodus 19-24, might the author may have
chosen to do this. A couple of reasons come to mind.
One, this non-chronological style allows the narrator to give a privileged position to the
Decalogue, making it first among the law-groups, and arguably thereby preeminent among them.
If these laws had been scattered among descriptions of the concurrent actions taking place on the
mountain in chapter 19 rather than kept together as a literary unit, the Decalogues preeminence,
its majesty, and its rhetorical power would have been diminished, and it would have been more
difficult to study it for didactic purposes. Thus the readers understanding of the Decalogues
importance is affected by this literary decision.
Second, however, this choice of structure allows the author to convey a deeper message
through the structure itself. One way of outlining Exodus 19-24 is chiastically:
A. NARRATIVE: THE COVENANT OFFERED (Exod 19:3-25)
B. LAWS (General): THE DECALOGUE (Exod 20:1-17)
C. NARRATIVE: THE PEOPLES FEAR (Exod 20:18-21)
B* LAWS (Specific): THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT (Exod 20:22-23:33)
A* NARRATIVE: THE COVENANT ACCEPTED (Exod 24:1-11)
This structure arguably conveys some important ideas. For one, the laws are bracketed by
narratives that emphasize the covenant offered and accepted (Exodus 19, 24). This bracketing
suggests that the overall concept of Exodus 19-24 is not law, but covenant, and that the laws are
26
Watts, Reading Law, 85-86. He states "Even Narratives time line is affected by atemporal
lists in its midst. For example, the introduction to the Sinai legislation suffers chronological
confusion for the sake of topical arrangement. The story of Jethro (Exod. 18) presupposes a
physical setting (at the mountain) and religious practices (altars and sacrifices) to which the
Israelites are introduced only later in the narrative sequences: they reach the mountain in 19.2
and first receive cultic instructions in ch. 20."