ritual authority of the Torah was extended beyond the temple to other aspects of daily
life that, by falling under the Torah’s precepts, were ritualized as well.”^1338 The authority
of the Mosaic Torah seems to have been elevated in this period from the ritualised con-
text of the temple to broader areas of social and legal discourse.^1339
The prestige of the Torah as an increasingly fixed text was established on the authority of
the temple’s ritual traditions, which themselves derived authority from the perception that
the temple priests practiced ancient authoritative rites. In effect, “the prestige of the tem-
ple elevated the status of the book, which in turn guaranteed the legitimacy of the tem-
ple’s rites.”^1340 Moreover, Watts finds that periods of social or political tension provided
a platform for authoritative texts to function as tools for the validation of ritual prac-
tices.^1341 Threats to Jewish national identity served to elevate the status of texts that were
seen to somehow embody that identity.
Two aspects of this discussion give rise to legitimate objections. Firstly, Watts claims
that several textual genres became amalgamated into one fixed textual tradiaiton through
a process of textual ritualistion. While this may be understandable for texts of a ritual na-
ture, it is less clear why this process would have operated on texts of other genres. Sec-
(^1338) J. Watts, "Rhetoric of Scripture," 213 (italics in original).
(^1339) See the discussion in J. Watts, "Rhetoric of Scripture," 212-13. According to G. Boccaccini, Roots of
Rabbinic Judaism: An Intellectual History, From Ezekiel to Daniel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002) 137-
39, the value of the Mosaic Torah in sapiential Jewish circles was greatly increased in the beginning of the
second century B.C.E., as is reflected in the attitude towards Torah as the main source of wisdom in Ben
Sira. 1340
1341 J. Watts, "Rhetoric of Scripture," 215.
J. Watts, "Rhetoric of Scripture," 203.