Towards the Peak of Mount Sinai: A Discourse-Pragmatic Analysis of Exodus 19

Abstract

This paper develops the grammar, discourse and conversation analysis proposed by Winther-Nielsen in his dissertation on the Book of Joshua (1995). It applies this approach in an analysis of Exodus 19 and addresses problems of repetition and inconsistency as well as the much debated issue, whether God spoke the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) directly from heaven or whether it was mediated by Moses. The analysis moves from grammatical marking of episodes (unit demarcation) over analysis of peak-features (constituent analysis) to exploration of the pragmatic goal of the divine speeches (conversation analysis and rhetorical structure analysis). The solution offered for the riddle of direct or mediated communication is that, according to 19:25-20:1, the Decalogue was spoken to the people, but mediated by Moses, as indeed is all law. Furthermore, Moses went to the top twice before the peak (19:16-19). He then perhaps went up only one extra time (19:19.20; 20:21), before he returned to proclaim the law and make the covenant (reported twice in 19:25 and 24:3).