Textual Problems in the Descriptions of Moses’s Ascent to Mt Sinai in Exodus 19, 24, 32, and 34

One of the more intriguing pericopes in the Torah from a literary point of view is that of Moses’s ascent to and descent from Mt Sinai (Exodus 19, 24, 32, and 34). The story of the ascent is narrated six times, in one case three times in one chapter (Exodus 24) and the sequence of events is very unusual. The narratives include the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant (Exod 20:22–23:33) and to some extent they are interrupted by these legal compilations. Different tradition blocks have been combined providing much occasion for literary analyses and theories. The textual traditions are rather faithful to the transmitted text, but nevertheless there are some textual implications deriving from the literary complications. These are the topic of the first part of this study. The second part of the study deals with the theological problems surrounding the theophany and their reflections in the textual traditions of these chapters.