Standards of (In)coherence in Ancient Jewish Literature

Abstract

Coherence—whether understood narrowly as compatibility between constituents of a textual world, or quite broadly as a regulative principle applying to all areas of text production and reception—is a constitutive feature of textuality.2 While there is much disagreement about the concept, all agree that “coherence” is a fundamental ingredient of a “text” as such—or at least of its meaningful experience. It is an expectation brought to anything that might be considered a ‘text,’ though it is not found in equal measure in every text.3 The degree and kind of coherence expected of a text (and the effort exerted to satisfy such expectations) depend on a variety of factors.4 This article sketches an anatomy of issues representing key points of debate, differences in approach, and decisions that must be made in the attempt to understand coherence and incoherence in ancient Jewish literature. One of several key difficulties in assessing the