The Torah of Moses as a Discursive Reliquary

Abstract: How does “torah” function in postexilic literature? The torah of Moses is mentioned repeatedly in Ezra-Nehemiah. But these books—otherwise brimming with documentary citation—are shy about citing torah directly. In this article, I begin at the two moments of “almost citation” that surface in Ezra 9:11–12 and Neh 8:15 and explain torah’s “absent-presence” as an activating sign of covenant relation after the rupture of exile. I further contend that torah’s productive force depends on its lack of clear “content.” David Lambert has recently argued that torah is a speech act, that is, “an utterance which accomplishes a task.” Mark Lester has theorized that Deuteronomy’s ark of the covenant stands as a “reliquary,” which simultaneously renders the covenant present while protectively obscuring its contents. I put these ideas into conversation, contending that the phrase “the torah of Moses” demonstrates qualities of a discursive reliquary: it is a phrase that generates covenantal presence while partially obscuring its contents. These concealed contents—that is, the lack of overt citation—are the very feature that makes possible the phrase’s generative power.