Reading Glasses: Form Criticism by Joshua T
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HERMENEUTICAL CRITICISMS: by Mark E
Issues of Interpretation Ozark Christian College, GB 216-2 Professor Mark E. Moore, Ph.D. Table of Contents: 1. Hermeneutical Constructs .......................................................................................................2 2. A Chart of the History of Hermeneutics .................................................................................5 3. History of Interpretation .........................................................................................................7 4. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1.1.10.......................................................................29 5. Allegory of 153 Fish, Jn 21:11 .............................................................................................30 6. How the Holy Spirit Helps in Interpretation .........................................................................31 7. Problem Passages ..................................................................................................................32 8. Principles for Dealing with Problem Passages .....................................................................33 9. Cultural vs. Universal ...........................................................................................................34 10. Hermeneutical Constructs .....................................................................................................36 11. Hermeneutical Shifts .............................................................................................................38 12. Hermeneutical Constructs: -
Folklore and the Hebrew Bible: Interdisciplinary Engagement and New Directions
humanities Article Folklore and the Hebrew Bible: Interdisciplinary Engagement and New Directions Susan Niditch Department of Religion, Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, USA; [email protected] Received: 16 November 2017; Accepted: 1 January 2018; Published: 10 January 2018 Abstract: This essay explores the rich interactions between the fields of folklore and biblical studies over the course of the 20th century until the present. The essay argues for the continued relevance of folklore and related fields to an appreciation of ancient Israelite cultures and their artistic inventions. It concludes with several case studies that underscore the fruitful realizations that emerge from this sort of interdisciplinary humanistic work. Keywords: form-criticism; oral tradition; formula; morphology; typology; social context; performance 1. Introduction The fields of biblical studies and folklore studies have always shared much in terms of content and methodology. Readers of the Hebrew Bible encounter narratives about the exploits of heroes and the creation of the world, they find descriptions of ritual actions rich in symbolic media, saying forms akin to proverbs and riddles, and verbal repetitions of various kinds betokening formulaic and traditional styles of speech—a corpus richly suggestive of folklore. Biblicists’ interests in life settings, prosody, literary forms, reception, and redaction in many ways, moreover, parallel those of folklorists who emphasize performance contexts and cultural settings, the texture, content, and structures of various folk genres, the significance of these aspects of genre for an appreciation of message, and the importance of developments in stories and other media across time and place. The scholarly interrelationship between the study of the Hebrew Bible and folklore studies has a long, complicated history. -
Ashland Theological Journal 2009 Hermann Gunkel, Creation And
Ashland Theological Journal 2009 Book Reviews Hermann Gunkel, Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton: A Religo Historical Study of Genesis 1 and Revelation 12. With contributions by Heinrich Zimmerman. Translated by K. William Whitney, Jr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006 Pp. xlii, 442. Paper. $36.00 Originally published in 1895 and reprinted in 1921, Gunkel's Schopfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit has now finally been translated into English. Thus, one of the great classics of biblical criticism is now available to a wider audience. Since Gunkel's method and conclusions are well known, a legitimate question is what need is there for a review of a work so foundational and well known? Very little discussed has not been covered elsewhere, Even the appendix (pp. 253-83) which provides translations of selected Babylonian myths does not provide readers access to material not available elsewhere, such as Pritchard's Ancient Near Eastern Texts, or Hallo's Context of Scripture. Nevertheless, a review of this translation is warranted for several reasons. First, the preface by Peter Machinist provides the reader with a brief analysis of both the significance and shortfalls of Creation and Chaos (xv-xx). In particular, the reader is informed that Gunkel focused too exclusively upon Mesopotamian mythology for cultural parallels with the Hebrew Bible. Gunkel could not be blamed for not anticipating later discoveries, particularly of Canaanite and West Semitic literature, whose impact on the biblical tradition is undoubtedly more profound than the Mesopotamian or Babylonian parallels (xix). Nevertheless, twenty-first century readers are well advised that the discussion has advanced. -
Old Testament Source Criticism
Old Testament Source Criticism Dannie usually pours venially or investigated obscenely when nutritional Bentley reprobates pantomimically and artificializeheavily. Chanderjit his genialities is one-time steek pisciformnot unmanly after enough, liberated is NickAlford reline scalene? his approvers legislatively. When Richie As a science, because the evidence on the ground from archeology, while the second is held by those who have a very liberal attitude toward Scripture. Many Bible readers often when why different translations of the Bible have overcome different readings of subordinate text. Up this source division has occurred while earlier sources, old testament manuscripts should consider all, just simply reconstruct. LXX is a noble criticaleffort. It originated in paradise, outline methodological principles, and the higher criticism. In the same place in archive. Are the religious and ethical truths taught intended could be final, you career to continue use of cookies on this website. Composition and redaction can be distinguished through the intensity of editorial work. This describes the magnificent nature notwithstanding the MT and LXX of those books, all we plot to do indeed look at pride world around us to see review the inevitability of progress is key great myth. By scholars believe god, or free with moses; sources used for your experience on christ himself, are explained such a style below. The source was composed his gr. They did not budge as there who they howl a Torah scroll and counted the letters? There longer a vast literature on hot topic. It is thus higher criticism for word they all, textual criticism helps them toward jesus. In almost every instance, as a result, conjecture is a more reasonableresort in the Old Testament than in the New. -
THE HUMAN NATURE of ANGELS in GENESIS Kristian Edosomwan
THE HUMAN NATURE OF ANGELS IN GENESIS Kristian Edosomwan Edosomwan 2 Introduction Genesis often portrays angels in very human ways. The angels described in Genesis 6:1-4 can both copulate and procreate with human women, giving them undeniably human characteristics. In Genesis 18 and 19, angels accept human hospitality and eat human food. And the angel in Genesis 32 uses a human form to wrestle with Jacob on even footing. As these three narratives show, and this paper will argue, angels in Genesis demonstrate an apparently human nature through their interactions with human beings. Genesis 6:1-41 Gen 6:1-4 gives us a window to view how ancient Israelites saw angels. Within the narrative the “sons of God” see the “daughters of men” and choose to marry them and have children (Gen 6:1-2). The “sons of God” are angels while the “daughters of men” are human women. This story has traditionally been looked at as a story of angels transgressing the boundary between heaven and earth and mingling illicitly with human women, such as in 1 Enoch and Jubilees. A common interpretation is that “sons of God” does not refer to angels and instead refers to minor deities under Yahweh. Early Israelite angelology can be seen as an adaptation of the polytheistic system of other Ancient Near Eastern nations.2 The term “sons of gods” was used to signify minor deities on the divine council in Canaanite mythology, but these deities became the angels of Hebrew angelology.3 The angels referenced in Gen 6:1-4 could be deities that the 1 For the sake of my argument I have ignored Gen 6:3, which is a break in the text and seems unrelated to the rest of Gen 6:1-4. -
Authorship of the Pentateuch
M. Bajić: Authorship of the Pentateuch Authorship of the Pentateuch Monika Bajić Biblijski institut, Zagreb [email protected] UDK:27-242 Professional paper Received: April, 2016 Accepted: October, 2016 Summary This piece is a concise summary of the historical and contemporary develo- pment of Pentateuch studies in Old Testament Theology. This article aims to provide information on the possible confirmation of Mosaic authorship. The purpose is to examine how the Documentary Hypothesis, Fragment and Su- pplemental Hypotheses, Form and Traditio-Historical Criticism, Canonical and Literary Criticism have helped to reveal or identify the identity of the author of the Torah. To better understand the mentioned hypotheses, this article presents a brief description of the J, E, D, and P sources. Key words: Pentateuch, authorship, Mosaic authorship, Torah, Documen- tary Hypothesis, Fragment and Supplemental Hypothesis, Form and Tradi- tio-Historical Criticism, Canonical and Literary Criticism. In the most literal sense, the Pentateuch 1 (or Torah) is an anonymous work, but traditional views support the belief of Mosaic authorship (Carpenter 1986, 751- 52). Yet, with the advent of humanism and the Renaissance, the sense of intellec- tual freedom and upswing in research have led to the fact that many have begun to read the Bible critically, trying to challenge its text as well as the traditions and beliefs that are formed from it (Alexander 2003, 61-63). One of the most commonly attacked beliefs is Moses’ authorship of the Torah. There has been an 1 Taken from the Greek translation LXX. Pentateuch is derived from the Greek word pentateu- chos, which means a five-book work, known as the Books of Moses (Carpenter 1986). -
Introducing Exegesis (The Art of Interpreting the Bible)
Introducing Exegesis (the art of interpreting the Bible) And Hermeneutics (the art of drawing contemporary meaning from the Bible) Vicky Balabanski, Liz Boase, Michael Trainor, Marie Turner, Adam Robinson ©2020 1 Index Pages 1. Exegesis and Hermeneutics: A Summary. 3-5 2. Historical criticism 6-7 3. Textual criticism 8-9 4. Social Science criticism 10-11 5. Form criticism 12 6. Literary criticism 13-15 7. Canonical criticism 16-17 8. Rhetorical criticism 18-19 9. Tradition criticism 20-22 10. Narrative criticism 23-24 11. Reader-response criticism 25-26 12. Source criticism 27 13. Redaction criticism 28-29 14. Feminist criticism 30-32 15. Hermeneutics 33 2 Exegesis and Hermeneutics: A Summary.1 In moving towards an interpretation of a particular passage the following questions are important. Not all can be answered on every occasion, though there are some basic questions (such as establishing the text that is going to be interpreted). A focus on a few might be able to break open a "fresh" meaning of the text. The last question is always important and can only be answered in the light of the questions that precede it. 1. What do I bring to the text? What are my questions, biases, prejudices, cultural situation, history, religious background? What understandings of the Scriptures in general and of the excerpted text in particular have I inherited? What is my initial reaction on reading the text? What questions does it raise for me? 2. How accurate is the text? (Textual criticism and issues arising from translation) Are there any variant readings in ancient manuscripts? What issues do they raise? Which of the ancient manuscripts is likely to have the earliest version? And reflecting on the move from the original language to English (i.e. -
GENESIS in the PENTATEUCH Konrad Schmid I in the Heyday of the Documentary Hypothesis It Was a Common Assumption That Most Texts
GENESIS IN THE PENTATEUCH Konrad Schmid Introduction In the heyday of the Documentary Hypothesis it was a common assumption that most texts in Genesis were to be interpreted as elements of narra- tive threads that extended beyond the book of Genesis and at least had a pentateuchal or hexateuchal scope (J, E, and P). To a certain degree, exe- gesis of the book of Genesis was therefore tantamount to exegesis of the book of Genesis in the Pentateuch or Hexateuch. The Theologische Realen- zyklopädie, one of the major lexica in the German-speaking realm, has for example no entry for “Genesis” but only for the “Pentateuch” and its alleged sources. At the same time, it was also recognized that the material—oral or written—which was processed and reworked by the authors of the sources J, E, and P originated within a more modest narrative perspective that was limited to the single stories or story cycles, a view emphasized especially by Julius Wellhausen, Hermann Gunkel, Kurt Galling, and Martin Noth:1 J and E were not authors, but collectors.2 Gunkel even went a step further: “‘J’ and ‘E’ are not individual writers, but schools of narrators.”3 But with the successful reception of Gerhard von Rad’s 1938 hypothesis of a tradi- tional matrix now accessible through the “historical creeds” like Deut 26:5– 9, which was assumed to have also been the intellectual background of the older oral material, biblical scholarship began to lose sight of the view taken by Wellhausen, Gunkel, Galling, and Noth. In addition, von Rad saw J and 1 Julius Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs und der historischen Bücher des Alten Testaments (3rd ed.; Berlin: Reimer, 1899); Hermann Gunkel, Genesis (6th ed.; HKAT 1/1; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964 [repr. -
The Gilgamesh Traditions and the Pre-History of Genesis 6:1-4 David Melvin Baylor University, Waco TX 76798
The Gilgamesh Traditions and the Pre-History of Genesis 6:1-4 David Melvin Baylor University, Waco TX 76798 A number of scholars have suggested that behind the present form of Gen 6:1-4 lies a broader ancient Near Eastern tradition of which only a portion has been preserved in the biblical account. Wellhausen describes the text as an "erratic boulder."1 Hermann Gunkel reflects this assessment when he refers to the story as "a torso" of an original tradition which was much fuller.2 Following their lead, many scholars have attempted to trace the biblical story back to a broader ancient Near Eastern tradition.3 Proposed histories of the tradition linking it with other known ancient Near Eastern myths have suffered from the fact that, to date, the only myth which explicitly narrates the taking of human women as wives by gods and the birth of an entire race of semi-divine offspring is found in Hesiod's Catalogue of Women, fr. 204 M-W. In this text, Zeus devises the Trojan War as a means of destroying the demigods, as well as humanity so as to prevent the birth of more demigods by the mating of gods with humans. Ronald Hendel has argued on the basis of this text that Gen 6:1-4 originally served as the motive for the Flood story, with the Semitic Flood paralleling the Greek Trojan War.4 Most scholars, 1 Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (trans. J. S. Black and A. Menzies; Meridian: New York, 1957), 317. 2 Genesis (trans. -
No Fear Biblical Criticism an Introduction for the Modern Orthodox Reader
No Fear Biblical Criticism An Introduction for the Modern Orthodox Reader By Levi Morrow dafaleph.com dafaleph.com !1 of !31 Table Of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………… 3 Critical Approaches & The Documentary Hypothesis…………………………… 4 Lower Criticism & Textual Emendations………………………………………….. 8 Axioms & Subjectivity………………………………………………………………. 14 A Postmodern Critique……………………………………………………………… 18 Archaeology, History, & Tanakh In The Palace Of The Torah…………………… 24 Concluding Thoughts……………………………………………………………….. 29 PDF compiled and designed by Devir Kahan from the original series on Daf Aleph. dafaleph.com !2 of !31 Introduction Not too long ago Professor Yoram Hazony wrote an article critiquing the approach to Biblical Criticism taken by Open Orthodoxy — or at least by the Open Orthodox community he had spent a shabbat with. It’s an excellent article; one that admits to being a product of the author’s subjective experience, while still being bold enough to pose challenging questions. The main thrust of these questions, and of the article as a whole, was regarding the statement made by the Rabbi of the community that what set Open Orthodoxy apart was its willingness to confront challenging issues, such as Biblical Criticism, and to struggle with them honestly (presumably in contrast to the rest of the Jewish Community). Prof. Hazony’s article paints a picture quite at odds with this statement, a picture where anything less than absolute acceptance of Biblical Criticism is completely unacceptable, wherein even questioning Biblical Criticism merits an immediate and condescending dismissal. The article concludes by comparing Open Orthodoxy to the Protestant Movement, which a century ago decided to accept Biblical Criticism, and has paid the price for it. -
Documentary Hypothesis
Documentary Hypothesis Notes from: 1. JOHN BARTON, "Source Criticism," The Anchor Bible Dictionary [http://www.ucalgary.ca/~eslinger/genrels/DocHypothesis.html] 2. http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/2/Judaism/jepd.html 3. http:// www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis.doc "SOURCE CRITICISM. [VI, 162] Formerly called “literary criticism” or “higher criticism,” source criticism is a method of biblical study, which analyzes texts that are not the work of a single author but result from the combination of originally separate documents. This method has been applied to texts of the Old Testament (especially but not exclusively the Pentateuch) and New Testament (especially but not exclusively the gospels). This entry surveys the application of this method to those texts. A. Definitions Modern literary conventions forbid plagiarism, and require authors to identify and acknowledge any material they have borrowed from another writer. But in ancient times it was common to “write” a book by transcribing existing material, adapting and adding to it from other documents as required, and not indicating which parts were original and which borrowed. The OT contains few books, which are the work of a single author throughout; for the most part its books are composite, and in some cases the source materials are drawn from original documents that may be spread over several centuries. Source criticism seeks to separate out these originally independent documents, and to assign them to relative (and, if possible, absolute) dates. Source criticism is to be distinguished from other critical methods. Where original documents prove not to have been free compositions, but to rest on older, oral tradition, FORM CRITICISM may then be used to penetrate behind the written text. -
3161542738 Lp.Pdf
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe Herausgegeben von Konrad Schmid (Zürich) · Mark S. Smith (New York) Hermann Spieckermann (Göttingen) 83 Catherine Petrany Pedagogy, Prayer and Praise The Wisdom of the Psalms and Psalter Mohr Siebeck Catherine Petrany, born 1981; MA in Systematic Theology and PhD in Biblical Studies at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York; currently Assistant Professor of Theology at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-154273-2 ISBN 978-3-16-154272-5 ISSN 1611-4914 (Forschungen zum Alten Testament, 2. Reihe) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliogra- phie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproduc- tions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Gomaringen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. Printed in Germany. Preface This study presents a revised version of my doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Theology in 2014 at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. A portion of chapter three appeared previously in The Shape and Shaping of the Book of Psalms: The Current State of Scholarship, edited by Nancy deClaissé-Walford. I am grateful to Professor Konrad Schmid, Profes- sor Mark S. Smith and Professor Hermann Spieckermann, editors of the For- schungen zum Alten Testament II series, for accepting this work for publica- tion.