8686 ETL 13 Recensiones
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RECENSIONES G. BRAULIK – W. GROSS – S. MCEVENUE (ed.). Biblische Theologie und gesellschaftlicher Wandel. Für Norbert Lohfink SJ. Freiburg – Basel – Wien, Herder, 1993. (16≈23), 416 p. ISBN 3-451-23236-7. DM 58. This Festschrift was offered to N. Lohfink on the occasion of his 65th birthday. It is impossible to give here a full discussion of its rich contents. A short descrip- tion of its 22 alphabetically ordered contributions may be helpful. Many of them deal with Deuteronomy, Deuteronomism, Priestly source, and the Pentateuch in general. Most of them are written in German or in English. Two are composed in French. G. Braulik opens the collection with an essay on Deuteronomy and the cultivation of memory and remembrance in Israel. The author offers some redac- tion critical remarks on the use of dml and the theology of learning and teaching. A. Campbell defends the case of the Priestly text in the Pentateuch as an autonomous document. In this he sides with Noth, Ellinger, and Lohfink, against Cross, Rendtorff, and Blum. D. Christensen studies the parallels between Gen 1–11 and Jonah in the light of the provocative thesis of Kikwada and Hesse who argued that “the underlying narrative progression of Jonah is the exact reverse of the topical progression of the Primeval History”. R. Clifford is of the opinion that the book of Proverbs does not adequately account for some typical features of Woman Wisdom. In his contribution he proposes that Proverbs has adopted a type-scene from epic literature: the goddess’ deceitful offer of life to the young hero. The type-scene may have been borrowed, with some important changes, from the Gilgamesh and Danel epics. P.E. Dion analyses the procedure of the elimination of the rebellious son described in Deut 21,18-21. He detects an edito- rial development in this text which testifies to an evolution in the values of soci- ety in the Old Testament. Based on the text-critical edition of R. Hanhart, H. Engel presents a brief but penetrating introduction into the fictitious character of the book of Tobit, its literary structure, and its didactic contents addressed to a public living in the Diaspora. Ps 9/10 is the first Psalm of the “poor”. N. Füglis- ter studies this Psalm against the background of the socio-religious situation of the postexilic community. Answering Jesus’ question “How can Satan cast out Satan”, R. Girard searches the identity of Satan realising that, far from being an archaic myth, the Satan of the Gospels is an enormously powerful critique of all archaic myths, a conception of culture and history so rich that its relevance to our own world is still unfathomable. W. Gross presents a literary-critical and redac- tion-critical analysis of Ex 13–14 focusing on the passages mentioning the pillar and the cloud. He concludes that the passages in question are due to a post- priestly redaction and plead in favour of an independent character of the priestly source. F.L. Hossfeld and E. Zenger discuss the redaction-history and the theol- ogy of Ps 15–24. B. Janowski investigates the meaning of the term edr and its implications for the understanding of Gen 1,26-28. It expresses the idea of “rul- ing” without the connotation of “violence”. H.-W. Jüngling draws the attention to the relationship between Is 61 and Proto-Isaiah. S. McEvenue proposes to lis- 192 RECENSIONES ten to the voice and style of the speakers in Ex 1–15 and concludes that the edi- tor must not be imagined to have carried out his composition in a rationally uni- fied manner. The reader should address the text as an aggregate of sources or fragments held loosely together on a story line. P.D. Miller looks at the prayers of women in the Old Testament. W.L. Moran offers a new reading of a Babylon- ian text in which he discovers a prophetic oracle. E. Otto presents a contribution to the redaction-history of Deut 12–26. L. Perlitt looks back at the works of Well- hausen, De Wette and the like, who distinguished between the history of “Hebraism” or the history of the pre-exilic Israelites, and the history of Judaism or the history of the post-exilic Jews. In between he situates what he calls the his- tory of “Deuteronomism” that bridges the gap between the Hebraism and Judaism. J.A. Sanders reviews Syriac Psalm II or Ps 154 in the light of Qumran fragment 4Q448. J.L. Ska reads Ex 19,3-8, not in the line of Muilenburg who viewed it as the fons et origo of the covenant formulas, but rather in the line of Lohfink who recognised in it a deuteronomistic parenetic scheme. J. Trebolle turns to matters of textual criticism and discusses the textual affiliation of the Old Latin marginal readings in the books of Judges and Kings. His remarks are to be compared with those of N. Fernández-Marcos in his monograph entitled Scribes and Translators (see our review elsewhere in this fascicule, pp. 203-204). Their work can draw upon the works of A. Moreno Hernández, Las glosas marginales de Vetus latina en las Biblias Vulgatas españolas. 1–2 Reyes (TECC), Madrid, 1992, and C. Moreno Rodríguez, Glosas marginales de Vetus latina en Biblias Vulgatas españolas. 1–2 Samuel (TECC), Madrid, 1989. G. Vanoni explores the theological grounds of the fear of the Lord in Ps 130,4. P. Weimar asks for the meaning of the story of the death of Aaron reported in the priestly passage Num 20,22-29. In a final contribution, K. Escher and A. Friedl compiled Lohfink’s bibliography. J. LUST Heather A. MCKAY – David J.A. CLINES (ed.). Of Prophets’ Visions and the Wisdom of Sages. Essays in Honour of R. Norman Whybray on His Seventieth Birthday. (JSOT Supplement Series, 162.) Sheffield, JSOT Press, 1993. (14≈22), 335 p. ISBN 1-85075-423-3. £ 40; $ 75. This beautiful Festschrift is introduced by M.A. Knibb’s elegant biographical (and bibliographical) sketch of R.N. Whybray. The volume proper is subdivided into three parts. The first contains eight contributions on prophecy, the second six essays on wisdom, and the third four papers on the Pentateuch. A. Mayes deals with prophecy and society in Israel. He surveys recent attempts towards an understand- ing of prophecy alternative to the idealistic theology type of model. In a similar way, L. Grabbe questions the exaltation of Israel’s classical prophets as unique phenomenon. A comparison of Israel and contemporary pre-modern societies lead to a reassessment of the roles of prophets, priests, diviners and sages. R. Gordon compares prophecy at Mari and in Ancient Israel. The most notable feature of the newly published Mari texts (ARM, 26/1, 1988) is the occurrence of an Akkadian cognate of the Hebrew nabî. The more we learn about prophecy at Mari the less wide the gap between it and its Israelite counterpart appears. R.J. Coggins reconsiders the topic of “false prophecy” and draws attention to ideological fac- tors that make objective assessment of the phenomenon extremely elusive. H.G.M. Williamson suggests that Deutero-Isaiah may have reflected on and been influenced by Is 8,23b and its reference to “the first and the last”. Thus First RECENSIONES 193 Isaiah furnished one of the most fundamental theological concepts that serves to bind together much of Deutero-Isaiah’s literary legacy. K. Jeppesen compares the imagery around the Servant in Is 53 with that around Zion. A. Gelston also deals with Is 53. He focuses on lexical, textual, and exegetical problems connected with the use of the root ydi. In a “metacommentary” D.J.A. Clines asks some waspish questions about the motives and interests of his colleagues writing com- mentaries on Amos. J.L. Crenshaw reflects on the status of research in wisdom literature. J. Eaton’s contribution concerns some Israelite approaches to the edu- cation of the individual and the society, wondering where the Israelites stood in matters of learning by heart, recitation, and critical ability. A. Brenner presents some observations on the figurations of woman in wisdom literature. W. Bruegge- mann considers the sapiential Psalm 37 in terms of its socio-theological inten- tionality. T. Mettinger argues that our understanding of Job can be fruitfully informed by the insights of modern study of intertextuality. He is convinced that Job 19 represents a deliberate allusion to Lam 3. It seems to the reviewer that this raises some interesting questions concerning the relations between the so-called modern intertextuality and good old historical literary criticism. J.A. Soggin stud- ies the episode of Judah and Tamar in Gen 38, comparing it with the story of Ruth. M.D. Goulder reads Ruth in the light of Deut 22–25. H. Cazelles seeks to identify the circles in which Deuteronomy originated and emphasises the role of the Levites. The volume is completed with indexes of scriptural passages and of authors. J. LUST A. Graeme AULD (ed.). Understanding Poets and Prophets: Essays in Honour of George Wishart Anderson. (JSOT Supplement Series, 152.) Sheffield, JSOT Press, 1993. (14≈22), 445 p. ISBN 1-85075- 427-6. In our presentation of the contents we follow the instructive introduction pro- vided by A.G. Auld. The collection of alphabetically arranged articles opens with B. Albrektson’s article discussing the problem of which text to make the starting point of a national Bible translation enterprise. Translation is featured also by J. Emerton, S. Lee and J. Sawyer, while H. Williamson towards the end of the collection returns to text-critical matters.