The exploration of ancient texts reveals their evolution from folk tales to sacred scripture, challenging traditional views on the connections between the Old and New Testaments. Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter investigate the historical context and transformation of these writings, offering new insights into their significance within Judaism and Christianity. Their analysis aims to reshape understanding of these foundational texts and their interrelatedness.
This volume makes available both the most recent European scholarship on the Pentateuch and its critical discussion, providing a helpful resource and fostering further dialogue between North American and European interpreters. The contributors are Erhard Blum, David M. Carr, Thomas B. Dozeman, Jan Christian Gertz, Christoph Levin, Albert de Pury, Thomas Christian Roemer, Konrad Schmid, and John Van Seters.
The Bible is full of ancient texts long predating the assembly of Judaism's and Christianity's sacred books. Why these texts, and how were they transformed on the journey from folk tale to holy writ? Konrad Schmid and Jens Schroeter unearth the history, in the process overturning assumptions about the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.
Renowned Hebrew Bible scholar Konrad Schmid here provides a comprehensive discussion of the task, history, and conditions of the history of Old Testament literature. He carefully considers the dynamics of language, orality, literacy, and the range of social and political conditions that shaped Israel's writing at each period of the people's history and explores the significance of the transformation of various writings into "Scripture" and a biblical canon.
The Formation of the Pentateuch in Its Literary and Historical Contexts
Focusing on the formation of the Pentateuch, this collection features thirty-one studies by Konrad Schmid, reflecting over two decades of research. Schmid argues for the existence of a Persian period Priestly document that serves as a foundational narrative for the Torah, while also highlighting distinct, pre-Priestly narrative elements in Genesis and the story of Moses. His essays advocate for a re-evaluation of traditional views on the composition of these biblical texts.
The earlier consensus concerning the Pentateuch and the Deuteronomistic History has been significantly challenged in recent scholarship. Because of its canonical placement, the book of Deuteronomy plays an important role in these discussions. The earlier consensus was that the D source in the Pentateuch was primarily (if not only) found in Deuteronomy and that Deuteronomy was the founding source for the Deuteronomistic History. Recently, however, some scholars are once again talking about the D source in books before and after Deuteronomy, while others are questioning the centrality of the D source for the formation of the so-called Deuteronomistic History. This volume brings together various voices in these recent debates concerning the role of Deuteronomy in the larger literary works incorporating material before and after the book of Deuteronomy. Contributors include Reinhard Kratz, Jeffrey Stackert, Sandra Richter, Christophe Nihan, Cynthia Edenburg, Juha Pakkala, and Konrad Schmid.
The biblical story of paradise (Genesis 2-3) is probably one of the best known texts in world literature. It has had a rich reception history over many centuries. Genesis 2-3 formulates fundamental premises and problems of human self-understanding in the Western world. The biblical text of Genesis 2-3 itself has almost been buried under its traditional interpretations. In the Christian realm, it is commonly known as the story of Adam, Eve, the apple, the fall and the punishment of humankind with mortality. However, only Eve is really present in the biblical text, all the other elements are the result of a productive history of reception in later periods. The forbidden fruit is never identified in terms of botany. It was the Latin reception history that transformed it into an apple (malum), because evil (malum) came into the world through it. The so-called fall is not described in terms of sin in Genesis 2-3, since sin is mentioned for the first time in the Bible in Genesis 4:6-7, and the first human beings are made mortal from the very beginning, as their formation out of dust and the formulation of Gen. 2:16-17 as a traditional legal sentence implying death penalty indicate. Thus the penalty for eating from the forbidden fruit is death, not mortality. However, the meaning of the story has been substantially transformed in this point throughout the centuries, and it is claimed that mortality is the result of the fall. The authors of this volume explain both the theological profiles of the biblical text and its consequences. Its contributions stem from the fields of Biblical Studies, Religious Studies, Art History, Jewish Studies, Classical Studies, the History of Christianity and Philosophy.
Im Horizont ökologischer Krisen, aber auch der Kreationismusdebatte ist Schöpfung in den letzten Jahrzehnten zu einem vielverhandelten Thema der Theologie geworden. Die Autoren der hier gesammelten Beiträge zeigen aus der Perspektive theologischer Einzeldisziplinen, aber auch in zusammenschauender Weise, wie Schöpfung in theologisch angemessener Weise gedacht werden kann.
Unter den Teildisziplinen der alttestamentlichen Wissenschaft galt die Theologie des Alten Testaments lange als deren vornehmste Aufgabe. Doch in den letzten Jahrzehnten wurde mehr und mehr undeutlich, was eine Theologie des Alten Testaments eigentlich zu leisten habe. Konrad Schmid wendet sich zuerst der historischen Klarung des Theologiebegriffs in Anwendung auf die Bibel zu, diskutiert dann die Vielgestaltigkeit vorliegender Hebraischer Bibeln und Alter Testamente, um dann die theologischen Pragungen der Bucher und Sammlungen des Alten Testaments anhand prominenter Leittexte zu erheben. Weiter schliesst der Autor eine Skizze zur Theologiegeschichte des Alten Testaments sowie eine thematisch orientierte und historisch differenzierte Darstellung wichtiger Themen alttestamentlicher Theologie mit ein. Der Band versteht sich gleichzeitig als eine gewisse Synthese der gegenwartigen Forschung am Alten Testament in theologischer Perspektive.
Wie können wir das Alte Testament besser verstehen? Vor dem Hintergrund einer fast unübersehbar gewordenen Forschungslage wird hier eine zusammenfassende Darstellung der Literaturgeschichte der alttestamentlichen Texte geboten. Dazu wird vor allem verdeutlicht, in welcher historischen Situation diese Teile der Bibel entstanden sind, wie sie sich zu den anderen Zeugnissen der Zeit verhalten und welche Entwicklungsstufen für sie beschrieben werden können. So werden die verschiedenen „Schichtungen“ sichtbar und es wird nachvollziehbar, warum sich der heute bekannte Text herausgebildet hat. Der Band diskutiert die verschiedenen Forschungsansätze zum Thema und ermöglicht so eine gründliche Orientierung in Forschung und Lehre.