The book of Samuel tells the story of the origins of kingship in Israel in what seems to be an artistically structured, flowing narrative. Yet it is also marked by an inconsistent outlook, divergent ...styles, and breaks in the narrative. According to Noth’s Deuteronomistic History hypothesis, the Deuteronomistic historian constructed the narrative by piecing together early sources and generally refrained from commenting in his own voice. Recent studies have called into question the extent of Samuel’s sources and their redaction history, as well as the textual growth of the book as a whole. The essays in this book, representing the latest scholarship on this subject, reexamine whether the book of Samuel was ever part of a Deuteronomistic History. The contributors are A. Graeme Auld, Hannes Bezzel, Philip R. Davies, Walter Dietrich, Cynthia Edenburg, Jeremy M. Hutton, Jürg Hutzli, Ernst Axel Knauf, Reinhard Müller, Richard D. Nelson, Christophe Nihan, K. L. Noll, Juha Pakkala, and Jacques Vermeylen.
Variant readings in manuscripts and other documented evidence show that the Hebrew Bible was the focus of intensive scribal activity in its early transmission. Text criticism, which evaluates variant ...readings, is recognized as an important method, but biblical scholarship uses its results only haphazardly. Historical criticism, which can be divided into literary and redaction criticism, reconstructs the history based on inconsistencies in the text itself. Although dominant especially in continental Europe until the 1980s, historical criticism never received universal recognition, and its influence has diminished in recent decades. This paper presents the rationale of historical criticism and discusses recent challenges to it.
Almost a decade of intensive excavations by the Kinneret Regional Project has turned Tel Kinrot into one of the major sites for the study of urban life in the southern Levant during the Early Iron ...Age. Its urban layout, accessibility by major trade routes, and strategic location between different spheres of cultural and political influence make Tel Kinrot an ideal place for studying the interaction of various regional cultures, as well as to approach questions of ethnicity and regionalism during one of the most debated periods in the history of the ancient Levant.
Evidence of Editing Müller, Reinhard; Pakkala, Juha; Bas ter Haar, Romeny
01/2014, Letnik:
v.no. 75
eBook
A new perspective on editorial activity in the Hebrew Bible for research and teaching
Evidence of Editinglays out the case for substantial and frequent editorial activity within the Hebrew Bible. The ...authors show how editors omitted, expanded, rewrote, and compiled both smaller and larger phrases and passages to address religious and political change. The book refines the exegetical method of literary and redaction criticism, and its results have important consequences for the future use of the Hebrew Bible in historical and theological studies.
Features:
Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic examples of editorial activityClear explanations of the distinctions between textual, literary, and redaction criticismFifteen chapters attesting to continual editorial activity in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings
As a response to my previous article on Geshur, Nadav Na'aman has recently brought up the history of Geshur. Much is at stake concerning the methodological approach in how archaeological data and the ...Hebrew Bible are used to reconstruct ancient realities. Geshur is a prime example of how archaeological data should not be interpreted and used. Na'aman's hypothesis on Geshur is built on conjectures, obscure readings, textual emendations, arguments from authority, lack of methodological discipline, and circular reasoning. The reconstruction of Geshur highlights the importance of investigating the core of the arguments concerning any proposal on ancient Israel.
Geshur may well have existed, but unless something substantial can be said of Geshur, the name is as hollow as the names of the Hivvites, Girgashites, and Perizzites. We do not know when it existed or what its culture, extent, religion, or capital was. The biblical references could well go back to a very small entity or a small town that grew in importance in the transmission of the text. In sum, we do not know much more than its name and perhaps the very approximate area, but this information amounts to next to nothing.
The series Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (BZAW) covers all areas of research into the Old Testament, focusing on the Hebrew Bible, its early and later forms in ...Ancient Judaism, as well as its branching into many neighboring cultures of the Ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world. BZAW welcomes submissions that make an original and significant contribution to the field; demonstrate sophisticated engagement with the relevant secondary literature; and are written in readable, logical, and engaging prose.
What Do We Know about Geshur? Pakkala, Juha
Scandinavian journal of the Old Testament : SJOT,
11/2010, Letnik:
24, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The Hebrew Bible may give the impression that there was a clearly definable area called Geshur. The Biblical view is often adopted in scholarly literature. The kingdom of Geshur plays a role in the ...reconstruction of the political situation during the early monarchic period, especially during the reign of King David.
However, historical sources for Geshur are shaky. These Biblical traditions may contain an early core that may even preserve an ancient memory of Geshur, but their historical value is much smaller than what scholarly discussion would implicate. They do not justify many of the views found in scholarly discussion. Scholarship has also sought to corroborate the Biblical traditions with two external sources but the evidence is very problematic, and, in the worst case, its use is reminiscent of Biblicism, where the main function of external sources is to corroborate Biblical texts.
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