Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-wxvwp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T15:18:51.369Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Survey of Old Testament Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2024

Joseph Bourke O.P.
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Contemporary study of the Old Testament appears to be dominated by three trends, associated with three broad groups of scholars. For practical purposes these groups may legitimately be described as ‘schools’, but only in a sense broad enough to allow for the intellectual independence of each individual scholar. The designation ‘school’ is often resented and repudiated nowadays.

The first group, led by the German scholars, A. Alt, M. Noth and G. von Rad, is usually called the ‘History of Tradition’ school. The second, consisting primarily of Scandinavian scholars with S. Mowinckel and J. Pedersen at their head, is sometimes described as the ‘Comparative Religion’ school. For reasons which will appear later I personally prefer to call it the ‘Palaeo-anthropological’ school. The third general trend is that of ‘enlightened orthodoxy’. It is characteristic of the new awakening of Catholic Old Testament scholarship, especially in France, and here the leader is unquestionably R. de Vaux. The approach of certain American scholars such as W. Albright, G. E. Wright and J. Bright is markedly similar to that of the French, and it would not be wholly inaccurate to classify these too under the same general heading of ‘enlightened orthodoxy’. Let us very briefly consider the distinctive approaches of each of these schools as exemplified in their most important and most representative works.

The characteristic approach of the German school may be described by means of a double simile. The enormously complicated amalgam of tradition which we call the Old Testament is regarded as a sort of snowball. The nucleus of the snowball is constituted by the Grundlage, the central ‘pan-Israelite’ traditions recording the events of the exodus, Sinai and the entry into the promised land.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Blackfriars , Volume 42 , Issue 493 , June 1961, pp. 261 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © 1961 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1 Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel I‐III, C. H. Beck'sche Verlags‐buchhandlung, München, 1959; 179s.

2 The History of Israel, 2nd English edition, 1960, A. and C. Black, London; 42s. In this second edition the translation has been carefully revised following some severe criticisms of the first edition.

3 M. Noth: Überlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch, Stuttgart, 1948; reprinted 1960, Kohlhammer; Stuttgart; 41s.

4 Überlieferungsgeschichtliche Studien, Tübingen, 1943; reprinted 1957; Max Niemeyer Verlag; 43s.

5 Chr. Kaiser Verlag München; Band I, 1957; 43s. Band II, 1960; 43s.

6 W. Eichrodt: Theologie des Alien Testaments. 5e neubearb. Auflage; Band I, Göttingen 1957; Band II‐III not yet published.

7 Culture of the Teutons. English translation, 1931. This work is unfortunately quite unprocurable now and no longer available to me.

8 Vol. I‐II, Geoffrey Cumberlege, London, 1926; reprinted 1954; 60s. Vol. III‐IV, 1940; reprinted 1953; 60s.

9 S. Mowinckel: He That Cometh, Blackwell, Oxford, 1956; 45. cf. p.82 and the same author's Religion und Kultus, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1953. 18s., pp. 72–73. For a definitive statement of the ‘Enthronement Festival’ hypothesis, the second volume of Mowinckel's Psalmenstudien I‐VI, Jacob Dybwad Kristiana, 1921–24, remains indispensable. On the ‘cult‐myths’ associated with the feast cf. Psalmenstudien II, pp. 45–80.Google Scholar

10 Vol. liii, 1946, pp. 321–348, lv, 1948, pp. 321–347, lvi. 1949, PP. 5–36.

11 Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 1953; 11s. 6d.

12 2nd edition, Doubleday, Anchor Books, New York, 1957.

13 First published in 1941, reprinted without alteration in 1957 in Meridian Books, Thames and Hudson, London; 12s. 6d.

14 Vcntnor Publishers, Ventnor, New Jersey.

15 G. E. Wright: Biblical Archeology, English edition, Duckworth, London, 1957.

16 English translation, Nelson, London, 1956; 70s.

17 Nelson, 1959, 15s.

18 A. Jaussen: Coutumes des Arabes au Pays de Moab, Gabalda, Paris, 1908, reprinted 1948: cf. the same author's Coutumes Palestiniennes: Naplouse et son District, Paris, 1927.

19 The first two volumes of van Imschoot's, P. Théologie de l'Ancien Testament, Dcsclée, Tournai, Vol. I, 1954Google Scholar, Vol II, 1956, do go some way towards filling this gap. But the plan and division of the material here is not such as will commend itself to scholars with a real sense of the historical evolution of religious ideas.

20 Ed. Pirot‐Robert‐Cazelles, Letouzey, Paris.

21 Ed. Robert‐Feuillet‐Cazelles, 2e edition revue et corrigée, Desclée, Tournai, 1959; 37s. 6d.

22 English translation by Jules M. Moreau, S.C.M. Press, London, 1960; 21s.

23 In his article, Heiherfahrung und Zeitverstandnis im Alten Testament Theologische Zeitschrift, 1956, pp. 103–125: cf. especially p. 112.

24 Éditions du Cerf, Paris. Vol. I, 1958; 14s. 3d. Vol. II, 1960; 31s.

25 R. E. Murphy: Seven Books of Wisdom Bruce, Milwaukee, 1960; 3.75.