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2 - Genesis in the History of Critical Scholarship

from Part I - Composition and Structure of Genesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

By
Jean-Louis Ska
Edited by
Bill T. Arnold
Bill T. Arnold
Affiliation:
Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky
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Summary

“The Torah speaks a human language” – the saying, accredited to Rabbi Ishmael (90–135 CE) and found in the Midrashic treatise Sifre to Numbers 112, is at the root of a critical reading of the Scriptures. It underscores that Scriptures, considered divine revelation, are formulated in a language that follows the rules of any language and the conventions of human communication. R. Ishmael had his opponents, obviously, who belonged to the school of Rabbi Aqiba (40–137 CE) and affirmed that every detail in the Scripture is divinely inspired and therefore meaningful, a tendency for which recent scholarship coined the term “omnisignificance.”1 On the one hand, the school of R. Ishmael thinks of the Bible as having divine origin, but also as being a book like many other books and, on the other hand, R. Aqiba affirms the uniqueness of the Bible and detects a deeper, theological, meaning in every peculiarity of the biblical text.2 For R. Ishmael’s disciples, we may perceive errors, inconsistencies, differences, and imperfections in Holy Scriptures as in other human work.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Genesis , pp. 11 - 52
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

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Berndt, Rainer. “The School of St. Victor in Paris.” Pages 467–95 in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. I.2: The Middles Ages Edited by Sæbø., Magne Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.Google Scholar
Borgen, Peder Johan. Philo of Alexandria: An Exegete for His Time, SNT 86. Leiden: Brill, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Evans, Craig A., Lohr, Joel N., and Petersen, David L., eds. The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, VTS 152 (Leiden: Brill, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelberg, Margalit and Stroumsa, Guy G., eds. Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious Canons in the Ancient World, Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture 2. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frampton, Travis L. Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Criticism of the Bible. London: T&T Clark, 2006.Google Scholar
Gunkel, Hermann. Genesis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 3rd ed.,1910, 1969); English translation: Genesis. Translated by M. E. Biddle. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald. The Book of Genesis: A Biography, Lives of Great Religious Books (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Maman, Aharon, Cohen, Mordechai, and Klein-Braslavy, Sarah, “The Flourishing Era of Jewish Exegesis in Spain.” Pages 261–320 in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. I.2: The Middles Ages Edited by Sæbø., Magne Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000).Google Scholar
McKane, William. Selected Christian Hebraists. Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, Jeffrey L. Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016).Google Scholar
Reventlow, Henning Graf. “Between Humanism and Enlightenment: Morality, Reason and History as Factors in Biblical Interpretation.” Pages 641–56 in The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 3: From 1450 to 1750. Edited by Cameron., Euan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Riches, John, ed. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 4: From 1750 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smend, Rudolf. From Astruc to Zimmerli: Old Testament Scholarship in Three Centuries. Translated by Margaret Kohl. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.Google Scholar
Smend, Rudolf. Kritiker und Exegeten: Porträtskizzen zur vier Jahrhunderten alttestamentlicher Wissenschaft. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berndt, Rainer. “The School of St. Victor in Paris.” Pages 467–95 in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. I.2: The Middles Ages Edited by Sæbø., Magne Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.Google Scholar
Borgen, Peder Johan. Philo of Alexandria: An Exegete for His Time, SNT 86. Leiden: Brill, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Euan. “The Bible and the Early Sense of History.” Pages 657–85 in The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 3: From 1450 to 1750. Edited by Cameron., Euan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Craig A., Lohr, Joel N., and Petersen, David L., eds. The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, VTS 152 (Leiden: Brill, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelberg, Margalit and Stroumsa, Guy G., eds. Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious Canons in the Ancient World, Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture 2. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frampton, Travis L. Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Criticism of the Bible. London: T&T Clark, 2006.Google Scholar
Gunkel, Hermann. Genesis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 3rd ed.,1910, 1969); English translation: Genesis. Translated by M. E. Biddle. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald. The Book of Genesis: A Biography, Lives of Great Religious Books (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Maman, Aharon, Cohen, Mordechai, and Klein-Braslavy, Sarah, “The Flourishing Era of Jewish Exegesis in Spain.” Pages 261–320 in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. I.2: The Middles Ages Edited by Sæbø., Magne Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000).Google Scholar
McKane, William. Selected Christian Hebraists. Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, Jeffrey L. Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016).Google Scholar
Reventlow, Henning Graf. “Between Humanism and Enlightenment: Morality, Reason and History as Factors in Biblical Interpretation.” Pages 641–56 in The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 3: From 1450 to 1750. Edited by Cameron., Euan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Riches, John, ed. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 4: From 1750 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smend, Rudolf. From Astruc to Zimmerli: Old Testament Scholarship in Three Centuries. Translated by Margaret Kohl. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.Google Scholar
Smend, Rudolf. Kritiker und Exegeten: Porträtskizzen zur vier Jahrhunderten alttestamentlicher Wissenschaft. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berndt, Rainer. “The School of St. Victor in Paris.” Pages 467–95 in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. I.2: The Middles Ages Edited by Sæbø., Magne Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000.Google Scholar
Borgen, Peder Johan. Philo of Alexandria: An Exegete for His Time, SNT 86. Leiden: Brill, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Euan. “The Bible and the Early Sense of History.” Pages 657–85 in The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 3: From 1450 to 1750. Edited by Cameron., Euan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Craig A., Lohr, Joel N., and Petersen, David L., eds. The Book of Genesis: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation, VTS 152 (Leiden: Brill, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelberg, Margalit and Stroumsa, Guy G., eds. Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious Canons in the Ancient World, Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture 2. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frampton, Travis L. Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Criticism of the Bible. London: T&T Clark, 2006.Google Scholar
Gunkel, Hermann. Genesis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 3rd ed.,1910, 1969); English translation: Genesis. Translated by M. E. Biddle. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Hendel, Ronald. The Book of Genesis: A Biography, Lives of Great Religious Books (Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013).Google Scholar
Maman, Aharon, Cohen, Mordechai, and Klein-Braslavy, Sarah, “The Flourishing Era of Jewish Exegesis in Spain.” Pages 261–320 in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Vol. I.2: The Middles Ages Edited by Sæbø., Magne Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000).Google Scholar
McKane, William. Selected Christian Hebraists. Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press, 1989.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrow, Jeffrey L. Three Skeptics and the Bible: La Peyrère, Hobbes, Spinoza, and the Reception of Modern Biblical Criticism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016).Google Scholar
Reventlow, Henning Graf. “Between Humanism and Enlightenment: Morality, Reason and History as Factors in Biblical Interpretation.” Pages 641–56 in The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 3: From 1450 to 1750. Edited by Cameron., Euan Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Riches, John, ed. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 4: From 1750 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smend, Rudolf. From Astruc to Zimmerli: Old Testament Scholarship in Three Centuries. Translated by Margaret Kohl. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007.Google Scholar
Smend, Rudolf. Kritiker und Exegeten: Porträtskizzen zur vier Jahrhunderten alttestamentlicher Wissenschaft. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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