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5 - THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE MAKING

from III - THE OLD TESTAMENT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Peter R. Ackroyd
Affiliation:
University of London, King's College
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Summary

THE PROBLEM OF ORIGINS

At one end of the process are the necessarily nebulous beginnings of Israel's literature. Since our concern is to understand something of the whole range of ways by which the material now in the Old Testament came into being, some definition must be made of the starting point in time. And this definition is as difficult to make as is the decision where to begin a history of Israel or a study of Israel's religion. It may be convenient for the former to determine the point in time at which it is proper to speak of Israel as an entity rather than as a loose agglomeration of small elements, and to decide on this basis that the history of Israel in the true sense begins with the monarchy, or with the tribal amphictyony, or with the Exodus; the decision will be made by each historian on his own terms. But inevitably he must also assess the available evidence for the pre-history of those elements which were ultimately to become explicitly Israel. Similarly the study of Israel's religion involves a decision on starting point, but again, whatever the choice, the pre-settlement religion or the pre-Mosaic religion comes under discussion however uncertain of interpretation the evidence may be. Israel's literature, naturally enough, is so tied in with both history and religion that a comparable decision about origins has to be made. But the lines have to be drawn from there back into the remoter past, just as—again as with religious and institutional problems—the origins of literary types which appear at a later stage have also to be investigated.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1970

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References

Alt, A., Die Urspriinge des Israelitischen Rechts (Leipzig, 1934),
Anderson, G. W., A Critical Introduction to the Old Testament (London, 1959). [A readable short account of the literature.]
Astruc, Jean, Conjectures sur les mémoires dont il paroit que Moyse s'est servi, pour composer le livre de la Genèse, published in 1753.
Bentzen, A., Introduction to the Old Testament (Copenhagen, 1948-9, 5th ed. 1959). [Vol. 1 deals with form criticism.]
Charles, R. H. (ed.), Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha (2 vols. Oxford, 1913, reprinted 1963).
Driver, S. R., Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (Edinburgh, 9th ed. 1913 (1961)). [An older standard work, containing much basic information, though now inevitably somewhat dated.]
, E. T., ‘The Origins of Israelite Law’ in Essays on Old Testament History and Religion (Oxford, 1966).Google Scholar
Eissfeldt, O., The Old Testament: An Introduction, transl. by Ackroyd, P. R. (Oxford, New York, 1965). [The standard work, with full bibliographical information.]
Engnell, I., The Call of Isaiah (Uppsala, 1949), p..
Fohrer, G., Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Heidelberg, 1965); English transl. Introduction to the Old Testament, by Green, David (Nashville, 1968; London, 1970).Google Scholar
Gunkel, H. and Begrich, E., Einleitung in die Psalmen (Göttingen, 1933). [The basic work, though limited in scope.]
Hayes, J. H. ed., Old Testament Form Criticism (Trinity University, Texas, 1974). [A presentation of the whole field of form critical study and its achievements.]
Kaiser, O., Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Gutersloh, 1969); English transl. Introduction to the Old Testament (Oxford, 1975). [A survey of problems and areas of research rather than a formal introduction.]Google Scholar
Koch, K., Was ist Formgeschichte? (Neukirchen, 2nd ed. 1967); English transl. by Cupitt, S., The Growth of the Biblical Tradition: the form-critical method (London, 1969).Google Scholar
Koch, K., Was ist Formgeschichte? (3rd ed. 1974, with a supplement on ‘Linguistik und Formgeschichte’).Google Scholar
Koehler, L., Hebrew Man (E. T. London, 1956) ff.
(Lindars, B., ‘Torah in Deuteronomy’ in Words and Meanings, ed. Ackroyd, P. R. and Lindars, B. (Cambridge, 1968) –36.)Google Scholar
Lods, A., Histoire de la littérature hébraïque et juive depuis les origines jusqu' à la ruine de létat juif (135 après J.-C.) (Paris, 1950).
Pritchard, J. B. ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, Princeton, New Jersey, 2nd ed. 1955.
Rowley, H. H., ‘Recent Discovery and the Patriarchal Age’ in The Servant of the Lord (London, 1952;2nd ed. 1965).Google Scholar
(Sanders, J. A., The Psalms Scroll of Qumran Cave II (IIQPsa) (Oxford, 1965), esp..
Sandmel, S., The Hebrew Scriptures. An Introduction to their Literature and Religious Ideas (New York, 1963). [A modern Jewish approach to literary problems.]
Speiser, E. A., ‘Census and Ritual Expiation in Mari and Israel’, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, New Haven (Conn.). CXLIX (Feb. 1958), 17–25 = Oriental and Biblical Studies (Philadelphia, 1967) –86.Google Scholar
Tallqvist, K. L., ‘Die assyrische Beschwörungsserie Maqlû’, Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae, Helsinki. xx (1895) ;Google Scholar
Thomas, D. Winton ed., Documents from Old Testament Times, London, 1958, New York, 1961.
Thompson, T. L., The History of the Patriarchal Narratives (Beihefte ZAW 133, Berlin, 1974) [see p., n. 1: this volume offers a critical study of the supposed affinities between the patriarchal narratives and the Mari and Nuzi texts].
Vermes, G., The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Harmondsworth, 1962), p..

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