Reports from a Scholar's Life: Select Papers on the Hebrew Bible

Tryggve N. D. Mettinger

Published by Penn State University Press 2015

Reports from a Scholar's Life

Select Papers on the Hebrew Bible

Tryggve N. D. Mettinger
Edited by: Andrew Knapp

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575063805

Overview
Contents

About this book

Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, emeritus professor of Hebrew Bible at Lund University, has long been one of the best known and most admired voices in biblical studies. His eight (English-language) books and countless articles, published in a career spanning over four decades, have changed the field in many ways. Mettinger is renowned not as an iconoclast, but as one working within mainstream scholarship who is nevertheless willing to challenge cherished ideas and who takes nothing for granted. For example, in one of his earliest works, A Farewell to the Servant Songs—published in its entirety in this volume—Mettinger, with his trademark brevity and articulation, drew attention to the shaky ground on which this consensus idea was built and called fellow scholars to reexamine this notion taken for granted by so many for so long. For Mettinger, the Bible is sacred literature, but in biblical interpretation there are no sacred cows.

Reports from a Scholar’s Life: Select Papers on the Hebrew Bible collects 16 studies (one short monograph, twelve articles, and three reviews), originally published between 1977 and 2008, into one volume, along with a new reflective essay. The papers included provide not only Mettinger’s most groundbreaking publications, but also glimpses into several of the areas of study that occupied the author. Mettinger’s work ranged far and wide in the Hebrew Bible, and here one finds examples of his contributions to the study of, among other things:

• the notions of God, the Gottesbild, in ancient Israel ;

the theology of “YHWH Sabaoth” in the monarchic period ;

• the development of the story of David in 1–2 Samuel;

• aniconism in ancient Israel;

the motif of the “dying and rising god” in the ancient world ;• narrative criticism of the book of Job;

• the development and structure of Second Isaiah

The entire volume is opened by the titular essay, published for the first time here, “Report from a Scholar’s Life.” This article was originally delivered as the farewell address upon his retirement from Lund University, and it provides a retrospective on his entire life and career.

Reviews

“Highly valuable and relevant. I am convinced that this book will ensure that the remarkable achievements of the Swedish exegete will be appreciated for many years to come.”
—CIan Power, Swedish Exegetical Yearbook

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Author’s Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
The Enigma of Tryggve Andrew Knapp Publicly Available Download PDF	xiv
Select Publications of Tryggve N. D. Mettinger Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiii
1. Report from a Scholar’s Life: My Work on the Enigmas and the Notions of God Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I The God of Israel in the Ancient Near Eastern Milieu: Continuities and Contrasts
2. The Study of the Gottesbild: Problems and Suggestions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
3. The Elusive Essence: Yhwh, El and Baal and the Distinctiveness of Israelite Faith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
4. Yhwh Sabaoth: The Heavenly King on the Cherubim Throne . 62 Contextualization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	62
5. The Name and the Glory: The Zion–Sabaoth Theology and Its Exilic Successors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
6. The “Dying and Rising God”: The Peregrinations of a Mytheme Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
Part II Aniconism
7. The Veto on Images and the Aniconic God in Ancient Israel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
8. A Conversation with My Critics: Cultic Image or Aniconism in the First Temple? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Part III Davidic Trajectories
9. “The Last Words of David”: A Study of Structure and Meaning in II Samuel 23:1–7 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
10. Cui Bono? The Prophecy of Nathan (2 Samuel 7) as a Piece of Political Rhetoric Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Part IV Job
11. Intertextuality: Allusion and Vertical Context Systems in Some Job Passages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
12. The Enigma of Job: The Deconstruction of God in Intertextual Perspective Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Part V Second Isaiah
13. A Farewell to the Servant Songs: A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
14. In Search of the Hidden Structure: Yhwh as King in Isaiah 40–55 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Part VI Reviews
15. Review of James Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
16. Review of Ernst Jenni, Das hebräische Piʿel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
17. Review of Sandra L. Richter, The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
Indexes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 358

eBook

Published: November 9, 2015
ISBN: 9781575063805