Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study

Abstract

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, Fred W. Guyette, Brian J. Meldrum, and John M. Halligan Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary Brian J. Meldrum Catholic University of America John M. Halligan St. John Fisher College 1880. [Wisdom in the OT in light of Akan (Ghana) Parallels] Emmanuel K. E. Antwi, Isaac F. Adjei, and Joseph K. Asuming, "Understanding Wisdom in the Old Testament through its Akan (Ghana) Parallels: Linkages and Disconnections," OTE 33 (3, 2020) 408-27. Seeking to explain and interpret biblical concepts in various cultures without due regard to the cultures of the biblical world can give rise to difficulties. When this happens, one runs the risk of imposing one's own cultural worldview on the biblical text. At the same time, an understanding of the concepts of one's own culture may be helpful in grasping the meanings of biblical concepts. Against this background, our paper aims to mutually illuminate the concept of wisdom in the OT and among the Akan of Ghana. In pursuit of this goal, we critically analyze the connotations of the concept, sources, and acquisition of wisdom in the OT vis-à-vis those of the Akan ethnic groups in Ghana. By way of such a comparative analysis, we attempt to clarify how the OT concept of wisdom could be understood with the help of its Akan parallels, notwithstanding the differences between them. Our conclusion is that the Akan concept of wisdom can be of help in the interpretation of wisdom in the OT, but cannot fully explain it. Our paper thus pinpoints one of the challenges that interpreters are likely to encounter in the use of reader-centered approaches to biblical hermeneutics. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1881. [The Historical-Critical Paradigm in Biblical Studies] Joshua A. Berman, "A Critical Intellectual History of the Historical-Critical Paradigm in Biblical Studies," Exploring the Composition of the Pentateuch, 7-25 [see #2517]. In this essay, I provide a critical intellectual history of the historical-critical paradigm in biblical studies, with particular regard to theories of development of the biblical text. My interest is to understand the origins of the intellectual commitments that shape the discipline today and its disposition toward empirical models of textual growth. I shall examine how theorists over three centuries have entertained the most fundamental questions: What is the goal of the historical-critical study of the Hebrew Bible? What is the probative value of evidence internal within the text itself relative to evidence from external sources? What is the role of intuition in the scholar's work? What is the role of methodological control? As we shall see, scholars in different ages offered very different answers to these questions, answers colored by the prevailing intellectual milieu of their respective times. I proceed by surveying the intellectual currents during the formative period of the discipline, the two centuries between B. Spinoza and J. Wellhausen, with an emphasis on developments in 19th-cent. Germany. We shall see that the axioms that governed 19th-cent. German scholarship were at a great divide from those that governed earlier historicalcritical scholarship. We shall see further that these axioms were based in intellectual currents that were particular to the 19th cent., especially so in Germany. From there, I offer a brief summary of the claims of contemporary scholars who are looking toward empirical models to reconstruct the textual development of the Hebrew Scriptures. I conclude by demonstrating how this vein of scholarship undermines an array of 19th-cent. intellectual [End Page 702] assumptions, but would have been quite at home in earlier periods of the discipline's history. My hope is that this survey will stimulate a new self-awareness among scholars investigating these issues today. [Author's introduction, pp. 8-9—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1882. [Enemies in the Psalter; Cognitive-Linguistic Approach] Travis J. Bott, "Figurative Enemies in the Psalms: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach," Gegner im Gebet, 74-106 [see #2541]. This essay investigates the topic of enemies in...