2018 - 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
0612-6019-01 | Prophets or Preachers? Inner-Biblical Interpretation in Prophecy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This course brings together two major corpora of the Hebrew Bible, Pentateuchal literature (not yet “the Pentateuch”) and prophetic writings, for discussing their relationship. We will study inner-biblical interpretation as a method with its benefits and challenges to each of those clusters, assuming that Pentateuchal traditions were part of the discourse between prophets and their audiences already by the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, and recognizing that prophets and prophecies were known phenomena to authors of Pentateuchal materials. We will discuss the prophetic activity and writings, asking: What is the place of midrashic/exegetical use in prophetic proclamations? What is the relationship between “visionaries” and “authors” (or “tradents”)? Does the interpretive process diminishes the divine speech to the prophet? How do Fortschreibungen or additions come to play their role in the evolution of prophetic literature? We will learn to recognize major interpretive techniques mainly in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as we will see how both historical and legal instructions from the various Pentateuchal sources were invoked by the prophets and their contemporaries, and for what reasons.