Abstract
Bringing together both European and North American traditions of biblical scholarship, this volume offers a detailed analysis of the formation and collection of the Israelite literature collected within the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. By breaking up the composition of these writings into historical epochs, Schmid is able to provide an accessible overview of the developments that transformed such writings into ‘Scripture’ and, eventually, a biblical canon.
Part A of Schmid’s study addresses the task of writing a literary history of the Old Testament. Although he is a little quick to set aside the value of non-biblical literary criticism, Schmid’s vision of literary history is broad, exciting and dynamic. The texts themselves are to be seen not as mere literary reflections on historical events—economic and social, political and theological—but as active agents in these histories. In particular, Schmid is keen to emphasise the role competing theologies have in shaping these literatures; by clarifying the linkages and references between texts, one is able to reconstruct and clarify theological-historical developments across Scripture. What a literary-historical approach does is challenge any fundamental correspondence between the Bible and history. For example, where the biblical literature depicts the patriarchs and the judges as belonging to separate epochs, Schmid asks whether these could be in fact two portrayals of the same time period from different points of view. Again, the literature is not to be seen as a passive reflection but as interested representation.
In terms of theological interpretation of the Old Testament, Schmid is adamant that working on a literary history of the literature is not anti-theological. Designating ‘Scripture’ as literature does not degrade the texts for theological hermeneutics. Rather, it emphasises that the process of becoming Scripture is part of a text’s literary history. Following Gerhard von Rad’s pioneering work, Schmid argues that a literary history of the Old Testament can augment its theological retelling by thinking with the texts’ own distinct theological concepts and analysing how these are structured.
Part B is the main body of the book. Schmid breaks up the biblical literature into its historical epochs, from its Ancient Israelite beginnings among the Syrio-Palestinian city-states, into the Assyrian Period, the Babylonian Period, the Persian Period, the Ptolemaic Period and the Seleucid Period. This foregrounds the particular historical contingencies that go into the shaping of certain conceptual and theological frameworks within the biblical texts. As an example of this incisive analysis, in the section on the Assyrian Period, Schmid argues that it was probably the cultural-historical influence of Assyria that led to the development of statehood in Israel and Judah. Anti-Assyrian concepts, such as emphasising a covenantal relationship with YHWH rather than a vassal loyalty to a foreign monarchy, can thus be perceived in Deuteronomy. This cultural-historical element in Schmid’s approach is invaluable and there is much detailed analysis covering each of the epochs.
Aside from some confusing page formatting where chunks of text seem to be indented without reason being neither quotations or more significant than the surrounding text, and a few typos (Richard Lowth rather than Robert Lowth), the translation is for the most part easy to read. This book is particularly recommended for those who want to understand how ‘Scripture’ is embedded in its cultural-historical contexts, both ancient and modern.