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Ausgabe: | 1964 |
Spalte: | 540-541 |
Kategorie: | Altes Testament |
Titel/Untertitel: | L' ancien testament 1964 |
Rezensent: | Amsler, Samuel |
Ansicht Scan: | |
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539
Theologische Literaturzeitung 89. Jahrgang 1964 Nr. 7
540
ALTES TESTAMENT
H v i d b c r g, Flemming FrÜ6: Weeping and Laughter in the Old
Testament. A Study of Canaanite-Israelite Religion. Posthumous Edition
in English. Leiden: Brill; Kopenhagen: Busck 1962. 166 S. gr. 8°.
The lamented death of Professor F. F. Hvidberg in 1959
robbed us of a colleague of great ability and Singular charm,
and at the same time of remarkable humility. For many yeare
before his death much of his time had been given to politics,
and for two periods he had served his country as Minister of
Education. This unhappily reduced the amount of time he
could give to creative sdholarship, and little had come from his
pen. Now, nearly twenty-five years after its first appearance in
Danish, his most important book has been translated into
English.
From the time of its first publication those who had access
to it recognized its high value, and it exercised a considerable
influence on Scandinavian scholars. But a work written in Danish
could not expect to secure a wide circulation beyond Scandi-
navia, and, as Professor G. Widengren observed in Hooke's
"Myth, Ritual and Kingship" (pp. 178 f.), it "by no means
received from scholars outside Scandinavia the attention it de-
serves." In a brief article in "Zeitschrift für die alttestament-
liche Wissenschaft" (1939, pp. 150—152), Hvidberg presented a
summary of his work, but this was an inadequate Substitute
for the füll work, and some years ago the present reviewer
urged the author to issue a translation in one of the major
languages of scholarship so that it might receive fuller attention
. In the Preface to the present translation Professor
Lakkegaard teils us that it was the author's intention to publish
a revised and enlarged edition in one of these languages. That
intention has now been posthumously realized under the direc-
tion of Professor Lokkegaard himself. The translation has been
made by Niels Haislund, but Professor Lakkegaard has been
responsible for the revision, which has been carefully designed
to leave the author's work as little changed as possible. The
translation is in good and readable English, save for an occasional
slip such as "the two first Iines" or "the three first columns"
instead of "the first two lines" or "the first three columns".
The work is a study of ritual weeping and laughter in
Canaan, as reflected in the Ras Shamra texts, and in Israel.
When it was written Ugaritic 6tudies were in their infancy, and
Professor Lakkegaard has therefore modified the translations of
Ras Shamra texts wherever he feels that more recent study has
made this necessary. He has also added a number of notes in
Square brackets. But substantially we have here the work of
Professor Hvidberg, and the positions here reflected are those
taken by him in the original edition. At that time, in 1938, the
Ras Shamra texts were generally interpreted as mythological,
though there were scholars who held that some of them were
historical. Professor Hvidberg believed that they were cultic
rather than mythological, and it was here that his influence on
subsequent Scandinavian work was especially feit. His approach
had much in common with that of Professor S. H. Hooke, in his
Schweich Lectures on "The Origins of Early Semitic Ritual",
but as these were published in the same year as Hvidberg's
work they were not available to him.
Both authors connected some of the Ras Shamra texts with
the Canaanite autumn festival, in which the death and resurrec-
tion of the fertility god was ritually represented. Hvidberg
limits his study to the ritual weeping and laughter, the latter
having erotic associations, and their influence on Israelite cultic
practice. It is his thesis that through the syncretism with
Canaanite religion much of the ritual drama was taken over by
Israel, though he recognizes that in the Old Testament Yahweh
never figures as a dying and rising god. It is precisely here
that Hvidberg kept his feet firmly on the ground and remained
within the evidence. That Canaanite religion influenced Israel's
thought and practice is now widely accepted, and is in no way
surprising. The Old Testament itself gives ample evidence of
this, and makes it piain that too offen in the populär religion
the erotic associations of Canaanite religion were in evidence.
But Hvidberg does not argue for so far-reaching an assimilation
of Israelite and Canaanite religion as some others have done.
He believes that many features of the worship of her neighbours
were taken over by Israel and that elements of their ritual were
adopted, and that things that were predicated of El in Canaanite
thought were transferred to Yahweh, but holds that whatever
was taken over was integrated into the religion of Yahweh 60
that its character was modified in the transference. The weeping
was no longer over the dead deity, but the expression of
humiliation before Yahweh and plea to Him. The laughter
which was erotically expressed in populär Israelite practice
became transmuted into a confidence in the deliverance that
Yahweh would achieve, and Professor Hvidberg briefly links
this with the Messianic hope which was developed in Israel.
As is to be expected, the Song of Songs figures in this
study. Some years before Hvidberg's work was written this
had been interpreted as a fertility cult ritual. Here it is more
cautiously held that the Song reflected the language of such a
ritual without itself being more than a collection of love
lyrics.
That we have had to wait so long for this translation of
Hvidberg's book is to be regretted. But it is well that it has
been translated now, and thanks are due to Professor Lakke-
gaard for the care with which it has been done. The Penetration
and balance of the work make us realize how much we
might have Iearned from the author if he had not been deflected
from his academic work and if he had been spared to us for
more years.
Stroud/Glos. H. H. Rowley
Li gier, Louis: Peche d'Adam et Peche du monde. Bible, Kippur,
Eucharistie. I: L'Ancien Testament. Paris: Aubier 1960. 321 S. 8°
= Theologie, Etudes publiees sous la direction de la Faculte de
Theologie S. J. de Lyon-Fourviere, 43. N. F. 19.80.
Dieses Werk ist der erste Teil einer Dissertation an der
gregorianischen Universität in Rom. Inzwischen ist auch der
zweite Teil über das Neue Testament erschienen (1961, 487 S.).
Das Vorwort gibt sofort zu erkennen, daß für diese Analyse
des Sündenbegriffes in der Schrift drei verschiedene Methoden
angewendet wurden: die exegetische, die thematische und
die liturgische Untersuchung. Dies gibt der Darlegung einen
unbestreitbaren Reichtum, aber auch eine gewisse Unordnung.
Die Studie fängt an mit der Verurteilung der Sünde Israels
durch die Propheten. Der Verfasser prüft den prophetischen
Wortschatz und bestimmt daraus das Wesen der Sünde: sie ist
Hochmut, Götzendienst, in einem Wort: Ungläubigkeit (S. 64).
Diese Ungläubigkeit zieht eine Solidarität in der Sünde nach
sich, welche das Volk und seine geistlichen Obrigkeiten zusammenbindet
und seinen Gipfelpunkt in der Stunde des Exils
erreicht. Im Bereich des Rituals bestätigt die Liturgie des Yom
Kippur diese prophetische Fassung der Sünde.
Dieses allgemeine Thema wird nun auf Grund des Erlebnisses
Israels von seiner eigenen Sünde weiterverarbeitet: da
Gott seinen Bund gegeben hat, nimmt die Sünde die Form des
Ehebruches, der Unzucht oder der Unehelichkeit an (Hos.,
Ez. 16, Jes. 57). Eine schöne Studie des 51. Psalms zeigt, daß
die Sünde sowohl persönlich als auch gemeinschaftlich ist. Diese
beiden Linien finden sich auch in der synagogalen Liturgie der
Tishrifeste.
Von da her kommt der Verfasser zu Gen. 2—3, von denen
er eine ausgedehnte Erklärung gibt (S. 152—231). Es ist dies
der originellste, aber auch der bestreitbarste Teil des Werkes
(S. 233 ff.): die Sünde Adams ist der parabolische Ausdruck der
Sünde des israelitischen Königtums. „C'est l'alliance d'Israel
avec son roi, interieure ä l'alliance avec Dieu, qui donne ä
Gen. 2—3 le sens de parabole royale" (S. 237). Es bestünde also
ein Parallelismus zwischen der Errichtung des Königtums durch
Israel und der Schuld der verführten Eva. Gleicherweise wäre
das Protcvangelium Gen. 3. 15 mit dem Nathansorakel 2. Sam. 7
verwandt. Und so wäre auch die mcssianische Verheißung die
Bekräftigung der Verheißung des Sieges über den Bösen.