Content

SHORT DESCRIPTION

The study of the textual history of the Old Testament text from the perspective of:
1) its material shape and transmission (textual criticism);
2) its literary growth and development concerning content (redaction criticism), which are inextricably bound with the textual history;
3) its reception and usage within historical and current contexts (theological interpretation).

EXPLANATION
Ever since 1947, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has initiated a radical revolution with respect to the understanding of the compositional history of the Old Testament text. Indeed, a treasure of ancient textual witnesses has been found in the caves of Qumran, Masada, Nahal Hever and Wadi Murabba'at. On the basis of this textual evidence, it has become clear that during the Second Temple Period (ca. 540 BC - 70 AD) a multiplicity of quantitatively and qualitatively differing texts has circulated. Moreover, it has become obvious that within this particular context the precursor of the dominating Hebrew Masoretic text has only been one among these many texts, that had acquired the status of  'standard text' only centuries after. In addition, it has been demonstrated that due to the contributions of scribes and redactors the material textual transmission has gone hand in hand with a continous re-interpretation of the text, both in terms of content and 'theology'. Consequently, both textual and redaction criticism, being studied apart from each other before, must be intrinsically combined in the current state of research precisely because the respective processes of textual production and literary shaping have developed more or less simultaneously. The Old Testament text was created during an extremely dynamic process of development under the impetus of a variety of circumstances in its historical and religious context. Any standardisation and/or canonisation has originated at a much later date and is equally the result of a gradual process of growth and formation.
Against this background, it should be clear that no single compositional unit from the Old Testament can be studied seriously without any prior study of the material text that has been transmitted in the extant material. Consequently, the results of redactional study – i.e. the diachronic literary research into the stratification and the growth of the Old Testament texts – should always be interpreted in close interaction with the findings concerning the material text and its extant textual evidence. 
The present subject will study the Old Testament text on the basis of a selection of paradigmatic texutal units. Its approach demonstrates a double perspective, i.e. the material textual transmission and the literary redactional development that has shaped specific theologically oriented ideas. Against this background, special attention will be given to the dynamic attitude towards the biblical texts in their original, historical context as well as the implications thereof for the theological updating of Old Testament texts today.

Course material

A reader composed of relevant internationally reviewed contributions concerning the current development of textual criticism, on the one hand, and redactional criticism, on the other. In addition, this reader contains contributions that study the intertwining relation between both approaches as well as their impact on the literary interpretation and theological understanding of the text in its original and contemporary context.

Background literature (selection):

• E. TOV, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Third Edition, Revised & Expanded, Minneapolis, 2012.
• E. TOV,The Text-Critical Use of the Septuagint in Biblical Research. Completely Revised and Expanded Edition, Warsaw, IN, Eisenbrauns, 2015.
• B. LEMMELIJN, A Plague of Texts? A Text-Critical Study of the So-Called ‘Plagues Narrative’ in Exodus 7,14–11,10  (Oudtestamentische Studiën/Old Testament Studies, 56),  Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2009.
• J.L. SKA, Introduction à la lecture du Pentateuque. Clés pour l'interprétaiton des cinq premiers livres de la Bible (Le livre et le rouleau, 5), Brussel:Lessius, 2000, or Id., Introduction to Reading the Pentateuch, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006.
• E. TALSTRA, Oude en  nieuwe lezers. Een inleiding in de methoden van uitleg van het Oude Testament (Ontwerpen, 2), Kampen: Kok, 2002.
• C. NIHAN, L'analyse rédactionelle, in M. Bauks & C. Nihan (eds.), Manuel d'exégèse de l'Ancien Testament (Labor et fides. Le Monde de la Bible, 61), Genève: Labor et fides, 2008, pp. 137-188.
• M. VERVENNE, Exodus 14,20 MT-LXX: Textual or Literary Variation?, in J.-M. AUWERS & A. WENIN (ed.), Lectures et relectures de la Bible (BETL, 144), Leuven : University Press & Peeters, 1999, pp. 3-25.
• M. VERVENNE, Genesis 1,1-2,4: The Compositional Texture of the Priestly Overture to the Pentateuch, in A. WENIN (ed.), Studies in the Book of Genesis: Literature, Redaction and History (BETL, 155), Leuven: University Press & Peeters, 2001, pp. 35-79.

Format: more information

General:

Since this course is realised in the form of a seminar, both the concrete choice of the Biblical corpus as well as the eventual specific focus on particular textual forms (e.g. Massoretic text, Septuagint, Samaritan Pentateuch, Dead Sea Scrolls) and their respective characteristics will be varying.

Learning activities:

Attend the seminar sessions, take notes, stimulate the reflection of fellow students by formulating critical remarks and/or questions; gain insight in the studied issues by reading and summarising the proposed or independently found scholarly literature and by the preparation of a personal assignment.
 
Structure, practical organisation and specific assignments:

In three or four introductory sessions, the professor will present the textual material of the Old Testament, explain the methodology of Old Testament Textual Criticism and introduce both the textual editions as well as the working instruments to the students.
 
Against this background, the participating students will be assigned an Old Testament pericope of limited scope, to which they respectively (1) collect the extant textual material,  (2) register and describe all text-critical variants in order to (3) reach a selection of  'text-relevant' variants that have to be evaluated text-critically.
On the basis of this personal research work, the students formulate each, and with respect to their respective pericope, three questions, concrete issues or problems that will be discussed in the group of students. They explain their work in an oral presentation, to which a hand-out is put at the disposal of the fellow students and the professor. Afterwards, and ultimately by the deadline communicated on Toledo, they submit a written version of their research, in the form of a paper (10 pages), to the professor.
In addition, it will be asked of all students and before every single session, that they explore the general text-critical situation of the Biblical book from which the respective pericopes are taken, by means of the reading of biblical commentaries. They summarise the results of their reading in a written report of one page. This synthesis should be sent to the professor by email in the evening preceding the respective sessions, and this ultimately before 22h.