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Creation and Destruction: A Reappraisal of the Chaoskampf Theory in the Old Testament
Auflage
1
Ort / Verlag
University Park, PA: Penn State University Press
Erscheinungsjahr
2005
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Alma/SFX Local Collection
Beschreibungen/Notizen
In 1989, David Tsumura published a monograph entitled The
Earth and the Waters in Genesis 1 and 2: A Linguistic
Evaluation , in which he demonstrated that the oft-recited
claim that the early chapters of Genesis betrayed a background or
adaptation by Israel of mythological terms and/or motifs from other
ancient Near Eastern literature could not be supported by a close
examination of the linguistic data. Despite the book's positive
reception, the notion that the Chaoskampf motif lies
behind the early chapters of Genesis continues to be rehearsed in
the literature as if the data were incontrovertible.
In this revised and expanded edition of the 1989 book, Tsumura
carries the discussion forward. In part 1, the general thesis of
the original work is restated in a significantly revised and
expanded form; in the second part of this monograph, he expands the
scope of his research to include a number of poetic texts outside
the Primeval History, texts for which scholars often have posited
an ancient Near Eastern mythological substratum. Among the
questions asked are the following: What are the functions of
"waters" and "flood" in biblical poetry? Do the so-called chaos
dragons in the Old Testament, such as Leviathan, Rahab, and Yam,
have anything to do with the creation motif in the biblical
tradition? What is the relationship between these poetic texts and
the Ugaritic myths of the Baal-Yam conflict? Are Psalms 18 and 29
"adaptations" of Canaanite hymns, as suggested by some
scholars?
Among the conclusions that Tsumura reaches are these:
(1) The phrase tohû wabohû has nothing to do with the
idea of a chaotic state of the earth.
(2) The term tehôm in Gen 1:2 is a Hebrew form derived
from the Proto-Semitic *tiham-, "ocean," and it usually refers to
the underground water that was overflowing and covering the entire
surface of the earth in the initial state of creation.
(3) The earth-water relationship in Gen 2:5-6 is different from
that in Gen 1:2. In Gen 1:2, the earth was totally under the water;
in Gen 2:5-6, only a part of the earth, the land, was watered by
the 'ed -water, which was overflowing from an underground
source.
(4) The biblical poetic texts that are claimed to have been
influenced by the Chaoskampf -motif of the ancient Near
East in fact use the language of storms and floods metaphorically
and have nothing to do with primordial combat.