Hermann Gunkel

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Hermann Gunkel
Halle, Weimar Republic
EducationUniversity of Göttingen
OccupationBiblical historical criticism
Known forFounding form criticism, Sitz im Leben

Hermann Gunkel (23 May 1862 – 11 March 1932), a German Old Testament scholar, founded form criticism.[1] He also became a leading representative of the history of religions school.[2] His major works cover Genesis and the Psalms, and his major interests centered on the oral tradition behind written sources and in folklore.

Biography

Gunkel was born in

Halle.[4]

Gunkel started his career in

Halle (1889–1894) and told to concentrate on the Hebrew Bible by the Prussian academic appointments authority. He went on to teach in Berlin (1894-1907), where he made many inter-disciplinary contacts. His 1895 book Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton compared the symbolism in Genesis and Revelation 12. In 1901, he produced the first of three editions of commentary on Genesis, Genesis Translated and Explained.[4]

In 1907, Gunkel finally obtained a full professorship at the

University of Halle-Wittenberg in 1920. He published another standard work, his commentary on the book of Psalms, The Psalms: Translated and Explained in 1926. Introduction to the Psalms was his last major project, brought to completion by his student Joachim Begrich in 1933.[4]

Gunkel founded the series Research into the Religion and Literature of the Old and New Testaments (1903–) with Wilhelm Bousset.[2] He also co-edited with Leopold Zscharnack the second edition of the German religious encyclopedia Religion in History and the Present (1927–1931), in which he authored over one hundred articles.[5]

Work

"The influence of the methods pioneered by Gunkel upon subsequent Old Testament study can scarcely be overestimated."

Ernest Nicholson, "Foreword: Hermann Gunkel as a Pioneer of Modern Old Testament Study", in Hermann Gunkel, Genesis (trans. Mark E. Biddle; Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997), 9.

Gunkel became a leading representative of the "history of religions school" (Religionsgeschichtliche Schule), which addressed the history of traditions behind the biblical text. In addition to Gunkel, the original group also included Albert Eichhorn, William Wrede, Heinrich Hackmann, Alfred Rahlfs, Johannes Weiss, Wilhelm Bousset, Ernst Troeltsch, and Wilhelm Heitmüller.[6] Gunkel and the school thought that the oral traditions that form the origins of the Hebrew Bible were directly tied to other Near Eastern religions.[7] Gunkel arguably produced his most important work in his commentary on

Pentateuch, on the basis of style, vocabulary, theology, and other criteria to identify the basic literary sources used to create the text. Form criticism allowed scholars to go behind these larger literary sources by identifying the smaller and older sources used by their authors.[10] Because of its utility, form criticism became immensely influential in Germany and Europe during the 20th century, with important scholars like Gerhard von Rad and Martin Noth applying and developing it.[citation needed
]

Major works

References

  1. ISBN 9780203969755
    .
  2. ^ a b c "Hermann Gunkel (German biblical scholar)". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
  3. ISBN 9780310589679
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780830829279
    .
  5. ^ Muilenburg, James (1967). "Introduction". The Psalms: A Form-Critical Introduction (PDF). Philadelphia: Fortress Press. p. vii.
  6. ^
    doi:10.3138/tjt.24.2.171
    .
  7. ^ Lundström, Steven (2013). "Chaos and Creation: Hermann Gunkel between Establishing the "History of Religions School," Acknowledging Assyriology, and Defending the Faith". In Scurlock, JoAnn; Beal, Richard H. (eds.). Creation and Chaos: A Reconsideration of Hermann Gunkel's Chaoskampf Hypothesis. Eisenbrauns. pp. 147–171.
  8. ^ Mihelic, Joseph (1951). "The Influence of Form Criticism on the Study of the Old Testament". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. XIX (3): 120–129.
    doi:10.1093/jaarel/XIX.3.120
    .
  9. ^
    JSTOR 3262829
    .
  10. ^ "Form Criticism". Oxford Biblical Studies Online.

Further reading

External links

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