Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal

Hermann Gunkel, Hanson, K. C. Hanson

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781498201865
  9781498222693
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498201872
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

"Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal is a masterpiece presented with authority by a twentieth-century accomplished and unsurpassed exegete. It is now translated by a disciple, whose elegant rendition sounds as if Hermann Gunkel had originally written himself the book in English." --Andre LaCocque, The Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL "Written a century ago for a church audience eager to learn how the best scholarship of the day could illuminate one of the Bible's most absorbing stories, this little book shows Gunkel at the height of his powers of critical perspicuity, explanatory finesse, and reverent sensitivity, the ideal Bible study leader, at once learned, captivating, and devout. . . . Moreover, Gunkel encompasses his subject as few today could or would in such short scope, combining philological acumen, aesthetic appreciation, comparative perspective, and attention to communal folk tradition--his pioneer distinction--and constants of human religiosity. The translation includes astute notes by the editor and a helpful list of more recent resources." --Robert B. Coote, San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Francisco, CA "Hermann Gunkel, who died in 1932, is one of the greatest teachers and 'God-Fathers' of Old Testament study. He has taught us the most about the artistic, imaginative dimensions of the text. His interpretation of the Elijah narrative in this volume is a treasure that merits continuing attention. We may be grateful indeed to K. C. Hanson for bringing it to us in English, and to Wipf and Stock for its publication. Gunkel continues to be our teacher and 'God-Father' in wise shrewd reading of the text." --Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA

1

Introduction

Among the accusations made by churchfolk against contemporary Old Testament research none is so frequently heard or so serious as the charge that Old Testament criticism is destroying belief in divine revelation. What is meant by this is that modern Old Testament scholars interpret so much of the narrative of the Old Testament as legend1 or myth; deny the historicity of so many individuals mentioned in its pages, or reveal them in a new secular light; show that so many of the sacred writings of the Old Testament were written not by the highly respected authors to whom they have hitherto been ascribed, but by unknown writers; break up so many of the books into a confusing number of individual “written sources” and a still greater abundance of emendations and glosses; that they have reduced the sacred history of the Old Testament, known to and trusted by us from childhood, to a disordered chaos, for which no one can have any warmth of feeling, and in which it is impossible to discern the hand of the powerful God. And, therefore, one believes he or she is correct in maintaining that the real, though hidden, basis for the critical position is the unbelief of the scholar.

What response does Old Testament criticism have for this charge?

It may at once be conceded that modern Old Testament research is far removed from what has hitherto been the dominant tradition of the Church, and that criticism has made extensive use of a right that is, in principle, legitimately employed in theological study. It is, accordingly, not strange that the question that is most insistent is how much will still remain standing, if our research is continued much longer, when so much has already fallen?2 It may also be admitted that the Old Testament critic has sometimes gone a bit too far, and that possibly in the future many biblical traditions, which at present are discarded or are regarded as from a late date, will return to their honored place. Finally, it cannot be denied that here and there a destructive and profane spirit has been allowed to intrude itself into our work.

When we have gone thus far in acknowledging the justice of the charges brought against us, we must on the other hand clearly insist that when it is claimed that our work is one-sidedly negative, those who make the claim show themselves to be ill-informed with the facts of the case. As a matter of fact, Old Testament research has from the beginning been dismantling only to rebuild. The Old Testament critic can point with pride to the fact that the work of the last generation has produced a large number of generally accepted results, so that in the last decade an image of the historical religion of Israel has emerged before our eyes from the shadows of a thousand years, a picture colorful, living, moving, inspiring; and that the much reviled criticism, which is simply a necessary preliminary of all scientific investigation, has been instrumental in making the people and history of antiquity once more living to our generation.3 It is characteristic of our age that it sees God working in human history rathan than in nature. But here in the Old Testament we have shown anew a story of blazing heroes of God, a story replete with powerful judgments and wonderful acts of providence, a story in which the power of God must be enthusiastically and reverentially recognized by everyone whose senses are not dulled and whose mind is not closed.

Wells of living water spring up for those who can discern the power of God in history. We cannot surrender the hope—which indeed we see already partially fulfilled—that the results of our investigation will one day be more accurately evaluated by its opponents, and that they will recognize in it not an enemy, but an ally of the Church.

As an example of modern critical biblical stuies, we will attempt in the following pages to sketch the image of the prophet Elijah as it is portrayed in the sources, with the purpose of showing by this example how modern research, while it is unable, out of respect for truth, to accept the present tradition in the Old Testament without alteration, feels bound to test and to examine it, yet does not regard its work as completed until the figures of antiquity are brought back to life before our eyes.

Accordingly, our work will of necessity fall into three chapters: We must first ask what the tradition recounts of Elijah; secondly, how these tales are to be judged; thirdly, we must seek to draw the resultant image of the prophet.

We would be unjust to the Elijah narratives were we to treat them one-sidedly, interested only as historians in sifting the tradition. For these stories give expression to such great ideas and are before us in such exquisite form, that they are of great religious and artistic value, quite apart from the question as to how much historical material they may contain. So any critical historical treatment they may receive must be supplemented by further investigation that will adequately reveal their magnificence as religious works of art. It will, therefore, be well at this point to say a few words regarding that aesthetic investigation, which although it is already an old part of our disicpline, has nevertheless been too much eclipsed by other branches of criticism. For if justice is to be done to the artistry of the stories, it is not enough occasionally to break forth into expressions of delight, and to praise the delicacy and beauty of a passage. The proper treatment of this factor in the narratives presents real problems, problems that can be stated in two main questions: What is the aesthetic impression made by the narratives? And by what means has it been made? Such treatment will, indeed, itself take on a literary-historical character; that is, if we are to recognize the peculiar art of any passage, we must try to place it in its proper context in a history of the literature to which it belongs. There need be no fear that in our concern with such problems that we shall be departing too far from religious research. The form and the content of a work of art cannot be so separated that the latter can be treated while the former is ignored. Rather, those who concern themselves with the form will not be able to achieve their end without considering the content. And in the Elijah narratives the content is nothing else than the religion to which they give such splendid expression. So we may expect that a thoroughgoing literary treatment of the Old Testament, which it is to be hoped will arise in the future, will result in a more intimate knowledge of Old Testament religion.

Some of the aesthetical-literary-historical questions that will be considered in the following pages may here be briefly indicated.4 The most important task in any literary investigation is to recognize the genre5 to which the material to be considered belongs. In modern works such questions are not expressly considered, because their answer is self-evident: everyone knows that the story of “Sleeping Beauty” is a fairytale, that Goethe’s Wahlverwandtschaften is a novel,6 that Mommsen’s Römische Geschichte is an historical composition.7 But it is different in antiquity. Here there are many genres that are unknown to our modern age or that are foreign to our culture. The two genres that are germane to the Elijah stories are legend and history. We must, therefore, ask whether the narratives are legend or history. This question is, however, closely connected with a literary investigation somewhat different from and more far reaching than that which confronts the critical historian. For when the critical historian raises this question, he does so in order to throw out the legendary material as untrustworthy. The literary historian, however, raises it in order to establish the literary characteristics of the narrative. This serves to deepen the critical treatment, and to found it more securely.

Legend and history have this in common, they are both in narrative form and both deal with historical persons and events. They differ in this, that whereas history is scholarly and written in prose, the legend is popular and in poetry. History aims to narrate what has actually happened; the legend endeavors to charm, to inspire, to move. History, at least in ancient times, treats public events, of kings, and especially of war; the legend is concerned with things that interest the people, with private persons, or with the private lives of historical figures. Each form of narrative has, therefore, a group of characteristics, which will indicate in every case whether a narrative belongs to the learned-historical or to the poetical-popular group. Of these characteristics we will speak in what follows.

Ancient Israel was also familiar with a kind of historical writing, of which the finest example is to be found in the account of Absalom’s rebellion in 2 Samuel.8 True, this “history,” being ancient, contains, from the modern point of view, a good deal of poetical material, and exhibits other indications that it is really an admixture of history and legend.

Legend and history are further differentiated in that while the latter exists in written form only, the former was originally communicated or...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: An Aesthetic and Literary-historical Consideration of the Elijah Narratives
• Chapter 3: An Analysis of the Elijah Narratives as Sources of Historical Writing
• Chapter 4: The Historical Figure of Elijah in Relationship to the History of Israelite Religion
• Bibliography
• Additional Resources
• Gunkel’s Works in English