Inner-biblical exegesis in the narrative texts of the Pentateuch

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Walter Bührer
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250170724

The literary genesis of many texts within the Hebrew Bible can be explained as inner-biblical exegesis: Later texts expand on older texts and regularly adapt them to the present situation of the respective authors. If one considers such successive formation and theological expansion of the biblical texts the younger, so-called secondary texts, also receive their own theological and theological-historical appreciation.The discovery of the phenomenon of inner-biblical interpretation began in previous research with (very) late parts of the Hebrew Bible or even early Jewish texts, which already presuppose a sort of canonical form of the Old Testament texts. On the other hand a focus was placed on the prophetic and legal texts. The narrative texts, however, have so far hardly been analyzed especially in regard to phenomena of interpretation. In particular, the project will examine whether the intention of updating and adapting a given text to the respective present, observed in the prophetic and legal texts, can also be detected within the narrative texts, or whether the phenomena of interpretation within the narrative texts serve other theological issues.The aim of the project is therefore to uncover processes of interpretation and exegesis in the narrative texts of the Pentateuch, to analyse and classify their literary techniques and theological intentions on the basis of representative examples and to compare the results with the corresponding results from the study of the prophetic and legal texts. Additionally, the project aims at interrelating the concepts of inner-biblical exegesis, redaction (-history) and intertextuality.Furthermore one may ask - with hermeneutic, systematic theological or homiletic interests - how modern readers and interpreters are in continuity with inner-biblical exegesis.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants