Monday, October 26, 2015

Stichworten (Haraz)--Rabbinic Interpretation

George Guthrie (The Structure of Hebrews, page 61) discusses the literary device Stichworten (haraz). The device refers to a practice whereby ancient rabbis or Qumran sectaries would "chain" a number of biblical texts together (in particular, from the Pentateuch, the Prophets and the Writings) via multiple quotations from scripture. Guthrie says that Paul does not follow this exact pattern of haraz in Romans and neither does Heb. 1:5-14 although a different approach to Stichworten (haraz) is evidently utilized in both places.

9 comments:

Duncan said...

http://www.georgehguthrie.com/ot-in-hebrews---ets.pdf

It's interesting to see a disconnect from Philo.

Duncan said...

http://www.georgehguthrie.com/structure_revisited_article.pdf

Edgar Foster said...

I read Guthrie's book, and noted all of the emphasis on the structure of Hebrews, but I never understood why all this attention to strcuture is so important. Granted, it's important to know the flow of discourse or the literary structure of a work. I just think too much time and attention has been devoted to such matters.

Duncan said...

I suppose it is a response to past controversy's relating to supposed connections of the DSS community and Christians based on similarities of style with:-

https://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/dead_sea_scrolls/4QTestimonia.shtml

But it really only demonstrates a style of rhetoric of the period as does 1 Peter 2:6-9.

Duncan said...

http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685179-12341261

Duncan said...

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27913698?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

dokimazo said...

Edgar;

A friend of mine was speaking to me about Alfonso de Zamora. What do you know about him. And what Hebrew manuscripts did he use to translate the Hebrew into latin.

Thanks,

Edgar Foster said...

Dokimazo,

while the subject does not immediately touch on the subject of this thread, I believe Zamora is interesting. The Watchtower ran an article about him in 2011. Please see http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2011889

Duncan said...

https://www.academia.edu/7559394/Unexpected_teaching_from_an_unexpected_location_A_Leiden_manuscript_as_witness_for_Hebrew_teaching_in_sixteenth-century_Spanish_universities