Back to Reason; Minimalism in Biblical Studies; Lemche

Niels Peter Lemche [+–]

University of Copenhagen

Niels Peter Lemche, has been publishing in the field of Old Testament studies for fifty years. He has been both Assistant Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, from 1978 to 1986 and Professor of Theology at the University of Copenhagen from 1987 to 2013. He is the founder of the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, and a member of the board of the Copenhagen International Seminar (Routledge). He has recently edited (in co-operation with Dr. Jim West) Jeremiah in History and Tradition (Routledge, 2019).

Twenty years ago some biblical scholars at the University of Copenhagen were denounced as being nihilists and a threat to western civilization. What was their crime? They had exposed the fallacies of traditional historical-critical biblical scholarship, which was neither historical nor critical. Although the historical-critical interpretation of the Bible had developed over a period of more than a hundred years, it had ended up, with the help of a rationalistic paraphrase of the stories of the Old Testament, creating a society out of this world called biblical Israel. Israel was like no other society in the ancient world, and scarcely a real historic society at all. It was structured like a house of cards. Therefore, when some scholars began to question the historical content of the construction of ancient Israel, as it was usually called, the edifice broke down, first in bits and then totally.

This study addresses the development of ‘Minimalism’ from its roots in the historical-critical paradigm and outlines an alternative theory which exposes and explains the intention behind the fallacy of using a story found in the Old Testament to simply invent the biblical concept of Israel.

Series: Discourses in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies

Preface

Preface [+–] vii-viii

Background, origins and writing this book.

Introduction

Introduction [+–] 1-7

Why another contribution to the Minimalist – maximalist debate? Didn’t it end fifteen years ago? As a matter of fact, it is still going on, although, perhaps, less intensive like a cold war after a hot one.

Chapter 1

The Minimalist–Maximalist Controversy [+–] 8-61

A presentation of the debate when it was most intense: Not very educating but showing Old Testament scholarship when it is worst – and most uninformed. A major problem is the assertion that minimalism came out of the blue and was totally dominated by (false) ideology. It did not but was the consequence of a process in Old Testament studies that had lasted for thirty years or more before its appearance.

Chapter 2

The Road to Minimalism [+–] 62-123

Minimalism grew out of a debate about the history of ancient Israel which began for earnest in the 1960s. The traditional interpretation of this history was torn apart from one end to the other, ending in an impasse where nothing was as it used to be while at the same time scholars was seriously questioning the very idea of ancient Israel as described in the Old Testament.

Chapter 3

Back to Reason [+–] 124-145

Several progresses in Old Testament scholarship are underway. Two factors will be decisive: First of all the discussion will have to concentrate on the date of the historical literature found in the Old Testament. Second, the very character of biblical historiography has still to be duly established. However, bringing reason back to a field dominated by wild speculation and biblical paraphrase may help to further this discussion.

End Matter

Bibliography 146-176

Index of Scripture References 177

Index of Modern Authors 178-182

Index of Subjects 183-188

Reviews

Lemche’s newest book offers a lucid, informative, and accessible overview on some of the problematics involved from the mid-twentieth century until the early 2000s, when Bible scholars of various religious and geopolitical backgrounds and exegetical commitments debated each other over biblical historiography. Lemche’s so-called minimalist stance offers important contextual considerations to understand the dynamics at work in the many contested debates. He is never shy to articulate the reasons for his well-known, and even renowned, stance.
Every graduate student and most scholars of Hebrew Bible studies should read this book to understand the “obsession” (133, 141) of our recent exegetical forefathers for historiographical issues related to the Hebrew Bible.
Review of Biblical Literature

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Back to Reason

Minimalism in Biblical Studies

Niels Peter Lemche [+–]

University of Copenhagen

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