Buch des Monats Mai 2024

Marzena Zawanowska & Mateusz Wilk (eds.):
The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King

Reihe: Themes in Biblical Narrative, Band: 29
Leiden: Brill 2021, 657 pp., 26 color illustr., index
E-Book (PDF) – ISBN: 978-90-04-46597-8 
Festeinband – ISBN: 978-90-04-46596-1
Verlagsinformation >>>

The Authors / die Autoren:
Marzena Zawanowska (*1976), Prof., Institute of History, University of Warsaw and in the Jewish Historical Institute. Marzena does research in Abrahamic Religions.

Mateusz Wilk, University Warszaw, Institute for Medieval History

Ergänzende Informationen / additiona informations:
>>> Begegnungen mit der Hebräischen Bibel, dem Alten Testament
>>> Thomas Römer: Wie JHWH zum einzigen Gott wurde
>>> Die Höhenheiligtümer des Salomo oder die Vorzüge des religiösen Pluralismus

Description

King David if one of the most central figures in all of the major monotheistic traditions. He generally connotes the heroic past of the (more imagined than real) ancient Israelite empire and is associated with messianic hopes for the future. Nevertheless, his richly ambivalent and fascinating literary portrayal in the Hebrew Bible is one of the most complex of all biblical characters.
This volume aims at taking a new, critical look at the process of biblical creation and subsequent exegetical transformation of the character of David and his attributed literary composition (the Psalms), with particular emphasis put on the multilateral fertilization and cross-cultural interchanges among Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Review:

„The 21 specialist papers in this collection span the intersecting fields of Hebrew Bible, Jewish Studies, Muslim Studies and Christian Reception History. […] This is a fascinating collection of diverse papers with a level of scholarship that is consistently high across the whole collection.“

(Daniel J. Crowther, in the Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2023,
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 47.5) 

Deutsche Beschreibung

König David gehört zu den zentralen Persönlichkeiten in allen großen monotheistischen Traditionen.
Er steht im Allgemeinen für die heroische Vergangenheit des (eher imaginären als realen)
alten israelitischen Reiches und wird mit messianischen Hoffnungen für die Zukunft in Verbindung gebracht.
Dennoch zeigt sich bei David eine ausgesprochen ambivalente und faszinierende literarische Darstellung in der Hebräischen Bibel als eine der komplexesten aller biblischen Persönlichkeiten.

Dieser Band zielt darauf ab, einen neuen, kritischen Blick auf den biblischen Entstehungsprozess
und die anschließende exegetische Transformation der Person Davids und der ihm
zugeschriebenen literarischen Komposition (die Psalmen) zu werfen,
wobei der Schwerpunkt auf die multilaterale Befruchtung und den
kulturübergreifenden Austausch zwischen Juden, Christen und Muslimen gelegt wird.

Rezension:

„Die 21 Fachbeiträge in dieser Sammlung umfassen die sich überschneidenden Bereiche
der Hebräischen Bibel, der Judaistik, der Islamwissenschaft und der christlichen Rezeptionsgeschichte. […]
Es handelt sich um eine faszinierende Sammlung unterschiedlicher Beiträge
mit einem durchgängig hohen wissenschaftlichen Niveau in der gesamten Sammlung.“

(Daniel J. Crowther, in: Society for Old Testament Study Book List 2023
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 47.5)

Table of contents

Contents —I llustrations — Abbreviations — Transliteration
Notes on Contributors
The Variety of Davids in Monotheistic Traditions – An Introduction
Chapter 1 David in History and in the Hebrew Bible

Part 1 The Images of David in Medieval Jewish, Muslim and Christian Sources
Chapter 2 David the Pious Musician in Midrashic Literature and Medieval Muslim Sources
Chapter 3 The Weeping King of Muslim Pietistic Tradition David in the Kitāb al-waraʿ
        of ʿAbd al-Malik b. Ḥabīb (d. 238/853) and in Earlier Islamic Sources
Chapter 4 David and the Temple of Solomon in Medieval Karaite Sources
        The Arabic Commentaries of Yefet ben ʿEli on the Books of Kings and Chronicles
Chapter 5 David as Warrior, Leader, and Poet in Medieval Hebrew Poetry of al-Andalus
        Shmuel ha-Nagid’s Self-Portrait as “The David of His Age”
Chapter 6 David in Medieval Jewish Thought Judah Halevi’s Book of the Kuzari
        as a Reconciliation Project
Chapter 7 Saint Louis as a New David and Paris as a New Jerusalem
        in Medieval French Hagiographic Literature
Chapter 8 David and Jonathan as a Paradigm of Male Friendship in Medieval Latin Literature

Part 2 The Psalter of David in Monotheistic Traditions
Chapter 9 David the Prophet in Saʿadya Gaon’s Commentary on Psalms
        and Its Syriac and Karaite Contexts
Chapter 10 Psalms to Reason, Psalms to Heal The Scriptures
        in Early Rūm Orthodox Treatises
Chapter 11 Images of David in Several Muslim Rewritings of the Psalms
Chapter 12 David’s Psalter in Christian Arabic Dress
        Abd Allāh ibn al-Faḍl’s Translation and Commentary
Chapter 13 King David and the Psalter in Ethiopian Cultural Setting
Chapter 14 David’s Psalms in Eastern European Karaite Literature

Part 3 David and His Women:
The Cross-Religious Reception Exegesis of the Bathsheba Narrative
Chapter 15 The Four Wives of David and the Four Women of Odysseus
        A Comparative Approach
Chapter 16 Josephus’ Retelling of the David and Bathsheba Narrative
Chapter 17 Our Mother, Our Queen Bathsheba
        through Early Jewish, Christian and Muslim Eyes
Chapter 18 God’s Master Plan. The Story of David and Bathsheba in
        Some Early Syriac Commentaries
Chapter 19 Ibn Kaṯīr’s (d. 774/1373) Treatment of the David and Uriah Narrative
        The Issue of Isrāʾīliyyāt and the Syrian School of Exegesis

Part 4 Reinventing David in Early Modern and Modern Religious Thought and Literature
Chapter 20 “David Was Secretly a Woman” King David as a Messianic Topos
        in the Teaching of Jacob Frank
Chapter 21 Davidic Narratives in the Contemporary Roman Catholic Liturgical Readings
Chapter 22 The Reception of David and Michal in Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Literature

Index of Sources —Index of Sacred Scriptures —
Index of Ancient and Medieval Literatures — Index of Authors
General Index