Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal

By Hermann Gunkel

"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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Nov 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781498201872

Hermann Gunkel

 Hermann Gunkel (1862–1932) taught at several German universities and is widely recognized as a father of the form-critical and history-of-religions methods in biblical criticism. His influential works include commentaries on Genesis, Psalms, and 1 Peter.

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Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal

Hermann Gunkel

Edited and Translated by
K. C. Hanson

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Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal

Copyright © 2014 Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

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ISBN 13: 978–1-4982–0186-5

EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0187-2

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Gunkel, Hermann, 1862–1932.

Elijah, Yahweh, and Baal / Hermann Gunkel ; edited and translated by K. C. Hanson.

viii + 98 p. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 13: 978–1-4982–0186-5

Translation of: Elias, Jahve und Baal (1906)

1. Elijah (Biblical prophet). 2. Bible. Kings—Criicism, interpretation, etc. I. Hanson, K. C. (Kenneth Charles). II. Title.

BS580 E4 G87 2014

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Abbreviations

ABD The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. Edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992

COS The Context of Scripture. 3 vols. Edited by William W. Hallo. Leiden: Brill, 1997, 2000, 2002

DDD2 Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Edited by Karel van der Toorn et al. 2nd ed. Leiden: Brill, 1999

ET English translation

FCBS Fortress Classics in Biblical Studies

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplements

LAI Library of Ancient Israel

LXX Septuagint

OTL Old Testament Library

SBL Society of Biblical Literature

SBLSemSt Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies

VT Vetus Testamentum

Foreword

One would think that given all the advances in biblical research that the contributions of a scholar who has been dead for more than eighty years would be of little interest. But there are a few figures of such towering influence that their work is of enduring interest. Hermann Gunkel is one of these few giants on whose shoulders we still stand. I will not recount his career here, since I have provided this briefly in my forewords to two of Gunkel’s works I previously edited: Water for a Thirsty Land (2001) and Israel and Babylon (2001; see Gunkel’s works at the end of this volume).

✽

The Elijah narratives are endlessly engaging given their high drama, political conflict, theological nuance, and deep emotion. They probe the depth of monarchic power, prophetic activity, cultic allegiances, and dead children.

What Gunkel provides here is a multi-disciplinary approach, employing literary, religio-historical, and historical analysis of the Elijah narratives. He demonstrates his exegetical mastery at every turn. Written in 1906, Gunkel plays on the advances he had made in his Genesis commentary (1st ed., 1901); but it precedes his analysis of Hebrew folktales a decade and a half later (1921).

Several years ago, I began but then halted work on a translation of this volume. But earlier this year, our publisher, Jon Stock, brought me a copy of a typescript of an anonymous translation—evidently finished in sometime before 1930—that he had purchased from a library. On the one hand, I was excited by having this translation; but on the other, I quickly realized that it was a rough draft that did not include Gunkel’s notes, was missing some sections, and needed serious corrections and editing. So while I am indebted to the anonymous translator who saved me much time, I still had countless hours of translation and editorial work left to do. I hope that the reader finds this translation useful. I have added a few notes, marked as editorial by [Ed.]; and I have also provided bibliographies at the end, including the editions Gunkel used as well as updated editions and English translations. I have emplyed the NRSV for the biblical quotations, but I have modified them, especially replacing LORD with Yahweh.

—K. C. Hanson

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