Die Fruhgeschichte Israels in Bekenntnis und Verkundigung des Alten Testaments.

• Author: Hendel, Ronald S.

The so-called "historical credos" in Deut 26:5-9, Josh 24:2-13, and elsewhere have had an illustrious career in twentieth-century biblical scholarship. Since Gerhard von Rad in 1938 defined these texts as the earliest confessions of Israelite faith, much scholarly labor has been devoted to the relationship between these texts and the "later" developed traditions of the Hexateuch. Martin Noth based his influential reconstruction of Pentateuchal traditions (in Uberlieferungsgeschichte des Pentateuch, 1948) on von Rad's theory, and for many Noth's work has remained a standard source. In the 1960s criticism of this theory began in earnest; Leonhardt Rost and others showed clearly that Deut. 26:5-8 and Joshua 24 are late, Deuteronomistic texts, and have no bearing on the early history of Pentateuchal (or Hexateuchal) traditions. Other scholars (George Mendenhall, Klaus Baltzer, Herbert Huffmon, and others) compared these texts to the covenant formulae found in Hittite and Neo-Assyrian treaties and saw these texts as exemplars of the Israelite covenantal form. In recent years interest in these texts has waned, since they are now acknowledged to be late and derivative, rather than early and formative.

In this Habilitationsschrift submitted in 1987 to the Evangelical-Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna, Siegfried Kreuzer has ably summarized the history of twentieth-century scholarship on these so-called "credo" texts, and has reexamined the major biblical passages with a view to discerning their perspectives on early Israelite history. His study consists of a review of scholarship, a discussion of the key texts, and a comparison with some similar texts in the pre-exilic prophetic books and the post-exilic psalms.

In his extensive Forschungsgeschichte, K. stresses the early contributions of Anton Jirku and Kurt Galling, then covers the classical formulations of von Rad and Noth and the subsequent criticisms and alternatives to the "early credo" theory. In the last part of this section K. notes that the "credo" theory has had a revival of sorts in recent Catholic theology, in which these texts have been advanced by some as appropriate confessions of Catholic faith. K. aptly criticizes this proposal by transposing some of the earlier criticisms of von Rad's theory, noting that a religious credo without reference to the Law or Mount Sinai surely does not adequately represent biblical religion. As K. acidly notes, with particular reference...