The Decalogue and its Cultural Influence (Hebrew Bible Monographs)

by Dominik Markl

Publisher:

Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd

, 2017

Overview

“‘Reception history’ is one of the most inviting, yet also one of the most difficult, fields in the study of the Bible today. It is difficult because it involves so many layers of expertise. The reception-historian does not only need a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the biblical text itself, but also familiarity with the cultures and intellectual background of the many diverse ages in which it has been read and appropriated; and in addition needs to be versed in media other than writing, including the visual and performing arts.

But it is inviting because it carries its practitioners so far beyond the confines of ordinary textual study, with its concern for language and text, and out into an ocean of interdisciplinary engagement with writings that have, after all, stimulated the imaginations as well as the intellects of generations of religious (and non-religious) readers. The Decalogue is an obvious candidate for a reception-historical treatment. It has acquired over the centuries an enormous weight of commentary, and has been assimilated into the most varied cultures. Though a text, it has often also been an icon, appearing on walls in churches and now even in American courthouses. The subject was ripe for study, and the conference at which the papers in this book were delivered marked a significant milestone in biblical reception history’” (from John Barton’s Preface to the volume).

The 21 papers in this volume offer the richest and most wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of studies on the reception of the Decalogue in culture, and will prove to be a fundamental resource for students of the biblical text and of the reception of the Bible in general.

Key Features

• Serves as a fundamental resource for students of the biblical text
• Offers the richest interdisciplinary collection of studies on the reception of the Decalogue in culture
• Seeks to stimulate further practical work on both the history of interpretation and of reception history

Contents

• Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Decalogue’s Cultural Radiance - Dominik Markl

Part I: Antiquity—Biblical Foundations and Early Developments

• The Ten Words Revealed and Revised: The Origins of Law and Legal Hermeneutics in the Pentateuch - Dominik Markl
• The Reception History of the Decalogue through Early Translations: The Case of the Septuagint, Peshitta and Targums - Innocent Himbaza
• The Decalogue in Pseudo-Phocylides and Syriac Menander: ‘Unwritten Laws’ or Decalogue Reception? - J. Cornelis de Vos
• The Decalogue in the New Testament Apocrypha: A Preliminary Overview and Some Examples - Hermut Löhr

Part II: Middle Ages—Liturgy, Homily and Theology

• The Decalogue in Western Theology from the Church Fathers to the Thirteenth Century - Miguel Lluch Baixauli
• The Decalogue in Jewish Liturgy - Ruth Langer
• Vernacular Treatments of the Ten Commandments in Anglo-Saxon England - Aaron J Kleist
• The Ten Commandments in the Ethiopic Tradition - Ralph Lee
• Thomas Aquinas on the Ten Commandments and the Natural Law - Randall B. Smith

Part III: Worldwide Dissemination in Early Modern Catechisms and Catechesis

• The Dissemination of the Decalogue in English and Lay Responses to its Promotion in Early Modern English Protestantism - Ian Green
• Repurposing the Decalogue in Reformation England - Jonathan Willis
• The Reception of the Decalogue in Protestant Catechisms - Hans-Jürgen Fraas
• The Decalogue and the Moral Manual Tradition: From Trent to Vatican II - James F. Keenan
• The Decalogue in American Catechisms of the Sixteenth Century - Luis Resines
• The Decalogue in Late Medieval and Early Modern Imagery: Catechetical Purpose and Theological Implications - Veronika Thum

Part IV: Interpretations and Transformations in the Eighteenth to Twenty-First Centuries

• ‘The Law of Ten Commandments’: William Blake and the Decalogue - Christopher Rowland
• Joseph Haydn’s Die heiligen zehn Gebote als Canons and Sigismund Neukomm’s Das Gesetz des alten Bundes, oder die Gesetzgebung auf Sinaï: Exemplification of Changes in Musical Settings of the Ten Commandments during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries - Luciane Beduschi
• The Law and the Artist in the Age of Extremes: On Thomas Mann’s Das Gesetz - Gerhard Lauer
• The Decalogue: The Scholarly Tradition Critiqued - David J.A. Clines
• The Reception of the Decalogue in Film: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue - Lloyd Baugh
• The Ten Commandments and the Problem of Legal Transplants in Contemporary America - Steven Wilf

Product Details

• Title: The Decalogue and its Cultural Influence
• Author: Dominik Markl
• Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press Ltd
• Print Publication Date: 2017
• Pages: 406
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9781910928301, 1910928305
• Resource ID: LLS:DCLGTSCLTRNFLNC
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-26T17:21:19Z

About Dominik Markl

Dominik Markl teaches Hebrew Bible at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.