Psalmody and Poetry in Old Testament Ethics

Questions arise from scholarly debate in Hebrew Bible ethics such as: what is Old Testament ethics?, what is the object of study?, what are the methods involved and how normative are Old Testament ethics for modern contexts? These questions advance crucial issues in the quest for understanding ethics of the ancient Hebrew mind and the problem of how to contextualize them in modern contexts.

This book begins by exploring the relationship between the Old Testament and Ethics, as well as a philosophical discussion on meta-ethical presuppositions on divinity and morality in the Psalter. The main part of the book reflects analyses of specific psalms (Pss 16; 34; 50; 72; 104; and 133). The core of this section reflects an illustration of psalm texts with the thematic focus on Hebrew ethical thinking. Included are a few contextual contributions discussing relevant ethical issues in Africa from an African perspective. In the final section two exemplary poetic texts from the Pentateuch (Deut 32) and the Prophets (Jer 5) reverberate ethical thinking from other parts of the Hebrew canon.

Professor Dirk J. Human is Head of Biblical and Religious Studies at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Preface
Abbreviations
List of Contributors

Part I - Introduction

1. Eckart Otto (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany)
"Hebrew Ethics in Old Testament Scholarship"

2. Jaco W Gericke (Northwest University, Vaal Triangle Campus, RSA)
"What is Good? Meta-Ethical Assumptions in the Psalms Concerning the Relation between Divinity and Morality"

Part II - Psalmody

3. Alphonso Groenewald (University of Pretoria, RSA)
"The Ethical "Way" of Psalm 16"

4. Phil J Botha (University of Pretoria, RSA)
"Psalm 34 and the Ethics of the Editors of the Psalter"

5. Theodor Seidl (University of Wurzburg, Germany; Research Associate, University of Pretoria)
"Who Stands Behind the raµa<< in Psalm 50:16a? The Ethical Testimony of Psalm 50:16-22"

6.Andrew Mein (Westcott House, Cambridge, UK)
"The King's Justice? Early Modern Perspectives on the Ethics of Psalm 72"

7. Johan Coetzee (University of Johannesburg, RSA)
"Bodily Interpretation of Psalm 104: "Yahweh's History" and Human Ethics"

8. Liswaniso Kamuwanga (University of Pretoria, RSA)
"Ethics and Justice in an African Society"

9. Emannuel O Usue (University of Pretoria and Benue State University Makurdi, igeria)
"Ethical and Theological Parallels Between Biblical Psalms and The NKST Indigenous Christian Songs"

10. Samuel Ndoga (Baptist Theological College, Johannesburg, RSA)
"Psalm 133 as a Response to Xenophobic Attitudes in South Africa Today"

Part III - Poetry in Pentateuch and Prophets

11. Eckart Otto (Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany)
"Singing Moses: His Farewell Song in Deuteronomy 32"

12. Willie Wessels (University of South Africa, Pretoria, RSA)
"Prophet and Ethics: a Study of Jeremiah 5:26-29"

Index of References
Index of Authors