Vocation history
The Old Testament calling histories represent a form-historical genre, the content of which is the calling of a person by God to a specific preaching mission . These reports are used for the authorization and certification of prophets in particular.
construction
Biblical calling stories follow a relatively fixed pattern:
- Calling and commissioning by God
- Objection of the appointee
- Rejection of the objection
Old testament
In the Old Testament mostly prophets , but also other people, identify themselves before the people and the king through calling stories:
- Moses in 2. Book of Moses 3 ( Ex 3.1-18 EU ): Vision at the burning bush , self-presentation of God with the name YHWH . The last of several objections, Moses cites language problems.
- The calling of the prophet Samuel in 1 Sam. 3 is untypical in that it lacks an objection from the appointee.
- Isaiah 6: Isaiah sees the throne of God and angels praising God in a vision. His objection “I am unclean lips” comes before the actual commissioning. After a ritual cleansing with a glowing coal, Isaiah receives an unusual hardening order.
- Jeremiah (Jer. 1) refuses the call on the grounds that he is too young.
- In Jonah , the scheme is so far still exaggerated, as the prophet puts forward not only objections, but even running away from the appointment.
New Testament
The New Testament calling stories follow the Old Testament form rather loosely without necessarily containing all the elements. In particular, the typical objection of the appointee is often missing:
- Mary is called to be the mother of the child Jesus in Lk 1,26-38. Your objection: “How should that be, since I don't know about any man?” Is refuted by the angel with the reference to the Spirit of God.
- John the Baptist is announced to the Father through a special vision (Lk 1,5-25). Here the demarcation from the account of a miraculous birth is not very clear, as is the case with Maria.
- Jesus' disciples are called by Jesus, but without objection.
- Paul's vision in Acts 9 is the story of Saul's calling to be an apostle.
literature
- Klaus Koch : The prophets. Vol. 1, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-17-004700-0 or 1980 (Vol. 2), ISBN 3-17-004868-6 .
- Gerhard von Rad : Theology of the Old Testament. Vol. 1, Munich, 9th edition 1987, ISBN 3-459-01673-6 .
- Werner H. Schmidt : Introduction to the Old Testament. 5th edition, Berlin / New York 1995, ISBN 3-11-014102-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Werner H. Schmidt: Introduction to the Old Testament , 5th edition, p. 182f.