Sigmund Mowinckel

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Sigmund Mowinckel

Sigmund Olaf Plytt Mowinckel (born August 4, 1884 in Kjerringøy , † June 4, 1965 ) was a Norwegian Old Testament scholar . He is best known for his psalm research.

Life

childhood

Sigmund Mowinckel was born the son of the diocesan chaplain Jørgen Blydt Mowinckel and his wife Petra Johanne in Kjerringøy in Northern Norway in the province of Nordland , but grew up in Beiarn . He had two brothers, Herbert and Rolf.

Education

Mowinckel studied theology at the University of Oslo from 1902 to 1908 . Instead of taking the practical theological examination after the state examination, he studied - encouraged by his teachers Jens Gleditsch and Johannes Ording - theology for another year in order to write his first theological treatise. The discipline he committed himself to here, namely the Old Testament , remained his main area throughout his life. He was particularly influenced by the German Old Testament scholar Hermann Gunkel .

From 1911 to 1913 he studied - made possible by a scholarship - in Germany the Old Testament with Hermann Gunkel and Assyriology with Peter Jensen at the University of Marburg .

Further course

Mowinckel received his doctorate in 1915 at the University of Oslo, where he was also a lecturer from 1917. In 1922 he was appointed associate professor and in 1933 full professor. In 1940 he was ordained a priest of the Church of Norway . In 1954 he retired.

Mowinckel married the nurse Caroline Thorine Simonsen on May 9, 1917. After her death, on October 7, 1964, he married the teacher Ingeborg Wilhelmine Wiborg, b. Schibbye. Mowinckel died on June 4, 1965 and was buried on September 28, 1965 on Vestre Gravlund in Oslo (grave number 20.102.00.004).

plant

Composition of the book of Jeremiah

Referring back to Bernhard Duhm , Mowinckel developed a source model for the first 45 chapters of the Book of Jeremiah. He excluded the following chapters as a late appendix. He distinguished four sources:

  • Source A contains a collection of the words of Jeremiah in chapters 1–25.
  • Source B reports on the Prophet from an outside perspective. It was named after Baruch , the Prophet's scribe, as a Baruch script. These external reports can be found in 19.2–20.6; 26; 28-29 and 26-44.
  • Source C contains "sermons" or major speeches of the Prophet in parts of chapters 7–8; 11; 18; 21; 25; 32–35 and 44. Stylistically, this source is close to Deuteronomism .
  • Source D contains a “Consolation Booklet for Ephraim” in chapters 30–31. It comes from the post-exilic period.

With this classification, Mowinckel lays the foundation for further research on the Book of Jeremiah. Wilhelm Rudolph dissolves the rigid subdivision of independent sources in favor of an editorial-historical hypothesis and thus opens up a direction of research that continues into the present of Old Testament exegesis .

Psalm Studies

With regard to the Psalms, Mowinckel was the head of a movement that was often in opposition to Hermann Gunkel's school, which was critical of form .

Mowinckel interpreted the origin of the psalms from the cult. It is precisely there that he again comes into contact with Gunkel's religious-historical perspective. In particular, he formulated the hypothesis that the psalm chants are for the most part not individual poetry, but cultic chants. In pre-exilic times, their function was to liturgically accompany festivals and processions in the Temple of Jerusalem . With this interpretation he opposed his adored teacher and mentor Gunkel and has remained an outsider in theological research to this day.

Selected works

  • On the composition of the book of Jeremiah. Dybwad, Kristiania 1914.
  • Psalm studies (1921–1924):
    • Volume 1: Åwän and the individual psalms of lament. Videnskapsselskapet, Kristiania 1921.
    • Volume 2: The Accession Feast of Yahweh and the Origin of Eschatology. Videnskapsselskapet, Kristiania 1922.
    • Volume 3: Cult prophecy and prophetic psalms. Videnskapsselskapet, Kristiania 1923.
    • Volume 4: The technical terms in the psalm headings. Videnskapsselskapet, Kristiania 1923.
    • Volume 5: Blessings and Curses in Israel's Cult and Psalm Poetry. Videnskapsselskapet, Kristiania 1924.
    • Volume 6: The Psalm Poets. Videnskapsselskapet, Kristiania 1924.
  • The Accession Feast of Yahweh and the Origin of Eschatology. Dybwad, Kristiania 1922.
  • The star names in the Old Testament. Grøndahl, Oslo 1928.
  • The chronology of the Israelite and Jewish kings. Brill, Leiden 1932.
  • The knowledge of God in the Old Testament prophets. Grøndahl u. Søns, Oslo 1941.
  • On the question of documentary sources in Joshua 13-19. Dybwad, Oslo 1946.
  • Prophecy and tradition. The prophetic books in the light of the study of the growth and history of the tradition. Dybwad, Oslo 1946.
  • For the Israelite New Year and the interpretation of the accession psalms. Dybwad, Oslo 1952.
  • Religion and cult. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1953.
  • The sixty-eighth psalm. Dybwad, Oslo 1953.
  • Pentateuch Source Considerations. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1964.
  • Tetrateuch, Pentateuch, Hexateuch. Töpelmann, Berlin (1964)
  • Studies on the book of Ezra-Nehemiah (1964):
    • Volume 1: The post-chronic editing of the book. Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Oslo 1964.
    • Volume 2: The Nehemiah Memorandum. Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Oslo 1964.
    • Volume 3: The Story of Ezra and the Law of Moses. Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, Oslo 1964.

literature

  • Sigurd Hjelde: Sigmund Mowinckel and his time: the life and work of a Norwegian Old Testament writer (=  research on the Old Testament . Volume 50 ). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 3-16-148734-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ These are two essays from the years 1909 and 1910, namely Om nebiisme og profeti (" About Nebiism and Prophecy ") and Profeternes forhold til nebiismen (" The relationship of the prophets to Nebiism ").
  2. ↑ So in his personal report sketch (1972). See Sigurd Hjelde: Sigmund Mowinckel and his time: the life and work of a Norwegian Old Testament writer . 2006, p. 39, note 3 .
  3. ↑ a b c https://nbl.snl.no/Sigmund_Mowinckel , accessed on December 9, 2015.
  4. ↑ http://www.begravdeioslo.no/maler/grav/grave_id/133849 , accessed on December 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ Representation after: Backhaus, Franz-Josef & Meyer, Ivo: Das Buch Jeremia - in: Zenger, Erich et al. (Ed.): Introduction to the Old Testament. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 5 1995, p. 468.
personal data
SURNAME Mowinckel, Sigmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mowinckel, Sigmund Olaf Plytt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian Old Testament scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Kjerringøy
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1965