Pilgrimage Psalm
The pilgrimage psalms are a group of short text units in the biblical book of psalms (Psalm 120 to 134). No other group of psalms is so clearly marked as a unit at the level of the psaltery editing.
The heading
All fifteen psalms have the Hebrew headline שיר המעלות, ʃir hammaˤ a lôt , “Song of the ascents.” Although the psalms headings are generally regarded as secondary and the psalms are analyzed independently of their headings, there is an exegetical tradition of the pilgrimage monks to proceed differently .
A book of pilgrims' songs
Because drawing up is the terminus technicus for the way to Jerusalem (cf. Ezra 7: 9), it makes sense to assume a connection here to the three pilgrimage feasts of the Torah ( Passover , Sukkot , Shavuot ). But this is not undisputed, because only Psalm 122: 4 relates to the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. If you want to assume that the pilgrimage was a songbook of the pilgrims on their journey, it is strange that you have already arrived in Jerusalem with the third song. On the other hand, the collection begins with Psalm 120 at a maximum distance from Jerusalem and ends in Psalm 134 in the middle of the temple.
Any liturgical process , be it on the journey or in the city of Jerusalem, cannot be inferred from the pilgrimage pedestal; all that remains is to see a meditation book in it, d. H. a kind of literary trip to Jerusalem. “Most likely, the view that Ps 120-134 understands as a hymn and prayer book for a spiritual, meditative (“ poetic ”) pilgrimage to Zion, with which one prays into the blessed world of the God of Zion - one may be far from Zion to be on the way to Zion or on Zion itself. "
Songs of the Levite Choir on a temple stairs
A text from the Mishnah is often used for a liturgical location of the Psalms : During the Sukkot festival, a very popular nocturnal ritual of drawing water took place. The Levites stood with their musical instruments “ on the fifteen steps that lead down from the forecourt of Israel into the women's forecourt, corresponding to the fifteen step songs in the Psalms. So the Levites stood on them with their musical instruments and sang songs. "
This corresponds to the fact that the title in the Septuagint version is called “ Song of the Steps ”, also in the Vulgate ( Canticum graduum ). In the Luther Bible the heading was until 1912: " A song in the higher choir "; behind it stands the same tradition.
Coherence of the collection
Linguistic peculiarities show that the fifteen psalms belong together. The most important is the use of ש־ instead of אשר, and there are also many aramaisms. Repetitions and typical stylistic devices (anacrucis and anadiplosis ) make Psalm 120 to 134 stand out from the rest of the psalm book when you read it through. Psalm 132 occupies a special position in the pilgrimage psalm because of its length.
Zion Theology
"Zion" is the thematic center of the pilgrimage column, but it means different things:
- the name of a mountain ( Psalm 125: 1);
- the Jerusalem temple ( Psalm 128: 5);
- the social reality of the people of Israel ( Psalm 126: 1).
Blessing theology
Another key term is "blessing", whereby what makes the pilgrimage splinter so special is that this blessing (emanating from Zion) becomes concrete in everyday life. The pilgrimage splinter is not very interested in performing rituals in the temple; the priests present in the temple are simply recognized as members of the people of Israel.
reception
Judaism
Psalms 120 to 134 are recited every Sabbath afternoon in winter, from the Sabbath after the Feast of Tabernacles, on which a new Torah reading cycle with the creation story begins, to the Sabbath before the Feast of Passover. Instead, in summer you study a chapter from the Pirke Avot mixed natractic treatise .
literature
- Klaus Seybold : Die Redaktion des Pilfahrtspalters , in: ZAW 91, 1979, pp. 247–268.
- Klaus Seybold: The pilgrimage psalms. Studies on the genesis of Psalm 120-134 (BThS 3), Neukirchen-Vluyn 1978.
- Hendrik Viviers: The Coherence of the maˤ a lôt Psalms (Ps 120-134). In: Journal for Old Testament Science 106, 1994, pp. 275–289.
- Egbert Ballhorn : On the Telos of the Psalter. The textual context of the fourth and fifth books of the psalms (Ps 90-150), Berlin 2004, pp. 222-263.
- Oliver Dyma: The Pilgrimage to the Second Temple. Studies on the development of pilgrimage festivals in the pre-Hasmonean period , Tübingen 2009, pp. 252–265.
- Michael Rohde : Pilgrimage Psalms without Zion Theology? An examination of the so-called Zion theology of Psalms 120-134. in: Journal for Old Testament Science 126/3 (2014), pp. 383–401.