Biblical Interpretation and Redaction History

The following article categorizes and describes certain phenomena of "editing" and paves the way from empirical data toward hypothetically reconstructing the literary- and redaction-history of biblical compositions. Following some general remarks on coherence and incoherence in "emit" and "etic" perspectives, the article deals with the genre of ancient commentaries from Qumran (pesharim) and their techniques of interpretation, citation and rewriting, transmission and translation, and finally redaction of biblical texts. Largely the same hermeneutics underlie the different kinds of formation, transmission, and re-use of biblical and parabiblical texts.