KierKegaard and the BiBle tome i: the old testament Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources Volume 1, Tome I Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources is a publication of the søren Kierkegaard research Centre General Editor Jon stewart Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Editorial Board Katalin nun peter ŠaJda Advisory Board istvÁn CzaKÓ Finn gredal Jensen david d. possen heiKo sChulz This volume was published with the generous financial support of the danish agency for science, technology and innovation Kierkegaard and the Bible tome i: the old testament Edited by lee C. Barrett and Jon stewart First published2010 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprintof the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2010 lee C. Barrett, Jon stewart and the contributors lee C. Barrett and Jon stewart have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage orretrieval s ystem, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Kierkegaard and the Bible. tome 1, the old testament – (Kierkegaard research ; v. 1) 1. Kierkegaard, søren, 1813–1855. 2. Bible–use–history– 19th century. 3. hermeneutics–history–19th century. i. series ii. Barrett, lee C. iii. stewart, Jon 198.9–dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kierkegaard and the Bible / lee C. Barrett. p. cm. — (Kierkegaard research: sources, reception, and resources) includes indexes. isBn 978-1-4094-0285-5 (v. 1 : hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ki erkegaard, søren, 18 13– 1 8 55. 2. Bible—use—history—19th century. 3. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—history—19th century. i. Barrett, lee C. ii. title. B4378.B52B37 2009 220.6092—dc22 2009050212 isBn 9781409402855(hbk) Cover design by Katalin nun. Contents List of Contributors vii Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii List of Abbreviations xv PART I INDIVIDUAL TEXTS AND FIGURES adam and eve: human Being and nothingness Timothy Dalrymple 3 abraham: Framing Fear and Trembling Timothy Dalrymple 43 moses: the positive and negative importance of moses in Kierkegaard’s thought Paul Martens 89 david and solomon: models of repentance and evasion of guilt Matthias Engelke 101 Job: Edification against Theodicy Timothy H. Polk 115 psalms: source of images and Contrasts Matthias Engelke 143 ecclesiastes: vanity, grief, and the distinctions of wisdom Will Williams 179 vi Kierkegaard and the Bible nebuchadnezzar: the King as image of transformation Matthias Engelke 195 PART II OVERVIEW ARTICLES Kierkegaard’s rewriting of Biblical narratives: the mirror of the text Iben Damgaard 207 Kierkegaard’s use of the old testament: From literary resource to the word of god Lori Unger Brandt 231 Kierkegaard’s use of the apocrypha: is it “scripture” or “good for reading”? W. Glenn Kirkconnell 253 Index of Persons 265 Index of Subjects 271 list of Contributors Lori Unger Brandt, toronto school of theology, 47 Queen’s park Crescent east, toronto, ontario, m5s 2C3, Canada. Timothy Dalrymple, Center on the study of religion, Barker Center, harvard university, Cambridge, ma, 02138, usa. Iben Damgaard, department of systematic theology, aarhus university, tåsingegade 3, 8000, Århus C, denmark. Matthias Engelke, pfarrerhaus, steegerstr. 34, 41334 nettetal-lobberich, germany. W. Glenn Kirkconnell, department of humanities and Foreign languages, p–152, santa Fe College, 3000 nw 83rd st., gainesville, Fl, 32606, usa. Paul Martens, department of religion, Baylor university, one Bear place #97284, waco, tX 76798–7284, usa. Timothy H. Polk, hamline university, Box 132, 1536 hewitt ave, st. paul, mn, 55104, usa. Will Williams, department of religion, Baylor university, one Bear place #97284, waco, tX, 76798–7284, usa. preface the articles in this volume all explore Kierkegaard’s complex use of the Bible, a use that pervades and sometimes even structures his literature. the authors of these essays use source-critical research and the tools of many different disciplines, ranging from literary criticism to theology and biblical studies, to situate Kierkegaard’s appropriation of the biblical material in his cultural and intellectual context. The essays seek to identify the possible sources that may have influenced his understanding and employment of scripture, and to describe the debates about the Bible that may have shaped, perhaps indirectly, his attitudes toward it. whenever possible, the authors have sought to document the texts that were influential, either positively or negatively, for Kierkegaard’s reading of the Bible. the authors also pay close attention to Kierkegaard’s actual hermeneutic practice, carefully analyzing the implicit interpretive moves that he makes as well as his more explicit statements about the significance of various biblical passages. This close reading of Kierkegaard’s texts enables the authors to elucidate the unique and sometimes odd features of his frequent appeals to scripture. many of the essays in this volume deal with particular biblical characters, such as abraham and Job, who were important to Kierkegaard, or portions of the Bible that played significant roles in Kierkegaard’s authorship, such as the Psalms, the Pauline epistles, and the crucifixion narratives. Other essays present overviews of various aspects of Kierkegaard’s interpretive practice such as his renarration of biblical stories, his latin translations of the greek new testament, his appropriation of contemporary biblical scholarship, and his approach to the old testament. Because the Christian canon with which he wrestled was and is composed of two different testaments, this volume devotes one tome to the old testament and a second tome to the new testament. the canonically disputed literature of the apocrypha is considered in the tome on the old testament. reading Kierkegaard with an eye to his use of the Bible is essential for making sense of his texts. Kierkegaard was an intensively scripturally shaped writer whose natural idiom was the language of the Bible and who viewed the world through biblical lenses. oddly, this aspect of Kierkegaard’s work has rarely received sustained attention. although a few monographs have been written about Kierkegaard’s use of the Bible,1 this literature seems puny when compared to the vast corpus that 1 see, for example, matthias engelke, Kierkegaard und das alte Testament. Zum Einfluss der alttestamentarischen Bücher auf Kierkegaards Gesamtwerk, rheinbach: Cmz-verlag 1998 (Arbeiten zur Theologiegeschichte, vol. 3); peter parkov, Bibelen i Søren Kierkegaards Samlede Værker, Copenhagen: C.a. reitzel 1983; timothy polk, The Biblical Kierkegaard: Reading by the Rule of Faith, macon, georgia: mercer university press 1997; Jolita pons,