Classics

This compendium examines how the Spirit is depicted and functions in biblical texts and their historical and religious contexts, while also tracing the Spirit's discursive history from antiquity to today.

Volker Henning Drecoll contextualizes Basil's Homilies on the Hexaemeron within the exegetical discourse on Gen. 1 in the mid-fourth century CE. Basil was influenced more by this discourse than he was by Origen. Basil's often assumed »Origenism« is questioned and contrasted with that of his brother, Gregory of Nyssa

The diversity of the known YHWH names and the fact that there is no specific YHWH iconography lead to the thesis that there were different origins of YHWH and regional manifestations of this god before the exile. The polyyahwistic and polyiconographic approach to Yahwism reveals a mosaic of regionally diverse, religiously non-homogeneous clusters that were only harmonised with each other by Judean and Samarian interpretive authorities in the post-exilic period.

Volker Grunert's exegetical study on the Book of Job applies resources and insights from related cultural sciences such as Assyriology and Egyptology to illuminate the biblical text. Against a cultural backdrop that is embedded with artifacts and culturally relevant texts from its Eastern Mediterranean cultural historic context, Job steps from obscurity into focus.