48 Scholars of the Hebrew Bible
Here’s a fun exercise. Name 48 scholars of the Hebrew Bible whose
portrait or photograph might be put on a “baseball” card, along with a short
biography. With a set of 48, fun games, they tell me (I'm not a card player), are immediately possible. Engemann’s 48
theologians are all deceased; I find this rule, while understandable, too
restricting. Here’s my list of 48 – subject to revision and correction of
course.
Hillel, Philo, Akiva, Origen, Jerome, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Ephrem, Japhet ben Eli, Saadia Gaon, Ibn Ezra, David Kimchi, Rashi, Ramban, Andrew of St. Victor, Isaac Abravanel, Nicholas of Lyra, Leopold Zunz, Samuel David Luzzatto, Heinrich Ewald, Julius Wellhausen, Franz Delitzsch, Samuel Rolles Driver, Hermann Gunkel, Yehezkel Kaufmann, William Foxwell Albright, Luis Alonso Schökel, Albrecht Alt, Martin Noth, Gerhard von Rad, Frank Moore Cross, Joseph Blenkinsopp, John J. Collins, Cheryl Exum, James Barr, Brevard Childs, Michael Fishbane, Michael V. Fox, Moshe Greenberg, Jon D. Levenson, Norbert Lohfink, Adele Berlin, Jacob Milgrom, Jeffrey Tigay, Emanuel Tov, Phyllis Trible, Moshe Weinfeld, Erich Zenger, Norman Gottwald.
Why 48? Don't you need 52 for a pack of cards, plus a few jokers? And who would you nominate as the jokers?
Posted by: Peter Kirk | November 21, 2007 at 05:06 PM
I think you're right, Peter. I can think of plenty of jokers, that's for sure.
Posted by: JohnFH | November 21, 2007 at 06:01 PM
i would include claus westermann.
Posted by: anthony loke | November 21, 2007 at 09:29 PM
Hi Anthony. I had Westermann on my short list (of about 70), but he was bumped in the end.
With a deck of 52, we could include Gesenius, Dhorme, David Noel Freedman, and Westermann.
Posted by: JohnFH | November 22, 2007 at 09:17 AM
Are you sure you mean Friedrich Delitzsch, (the son), and not Franz (the father)?
Could G.R. Driver be a joker, please? :)
I'd dump some of your moderns, and get a bit more beef in there. No de Wette? No Duhm? No Mowinckel? Pick a Kittel, any Kittel! Eichrodt looms large over 20th C. OT. Compared to some of your living scholars, these are far more significant. (IMO, of course! :)
And what about the Smith family? You know, William Robertson S., and George Adam S.? These were more influential than we sometimes realize. And Scottish.
Of Curly, Larry, and Moe, you only have “Larry” (I mean BDB...).
What about slipping in a sleeper like Christian Schoettgen? Or a non-sleeper like Lowth, for that matter? People without whom the current contours of HB/OT scholarship would be scarcely recognizable!
This is too much fun. I need to get back to work.
Posted by: David Reimer | November 22, 2007 at 10:41 AM
P.s. My nominations for the other three jokers: Marcion, Dahood (I know), and Michael Drosnin.
Posted by: David Reimer | November 22, 2007 at 10:54 AM
David, you are so right, even about the jokers.
I will correct Friedrich (who might even qualify as a joker) to Franz.
Posted by: JohnFH | November 22, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Among the contemporary ones I'd include Alter before one or two of the others. Although he was not the first, I think he was the most influential in promoting the literary turn in biblical scholarship.
Posted by: Tim | November 23, 2007 at 01:11 PM
What fun! My personal faves would be: Robert Alter, Adele Berlin, and Patrick D. Miller.
Posted by: JaneET | November 28, 2007 at 11:27 AM