Anthropology of the Old Testament

by Hans Walter Wolff

The aim of lifework into present for theological consideration the Old Testament witness to the nature of man. It contains detailed studies of the way in which Israelite man was thought of, and of the ways in which the Old Testament describes his physical being. Part two then goes on to look at the context in which Hebrew man lived out his existence, and its notion of time and of the created universe, in which man both worked and found leisure. Part three moves on to the social aspect of man's life, with its institutions, pattems of relationship and moral demands. A concluding chapter sums up the overall picture given in the Old Testament of man's destiny. The book is well translated and readable, and has a very great usefulness for the general reader of the Bible, because of the way in which it fills out the picture of what life was like in Old Testament times. While it is primarily aimed at a theological readership, ft will prove to be an indispensable tool for any study of Old Testament ethics. At a host of points it describes very lucidly the context of moral behaviour in the life of ancient Israel. In line with this it reveals very clearly the possibilities which life offered, and serves in a number of ways to illuminate the reasoning behind Israelite laws. All in all it impresses the reader with a recognition of the inextricable way in which culture, religion and morality are intertwined in the Old Testament. Only by attention to this can biblical morality and the biblical conception of man be understood.

Genres: Theology, Biblical Studies, Anthropology

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Michael Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A biblical anthropological primer divided into three parts: investigates a person's Being, their Time, and their World by a renowned Old Testament scholar. Informative and well-reasoned.

This is my go-to book for solid information on Old Testament era understanding of over 80 topics as life-breath, blood, soul, heart, kidneys (31X in OT), wise people vs. fools, addressed in theological rather than historical questions [for the latter viewpoint, see Kohler's "Hebrew Man" (1956)]. Wolff uses much of fellow German theologian Gerhard von Rad's work -- a good thing in my humble opinion.

[Júlia Hardmeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should be an absolute "must-read" to every person interested in "what the Bible says"/Judaism/Judeo-Christianism and anthroplogy evidently.

The immense value of this book is in the fact that it takes a really wide approach to anthropology (talking about body, time and space, relationships, meaning of life etc) and it presents the wide view that the different Old Testament sources (Jahvis, Elohist, priest source etc) have on the different aspects. This is very valuable in my view as so much of the louder voice of the Church tries to argument with the sentence "this is what tha Bible says" whereby actually, the Bible is composed by many different voices, with different prespectives, written in different times of the development of the Old Testament and also, let's not forget over a very long timespan. Having a non-Theologian-friendly, readable overview over these voices is very valuable for our common discourse.

And at the same time, the author manages to stay on the narrow balance of not losing the focus of what the overarching story of the entire Bible (he brings at times New Testament references to bring the arch of the story together), he masterfully brings the different voices together to form a reality that they all write about, albeit in different forms. This balance is indeed very valuable.

What I personally take away from this book are the following [SPOILER ALERT]
- that our soul (nefes) is the part of us that needs to be filled, it is the throat, and the Nefes of God is somehow like the air (this thought keeps me thinking actually months after having first read it)
- that our heart is the seat of our entire personality, there is no (in the modern world so important) differenciation between ratio and emotio
- that the religion itself has also been through a development and we need to respect that if we mean to understand these writings correctly
- that the institution of servanthood is very special and clearly regulated by God himself, so that no abuse would happen
- that the institution of King is a very special one in the Ancient Israel, that the King must be the brother of his subjects and their servant. A thought that will become fully clear with the coming of the King Jesus
- That God is always on the side of the oppressed
.... and many more things that I will probably remember in the next couple of days.

In either case, this is a very worthwhile reading!

[Zak Metz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delves just enough into the Hebrew without boring the not-yet-fluent. The book brings together the concept of man in its various nuances with scriptural backup and insight from context. Almost an outline format, it doesn't lend itself to a straight readthrough, yet that's what I did and still found it rewarding. This will be a valuable reference in the future.

[Edgard Horna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a comprehensive, organized and covers the various aspects of human nature from the perspective of the Old Testament text.