История письма и чтения. Асафова Г.К. - 102 стр.

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superscriptions, however, need not refer to authorship. Moreover, it is clear that

David could not have written all the psalms attributed to him because some of

them presuppose the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, which was not

constructed until later. Contrary to the long-established Davidic authorship

tradition, at the end of the 19th century most biblical critics spoke of a Persian date

(539–333 BCE) and even of the Maccabean era (mid-2nd century BCE) for the

majority of the psalms. In the 20th century the Psalter has been considered to be a

collection of poems that reflect all periods of Israel's history from before the

monarchy to the post-exilic restoration, and it is thought that David played a

central role in the formation of the religious poetry of the Jewish people. Scholars,

however, are reluctant to assign precise dates.

The most important contribution to modern scholarship on the Psalter has

been the work of Hermann Gunkel, a German biblical scholar, who applied form

criticism to the psalms. Form criticism is the English name for the study of the

literature of the Bible that seeks to separate its literary units and classify them into

types or categories (Gattungen) according to form and content, to trace their

history, and to reconstruct the particular situation in life or setting (Sitz im Leben)

that gave rise to the various types. This approach does not ignore the personal role

of individual composers and their dates, but it recognizes that Hebrew religion,

conservative in faith and practice, was more concerned with the typical than with

the individual and that it expressed this concern in formal, conventional categories.

The study is aided by viewing them in the context of similar literary works in the

earlier or contemporary cultures of the ancient Near East.

Gunkel identified five major types of psalms, each cultic in origin. The first

type, the Hymn, is a song of praise, consisting of an invitation to praise Yahweh,

an enumeration of the reasons for praise (e.g., his work of creation, his steadfast

love), and a conclusion which frequently repeats the invitation. The life setting of

the hymns was generally an occasion of common worship. Two subgroups within

this type are the Songs of Zion, which glorify Yahweh's presence in the city of

Jerusalem, and the Enthronement Songs, which–though their number, setting, and