Sigmund Olaf Plytt Mowinckel (4 August 1884 – 4 June 1965) was a Norwegian professor, theologian and

biblical scholar Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 Fo ...

. He was noted for his research into the practice of

religious worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...

ancient Israel The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. "Israel" as a people or tribal confederation (see Israelites) appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an inscripti ...

Life

Mowinckel was born at

Kjerringøy Kjerringøy is a village in Bodø Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The village is located about north of the town of Bodø, along the Karlsøyfjorden, just south of the entrance to the Folda fjord. The Kjerringøy Church is located ...

in 1884Sæbø, M. Crossing Borders: On Five Norwegian Bible Scholars, In Lemaire, A. & Sæbø, M.(Editors)(1998) Congress Volume Oslo 1998. Leiden: Brill and was educated at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

(1908; Th.D. 1916). His early research interests was the study of the Old Testament, and Assyriology. In the years 1911-13 he made study trips to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

and

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

. At Giessen he came into contact with

Hermann Gunkel Hermann Gunkel (23 May 1862 – 11 March 1932), a German Old Testament scholar, founded form criticism. He also became a leading representative of the history of religions school. His major works cover Genesis and the Psalms, and his major in ...

and was inspired by Gunkels understanding of the Old Testament as literature, as well as his traditio-historical method. In 1916 he published his doctoral thesis on the prophet

Nehemiah Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC). The name is pronounced ...

, and a companion work on the prophet

Ezra Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας ...

. In the years 1921-24 he published ''Psalmenstudien'', maybe his most influential work. As an Old Testament scholar he was particularly interested in the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

and the ancient cult of Israel. According to Clements, "Mowinckel continually developed and revised his views, notably on Israelite kingship and Psalmody". In 1956 he published "He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism". For most of his professional life Mowinckel was connected to the

and continued to lecture there as an emeritus in the 1960's. Among his students we find the norwegian biblical scholar Arvid Kapelrud. His last book in english, "Religion and Cult", was published in 1981.

Academic work and theories

Mowinckels main contribution to biblical scholarship is his work on The Psalms of the Old Testament and his study of Messianic ideas in Judaism.

The Psalms

From the 1920s, Mowinckel headed a school of thought concerning the

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

which sometimes clashed with the

Form criticism Form criticism as a method of biblical criticism classifies units of scripture by literary pattern and then attempts to trace each type to its period of oral transmission."form criticism." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica ...

conclusions of

and those who followed in Gunkel's footsteps. In broad terms, Gunkel strongly advocated a view of the Psalms which focused on the two notable names for God occurring therein: ''Yahweh'' (JHWH sometimes called

tetragrammaton The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew language, Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', ''he (l ...

) and ''Elohim''. The schools of Psalm writing springing therefrom were termed

Yahwist The Jahwist, or Yahwist, often abbreviated J, is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Pentateuch (Torah), together with the Deuteronomist, the Priestly source and the Elohist. The existence of the Jahwist is somewhat controversial, ...

and

Elohist According to the documentary hypothesis, the Elohist (or simply E) is one of four source documents underlying the Torah,McDermott, John J., ''Reading the Pentateuch: A Historical Introduction'' (Pauline Press, 2002) p. 21. Via Books.google.com.a ...

. Mowinckel's approach to the Psalms differed quite a bit from Gunkel's. Mowinckel explained the Psalms as wholly cultic, both in origin and in intention. He attempted to relate more than 40 psalms to a hypothetical New Year autumn festival, the so-called "Enthronement Festival of Yahweh". According to Mowinckel the Psalms had a practical usage in the context of the Temple service. He also suggests that the authors of the Psalms were temple singers. As for the Psalms that have no cultic context, Mowinckel identifies these as the "wisdom psalms".

Messianic ideas

In addition to his work on Psalms, his major monograph on the Old Testament roots of

Messianism Messianism is the belief in the advent of a messiah who acts as the savior of a group of people. Messianism originated as a Zoroastrianism religious belief and followed to Abrahamic religions, but other religions have messianism-related concepts ...

is of significance in scholarship until this day.''He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism'', trans. G. W. Anderson (Oxford: B.Blackwell, 1956 ) In his study of Messianism in

, and the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

, Mowinckel identified the concept of divine kingship. He did however deny the title of Messiah to the reigning Hebrew kings, although they reflected the Messianic ideal. The kings were associated with divinity, but Mowinckel does not support the view that they were an

incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

of the deity, or that they represented a suffering, dying and rising god. The Israelites adapted some ideas on kingship from Canaanite sources, fused with traditions of old nomadic

chieftainship A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...

and

Yahwism Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel. Yahwism was essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel ...

. According to Mowinckel the concept of Kingship is associated with the present, while the Messiah is a future figure, associated with

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...

. The Hebrew royal line is therefore, in his view, not Messianic, and there is no

prior to the

Babylonian exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...

. Mowinckel also considers the songs of the Suffering Servant in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

. He identifies the servant as a historical person from the circle surrounding

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

and

Second Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century B ...

. He finds the servant free of kingly traits and concludes that the songs were not originally meant to be Messianic. The suffering servant is therefore, according to Mowinckel, something else than a Messiah, he is a «mediator of salvation» The Son of Man, on the other hand, is an eschatological figure, influenced by Messianic ideas. According to Cheroke «The Son of Man is in Mowinckel’s treatment the culmination of messianism». However, Mowinckel disagreees with other scholars, such as

Joachim Jeremias Joachim Jeremias (20 September 1900 – 6 September 1979) was a German Lutheran theologian, scholar of Near Eastern Studies and university professor for New Testament studies. He was abbot of Bursfelde, 1968–1971. He was born in Dresden and sp ...

, that the Son Of Man represents an atoning suffering and death. Mowinckel suggests that Jesus adapted both the concept of the Son of Man and the figure of the Servant, but in a paradoxical way. The concept of the Messiah is modified in order to suit his ministry and his understanding of himself. He merges the redeeming element of the Son of Man with the idea of the suffering Servant. According to Muilenburg «Mowinckel believes that Jesus himself was the first to understand the real meaning of

Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 is the fifty-third chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah and is one of the Nevi'im. Chapters 40 through 55 a ...

and to apply it to himself».

Published works (early editions)

* ''Statholderen Nehemia'' (Kristiania: a. 1916) * ''Esra den skriftlærde'' (Kristiania: a. 1916) * ''Kongesalmerne i det Gamle Testamentet'' (Kristiania: (1916) * ''Der Knächt Jahves'' (1921) * ''Psalmenstudien I: 'Awan und die individuellen Klagepsalmen'' (Kristiania: SNVAO* 1921) * ''Psalmenstudien II: Das Thronbesteigungsfest Jahwäs und der Ursprung der Eschatologie'' (Kristiania: SNVAO* 1922) * ''Psalmenstudien III: Kultprophetie und kultprophetische Psalmen'' (Kristiania: SNVAO*, 1923) * ''Psalmenstudien IV: Die technischen Termini in den Psalmenuberschriften'' (Kristiania: SNVAO*, 1923) * ''Psalmenstudien V: Segen und Fluch in Israels Kult und Psalmdichtung'' (Kristiania: SNVAO*, 1924) * ''Psalmenstudien VI: Die Psalmdichter'' (Kristiania: SNVAO*, 1924) * ''Diktet om Ijob og hans tre venner'' (Kristiania: 1924) * ''Profeten Jesaja'' (Oslo: 1925) * ''Jesaja: Profetien fra Jesaja til Jeremia'' (Oslo: 1926) * ''Motiver og stilformer i profeten Jeremias diktning'' (1926) * ''Le Decalogue'' (Paris: 1927) * ''Det Gamle Testament som Guds Ord'' (Oslo: 1938) * ''Gamla testamental som Guds ord'' (Stockholm: 1938) * ''Die Erkentis Gottes bei den alttestamentlichen Propheten'' ranslation: "The recognizable God in/within the Old Testament prophets" or perhaps "The recognition of God beside/by the Old Testament prophets"Supplementary volume to ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1941). * ''Prophecy and Tradition'' (1946) * ''Han som kommer : Messiasforventningen i Det gamle testament og på Jesu tid'' (1951) (translated ''He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism'', trans. G. W. Anderson xford: B.Blackwell, 1956* ''Offersang og sangoffer : salmediktningen i Bibelen'' ranslated: "Song of sacrifice and Sacrifice of song" or "Offering song and Song offering": "Psalm Poetry in the Bible"(Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co, 1951). * ''Der achtundsechsigste Psalm'' NVAO**, II, 1953, I(Oslo: 1953) * ''Religion och Kultus'' (1953). * ''Real and Apparent Tricola in Hebrew Psalm Poetry'' NVAO**, II, 1957(Oslo: 1958) * ''The Spirit and the Word: Prophecy and Tradition in Ancient Israel''. Edited by K. C. Hanson. Fortress Classics in Biblical Studies (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002) NOTE SNVAO signifies the Norwegian publisher/publications Skrifter utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo, II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse NOTE *ANVAO signifies the Norwegian publisher/publications Avhandliger utgitt av Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Oslo. II. Hist. Filos. Klasse.

Articles by Mowinckel

* 'Om den jodiske menighets og provinsen Judeas organisasjon ca. 400 f. Kr.', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Kristiania: 1915), pp. 123ff., 226ff. * 'Tronstigningssalmerne og Jahves tronstigningsfest', ''Norsk teologi til reformationsjubileet'', specialhefte .e. special issueto ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Kristiania: 1917), pp. 13ff. * 'Die vorderasiatischen Konigs- und Fursteninschriften' ranslation: "The Near Eastern Royal and Princely Inscriptions" ''Eucharisterion'' tudien zur Religion und Literatur d. Alt und Neu Testaments, H. Gunkel zum 60 Studies in the Religion and Literature of the Old and New Testaments, H. Gunkel at 60" --- Gunkel's 60th birthday was in 1922I, pp. 278ff., a book produced by ''Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur d. Alten und Neuen Testaments'' (FRLANT) Band (Vol.) 36 (Göttingen: 1923) * 'Det kultiske synspunkt som forskningsprinsipp i den gammelstestamentlige videnskap', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Kristiania: 1924), pp. 1ff. * 'I porten' ''Studier tilegnede Frans Buhl'' (Copenhagen: 1925) * 'Drama, religionsgeschichtlisches' 2_[appeared_in_''Religion_in_Geschichte_und_Gegenwart''_2.Aufl..html" ;"title="ranslation: "Drama, history of religion", RGG₂ [appeared in ''Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' 2.Aufl.">ranslation: "Drama, history of religion", RGG₂ [appeared in ''Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' 2.Aufl.(Tübingen: 1927-32) * 'Levi und Leviten' [translation: "Levi and Levites"], RGG₂ [appeared in ''Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' 2.Aufl.] (Tübingen: 1927-32) * 'Stilformer og motiver i profeten Jeremias dikning', ''Edda'' Vol. 36 (1926), pp. 276ff. * 'Salmeboken og gudstjenestesalmen', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1927), pp. 153ff. * 'Die letzten Worte Davids' ranslation: "The last words of David" in II Samuel 23:1-7, ''Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band (Vol.) 45? (Giessen:1927), pp. 30ff. * 'A quelle moment le culte de Jahwe a Jerusalem est il officiellement devenu un culte sans images?' ranslation: "At what moment did the cult of Jahweh of Jerusalem officially become a cult without images?"''Revue de l'Histoire et des Philosophies Religieuses'' Vol. 9 (Strasbourg: 1929), pp. 197ff. * The following sections/chapters in ''Det Gamle Testament, oversatt av S. Michelet, Sigmund Mowinckel og Nils Messel'' (also known simply as GTMMM) Volumes I - III (Oslo: 1929-following years):-: Sections 2. Mos. 18-34; 4. Mos. 20-25; 32-33; 5. Mosebok; Josvaboken; Samuelsboken; Kongeboken; Jesaja; Jeremia; Tolvprofetboken. * Book review of Eduard Konig's ''Das Buch Hiob in Deutsche Litz'', 3. Folge, 1. Jahrg. 12, (1930) columns 529ff. resumably this review relates to E Konig's ''Das Buch Hiob eingeleitet, ubersetzt und erklart'' (Gutersloh: Bertelsmann, 1927 or 1929)* 'Die Komposition des Deuterojesajanischen Buches' ranslation: "The Composition of the book of Deutero-Isaiah" ''Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band (Vol.) 44 (Giessen: 1931)pp. 87ff., 242ff. * 'Die Chronologie der israelitischen und judaischen Konige' ranslation: "The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah" ''Acta Orientalia'' Vol. 10 (Leiden: 1932) pp. 161ff. * 'Fiendene i de individuelle klagesalmer', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1934), pp. 1ff. * 'The "Spirit" and the "Word" in the Pre-exilic Reforming Prophets', ''Journal of Biblical Literature'' Vol. 53 (1934) pp. 199–227. * '"Anden" og "Ordet" hos de foreksilske reformprofeter', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1935), pp. 1ff. * 'Ekstatisk oplevelse og rasjonal bearbeidelse hos de gammeltestamentlige profeter', ranslation: "Ecstatic experience and rational elaboration in Old Testament prophecy"''Theologisk Tidsskrift'' (known as " T") (Kobenhavn openhagen1935), pp. 1ff. * 'Extatic Experience and Rational Elaboration in Old Testament Prophecy', ''Acta Orientalia'' Vol. 13 (Leiden: 1935), pp. 264–291. * 'Hat es ein israelitisches Nationalepos gegeben?' ranslation: "Is there a given Israelite national epic?" ''Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band (Vol.) 53 (Giessen: 1935) pp. 130ff. * 'Zur Geschichte der Dekalogue' ranslation: "To a History of the Decalogue (Ten Commandments)" ''Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band (Vol.) 55 (Giessen: 1937) pp. 218ff. * Book Review of Widengren's ''Accadian and Hebrew Psalms of Lamentation'' which appeared in ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1940), pp. 155. . Widengren's book itself was published at Stockholm, 1937 * 'Ras Shamra og det Gamle Testament', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' Vol. xl, (Oslo: 1939), pp. 16ff. * 'Oppkomsten av profetlitteraturen', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1942), pp. 65ff. * 'Kadesj, Sinai og Jahve', ''

Norwegian Journal of Geography __NOTOC__ ''Norwegian Journal of Geography'' ( no, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Routledge on behalf of the Norwegian Geographical Society. It covers geographical topics of interest to Norwegian res ...

'' Vol. 9 (1942), pp. 21ff. * 'Nathanprofetien i 2. Sam. 7' ranslation: "Nathan's prophecy in II Samuel 7" ''

Svensk exegetisk årsbok ''Svensk exegetisk årsbok'' (''Swedish Exegetical Yearbook'') is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal of biblical studies and book reviews in Swedish and English. It was established in 1936 by the Swedish Exegetical Society and is distributed ...

'' (known as SEÅ) (Uppsala: date ?), pp. 220ff. * 'Zum Problem der hebraischen Metrik' ranslation: "Towards the Problem of the Hebrew Metric" ''Bertholetfestschrift'' (Tübingen: 1950), pp. 379ff. 'Bertholetfestschrift'' = Festschrift Alfred Bertholet zum 80. Geburtstag, herausgeg. von W. Baumgartner, O. Eissfeldt, K. Elliger, L. Rost>> translation: "Festschrift for Alfred Bertholet on his 80th Birthday--editors: W. Baumgartner, Otto Eissfeldt, K. Elliger and L. Rost"]. * 'Den senjodiske salmediktning', ''Norsk Teologisk Tidsskrift'' (Oslo: 1950), pp. 1–54. * 'Zur hebraischen Metrik II' [translation: "Towards Hebrew Metric II"], ''Studia theologica cura ordinum theologorum Scandinavorum edita'' Vol. VII (1953), pp. 54ff. * 'Metrischer Aufbau und Textcritik, an Ps. 8 illustriert' ranslation: "Metrical Construction and Textcriticism, illustrated on Psalm 8" ''Studia Orientalia Johanno Pedersen Septuagenario...dicata'' Johannes_Pedersen.html" ;"title="Johannes Pedersen (theologian)">Johannes Pedersen">Johannes Pedersen (theologian)">Johannes PedersenHavniae openhagen 1953), pp. 250ff. * 'Der metrische Aufbau von Jes. 62, 1 - 12 und die neuen sog. kurzverse' ranslation: "The metrical construction of Isaiah 62: 1 - 12 and the new so-called ? shortverse" ''Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band (Vol.) 65 (Giessen: 1953), pp. 167ff. * 'Zum Psalm des Habakuk' ranslation: "Towards the Psalm of Habakkuk" ''Theologische Zeitschrift'' Band (Vol.) 9 (Basel: 1953), pp. 1ff. * 'Psalm Criticism between 1900 and 1935 (Ugarit and Psalm Exegesis)', ''

Vetus Testamentum ''Vetus Testamentum'' is a quarterly academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament. It is published by Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international a ...

'' Vol. 5 (Leiden: Brill, 1955) pp. 13ff. * 'Marginalien zur hebraischen Metrik', ''Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band (Vol.) 67 (Giessen: 1956) pp. 97ff. * 'Zu Psalm 16, 3 - 4' ranslation: "To/towards Psalm 16: 3 - 4" ''Theologische Literaturzeitung'' (1957), columns 649ff. * 'Notes on the Psalms', ''Studia theologica cura ordinum theologorum Scandinavorum edita'' Vol. XIII (1959), pp. 134ff. * 'Drive and/or Ride in the O.T.', ''

'' Vol. 12 (Leiden: Brill, 1962) pp. 278–299ff.

References

Other sources

* * Hjelde, Sigurd (2006) ''Sigmund Mowinckel Und Seine Zeit: Leben Und Werk Eines Norwegischen Alttestamentlers'' (Mohr Siebeck Verlag) *