Role of theophany in the formation of scripture, in early Israel and in the Qur'an

Abstract

The Introduction: opens with a definition of terms (section A), and an explanation of the method to be employed (section B).

The connection between Old Testament and Qur'an is understood to be basically linear.

Since the deuteronomic-deuteronomistic literature marks the decisive stage in the process of Scripture-formation, the Introduction includes a sketch of the provenance of this literature.

The body of the thesis consists of four chapters. Chapters 1-3 concern the traditions of early Israel: -

1. The Theophany Tradition in Early Israel, 2. Theophany and Covenant, 3. Theophany and Torah.

Chapter 4 concerns the Qur'an: - 4. The Theophanic Element in the Qur'an.

CHAPTER ONE: • Section one. The Sinai-theophany traditions which crystalised round a genuine historical core, comprises the constitutive nucleus of Israel's religious traditions.

• Section two. Sinai-theophany- and Patriarchal-theophany-traditions were early recognised as essentially congruous, and combined in a promise-fulfillment pattern. There follows a survey of the J. and E, patriarchal-theophany accounts,, with a summary of the characteristics peculiar top and common top the J. and B. theophany descriptions.

• Section three surveys the post-Mosaic patriarchal-type theophanies, from Joshua to Solomon.

• Section four: the outworking of the Sinai theophany tradition in the cult and literature of pro-exilic Israel.

• Section five deals with theophanic element in the call-experience of the prophets (Samuel to Ezekiel), and in their subsequent reception and recording of revelation.

CHAPTER TWO: • Section one. The roots of Israel's covenant theology are to be sought in primitive nomadic-Semite covenant practice, with its strongly religious numinous and personalistic ethos.

• Section two examines the primitive Israelite core of the Sinai-covenant tradition and its first accretions.

• Section three: the development of the traditions at the pro-disruption shrines of Shechem, Gilgal, Shiloh, and Jerusalem; and the beginnings of scripturisation in the work of the Yahwiste.

• Sections four and five: The development of the separates though not isolateds Northern and Southern Covenant traditions, and their literary expressions.

• Section six: The reunification of the Northern and Southern strands of tradition in the deuteronomie-deuteronomistic literature. Summary of the characteristic emphases of the Douteronomistic History,

CHAPTER THREE: A survey of the development of the stipulational element in Israel's faith from its primitive numinous-theophanic roots, to the finished Deuteronomic Code.

A. The development of the content of the Deuteronomistic Torah. The formation of the Book of the Covenant, and its expansion into the Deuteronomic Code.

B. The development of the terms used to describe the Deuteronomistic Torah. The use of the term ?-?-? to set forth the Deuteronomic Code as the content of the divine address at the Sinai-theophany.

CHAPTER FOUR: Initially Muhammad underwent a theophanic call-experience analogous to that of the prophets in early Israel. During the courts of his subsequent ministry, his understanding of this experience, and of the revelation-process in which it involved him, was moulded through contact with contemporary Judaism.

• Section one traces the progression whereby the revelational terms dhkr, aya, bayyina, qur'an, kitab, move (in Qur'anic usage) from an original concern with free proclamation of a divinely-inspired message, to an emphasis on 'deliverance of excerpts from a divinely-revealed Book'.

• Section two: Theophanic elements in Muhammad's religious experience.

• Section three: Qur'anic treatment of material that is theophanio in its Old Testament form.

• Section four: Relevant developments within Judaism, from the fifth century B. C. to the sixth century A. D.: - the concepts of Torah, prophecy, and angelology.

• Section five-: Equivalent concepts in the Qur'an, and the influenoe of the Judaeo-Christian tradition on their development: -

The Book and its relation to the Torah; Prophecy - Christian, native Arab, and Judaistic influences; Angelology - Qur'anic concepts of the Spirit (ar-ruh), "suggestion" (wahy), and angel; culminating in the acceptance of the doctrine of angelic mediation of the Book*

Conclusions.