Diachrone Forschung am Buch Habakuk - am Beispiel von Hab 2,4-5

Abstract

The short review shows that those exegetes, who make literary-critical differentiations, arrive at completely different conclusions. Such widely divergent hypotheses raise the question of the methods on which they are based. Literary-critical observations and claims shall be the reason to have a closer literary-critical look at the small section of Hab 2:4–5. Particularly interesting is the question whether the theological core V. 4 can be regarded as a unit or not. The result is that V. 4b (MT) is no part of the immediate context of Hab 2:4–5! It rather constitutes a partial text of its own. Due to the fact that this core verse obviously appears to be a secondary insertion, which originally did not belong to that context, it is legitimate and necessary to search for further contexts for its understanding. This can happen within the framework of a „canonical approach“. This methodological approach therefore receives its authorisation and justification from the literary-critical inhomogeneity of its direct context.