Failed Methods and Ideology in Canonical Interpretation of Biblical Texts

Introduction - Thomas L. Thompson; Part 1 Status Quaestionis; 1 Undesirable Developments in Biblical Studies (Old Testament): A Continuously Self Falsifying Discipline; Part 2 Methods; 2 The Gods of the Fathers: Criticism of Albrecht Alt's 'Vaetergott'-Hypothesis; 3 A Methodological Alternative to the Present Study of the Old Testament. Otto Ploeger's 65th Birthday; 4 "You Cannot Prove It, but It Is a fact that..." Figures of Speech Instead of Method in Critical Studies of the Old Testament; 5 Some Comments on John Van Seters' Methodological Sketch: 'The Yahwist as Historian, Parts I and II'; 6 Since When Did "Jenes Israel" (Martin Noth) Exist? Comments on 'Israel' as an Ecclesiological body in the TNK (Biblia Hebraica et Aramaica); Part 3 History and Ideology; 7 The Orientation of Jerusalem's Temple and the 'Sacred Direction' of Early Christian Churches; 8 The Function of the So-called 'Torah Niche' in the Antique Synagogue of Dura Europos Reconsidered; 9 Cultural-political Globalization Efforts in Antiquity and Their Significance for the Texts of the Bible; Part 4 Texts and Canon; 10 The Function of the Canonical Corpus of Texts in Judaism in Pre-Christian times. Considerations of Canon-criticism; 11 The Role of the Mesopotamian 'Exile Community' (galut) and Its Theological Imprint on the Jewish Bible; 12 A Rough Outline of a Torah-hypothesis; Part 5 Torah; 13 Genesis 17 as the Centre of a Pesach Cycle of the Torah; 14 Wayyashav 'Avraham (???? ?????): Why Is Abraham Returning to His Servants from One of the Mountains in the Land of Moriah Without Isaac?; Part 6 Nevi'im; 15 The Inventio of the ??? ????? in 2 Kings 22: The Structure, Intention, and Function of Legends of Discovery; 16 The Correspondence between Isa 56:1-8 and 66:18-24 and the Prophetic Surpassing of the Torah: Yad wa-Shem; Part 7 Ketuvim; 17 "At the Rise of Dawn": Hotheaded Jonah's Annoyance with the Crimson Worm; 18 Ecclesiological Aspects of a Canoncal Hermeneutics of the Hebrew Bible.