Psalms and Hebrews: Studies in Reception

The reception of early Jewish/Israelite texts in early Christianity provides valuable insights into the hermeneutics of ancient authors and studies in this regard are vital for an understanding of their theology/ies. By focusing particularly on the reception of the Psalms through the hand of the unknown author of Hebrews, Old Testament and New Testament scholars combine forces in this collection to determine the shifts in interpretation of the Psalms that took place during the processes of (re)interpretation within the work of a particular early Christian writer. By paying careful attention to the original reading(s) of the text versions utilized as well as to the manner in which those texts were embedded in a later literary context by the author of Hebrews, they provide a window into the trajectories of the Psalm traditions. A contextual contribution illustrates the versification of the Psalms in a contemporary African language, Afrikaans, to illustrate how the Psalms' reception remains a vivid endeavor in current times.