Introduction to Psalms: The Genres of the Religious Lyric of Israel

by Hermann Gunkel, Joachim Begrich (Editor), James D Nogalski (Translation)

Hermann Gunkel's commentary on Psalms ( Die Psalmen , HKAT)—considered by many to be his magnum opus—was published in 1926. But he was unable to complete his final work on the Psalms. The severe suffering of the final months of his life forced him to hand over his incomplete manuscript, at Christmastime 1931, to his pupil Joachim Begrich. Gunkel died on 11 March 1932. Begrich put the final touches on the organization of Gunkel's last work on Psalms, and it was published in 1933 as Einleitung in die die Gattungen der religiosen Lyrik Israels .
As with much of Gunkel's other work, the influence of Einleitung in die Psalmen on the study of the Pslams, Hebrew poetry, and, indeed, the whole realm of Old Testament literature, lyric, and cult, as already noted, "can scarcely be overestimated.”

398 pages, Paperback

Published February 5, 2020

About the author

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 interests centered on the oral tradition behind written sources and in folklore.