Mercer University Press: An Introduction to the Psalms

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 Psalmen: die Gattungen der religiosen Lyrik Israels. As with much of Gunkel's other work, the influence over these 65 years of Einleitung in die Psalmen on the study of the Psalms, Hebrew poetry, and indeed, the whole realm of Old Testament literature, lyric, and cult, as already noted, "can scarcely be overestimated." Yet this genuinely seminal work has remained untranslated until now.

Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) is widely recognized as a (or the) "father" of form-critical and history-of-religions methods in Old Testament study. His very influential works include commentaries on Genesis (1901: MLBS, 1997), 1 Peter (1907), and especially Psalms (1926-1928).

James Nogalski previously translated Odil Hanne Steck's Old Testament Exegesis: A Guide to the Methodology (SBL Resources for Biblical Study 33, 1995). Nogalski's Literary Precursors to the Book of the Twelve and Redactional Processes in the Book of the Twelve (BZAW 217, 218) were published in 1993.

"After sixty-five years, Gunkel’s classical accounting of form-critical categories in the Hebrew Psalter is finally available in English. In lucid prose, Nogalski renders Gunkel’s explication of genre categories that have proven foundational for Psalms studies throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Gunkel’s keen eye is everywhere evident. Nogalski ignores the sole index in the German edition (a modest enumeration of topics) and offers instead a more useful replacement: a 36-page listing of scriptural references cited in this epoch-making work."

J. Kenneth Kuntz
University of Iowa, in
Religious Studies Review, January 2001

Gunkel's seminal work has enriched every aspect of the study of the psalms to the extent that his once original ideas have entered the mainstream." and "James D. Nogalski and Mercer University Press are to be congratulated on providing the English translation of Gunkel's most influential work, albeit sixty-five years after its original publication in German."Michael Prior, St. Mary's College, University of Surrey, in The Heythrop Journal.

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