Table Of ContentThe Composition and
Redaction of the Book of
Amos
Tchavdar S. Hadjiev
Walter de Gruyter
Tchavdar S.Hadjiev
The Composition and Redaction of the Book of Amos
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alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
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John Barton · Reinhard G. Kratz
Choon-Leong Seow · Markus Witte
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≥
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
Tchavdar S. Hadjiev
The Composition and Redaction
of the Book of Amos
≥
Walter de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
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To my daughter Boriana and
my son Alexander
Acknowledgements
The present work is a slightly revised version of my doctoral thesis
submitted to the University of Oxford in 2007. I would like to take up
the oportunity to express my thanks to some of the people who have in
various ways contributed to its completion. I am most grateful to my
supervisor prof. H. G. M. Williamson whose great erudition and scho‐
larly excellence have stimulated and inspired me all along and who has
given me generously his advice, support and time. Dr. S. Gillingham
acted as my interim supervisor during the last two terms of my first
year and helped me enourmously during the initial stages of my
research. Prof. R. Kratz, prof. J. Barton and prof. E. Nicholson were
kind enough to read parts of my thesis and share their comments with
me. Prof. F. I. Andersen has been a good friend over the last several
years and I am thankful for the many emails and books I have received
from him. I would like to thank my examiners prof. R. Gordon and
prof. J. Day for their helpful comments and suggestions for improve‐
ment and the editors of BZAW for accepting my work for publication
in the series.
Darena Tzoneva‐Dimitrova, Tania Petrova, Martin Haizmann,
Colin Macpherson, Don and Ruth Boyes, Kosta and Nada Milkovi have
all in various ways played an important role in my life and study and
without their help and support my work would have been much
harder. Langham Partners Int, Bulgaria Appeal, the International Fel‐
lowship of Evangelical Students and the United Faculty of the Bulgar‐
ian Evangelical Theological Institute provided the financial support
which made my study possible. Steven and Jemima Spare opened their
home for me during the last year of my study and I am grateful for
their hospitality.
My wife, Tsveta, has been my faithful and loving companion. She
has had to endure prolonged periods of my absence and cope with the
various changes and challenges demanded by my research. For her
strength and support, without which this work would have been im‐
possible, I am thankful. Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to
viii Acknowledgements
my daughter Boriana and my son Alexander, who was born to us in
Oxford during the time of my study. Their presence has admittedly
slowed down the speed of my research considerably, but it has also
enriched my life beyond what I can express.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements ................................................................................ vii
Abbreviations .......................................................................................... xiii
Chapter 1: Survey of Research and Methodological Considerations ... 1
I. The book comes substantially from the prophet Amos himself ... 2
II. The book is the result of a redactional process ............................ 3
III. The literary and the historical Amos ............................................. 9
1. The creation of the literary Amos by the Amos school
or the post‐exilic community ...................................................... 9
2. What can we know about the historical Amos ......................... 12
a. Amos in post‐exilic Yehud ..................................................... 12
b. The cultic and social criticism of the book............................. 17
c. The origin of the prophecy of unconditional doom.............. 20
d. Do we need to prove the ‘authenticity’ of the
prophetic oracles? ................................................................... 23
3. Conclusion – the relationship between Amos and
his ‘disciples’ ................................................................................ 24
IV. Criteria for redactional intervention .............................................. 25
1. Literary breaks .............................................................................. 26
2. Later linguistic and theological influences ............................... 27
3. Thematic tensions ......................................................................... 30
4. Later historical situations ............................................................ 31
5. Unusual style and ideas .............................................................. 32
6. Literary dependence on later passages ..................................... 33
7. The presence of different structures .......................................... 37
8. Identifying redactional passages belonging to the
same layer ..................................................................................... 38
9. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 40
Chapter 2: The Redaction of the OAN (Amos chs 1‐2) ...................... 41
I. Redactional additions to the OAN ................................................. 41
1. The oracles against Judah, Edom and Tyre .............................. 42
2. The additions to the Israel oracle ............................................... 46
3. Conclusion ..................................................................................... 53
II. Purpose and aim of the redactor .................................................... 53
1. The original series ........................................................................ 53
Description:This Oxford dissertation offers a detailed analysis of the text of the Old Testament book of the prophet Amos and attempts to reconstruct the process of its composition. It looks into the probable historical circumstances in which the prophetic oracles were collected and edited and seeks to show how
