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MARKUS PHILIPP ZEHNDER, Wegmetaphorik im Alten Testament: Fine semantische Untersuchung der alttestamentlichen and altorientalischen Weg-Lexeme mit besonderer Berucksichtigungihrer metaphorischen Verwendung (BZAW 268; Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1999). Pp. xv + 715. DM 238.
In this analysis of the lexeme drk ("way, path, journey, conduct"), Zehnder, inspired by the comment of his Doktorvater, Ernst Jenni, along with Klaus Koch (TWAT 288) that the semantic field of drk "has not been fully comprehended," offers the most extensive exploration of this term to date. The book is Vs revised dissertation, originally submitted to the University of Basel. What are the differences in the various uses of drk in the OT? How does the sense of drk shift in postbiblical Judaism, the NT, early Christianity, and Greek philosophy? What is the distinction between the literal and metaphorical uses of the lexeme? Answers to these questions, Z. rightly perceives, may be found only in a thorough examination of the semantic field of drk.
After setting forth his phenomenological, comparative methodology and the history of research, Z. focuses first upon the lexeme in the OT environment-the Akkadian, Ugaritic,...