What happens to the deliberate, defiant sinner? The Hebrew Bible prescribes krt / "cutting off". Donald J. Wold's semantic-field analysis across Hebrew, Greek, Qumran, and rabbinic sources - bolstered by Akkadian and Egyptian parallels - reveals that only God enacts krt - a curse denying eternal life to high-handed offenders.

In this detailed study on the meaning of the biblical term krt , "cutting off", Donald J. Wold concludes that the penalty is a conditional divine curse denying eternal life to the defiant, "high-handed" sinner (Num 15:30). He is the first scholar to examine krt in the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and rabbinic sources. Ancient Near Eastern literature furnishes analogues to krt in Akkadian, West Semitic, Hittite, and Egyptian. Previous explanations have not accounted for its full semantic range, prompting the author to employ semantic-field analysis. He shows that krt is never enacted by humans. It is executed only by God for violations against sacred time, sacred substance, illicit sex and worship, idolatry, blasphemy, and failure to perform certain purification rituals - crimes against God alone.

Autorentext
Born 1945; 1967 BMus, University of Wisconsin, Madison; 1971 MDiv, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; 1973 MA Comparative Semitics, UC Berkeley; 1978 PhD, UC Berkeley; 1978-80 Assoc. Prof. Simpson College; 1975-77 Instructor, World Religions University of Redlands; Independent Researcher.

Inhalt
Chapter 1 The Road Ahead
Chapter 2 On Meaning and Method
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Meaning of Meaning
2.3 The Priestly Writer
2.4 Semantic Field Theory
2.5 Summary
Chapter 3 The Semantic Field of Krt
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Krt -Formula
3.3 The Semantic Field of Krt in Akkadian
3.4 The West-Semitic Semantic Field of Krt
3.5 The Hittite Evidence
3.6 Syntagmatic Terms and Phrases in Relation to Krt
3.7 Summary
Chapter 4 The Context Situations of Krt
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Violations Against Sacred Time
4.3 Violations Against Sacred Substance
4.4 Failure to Perform Purification Rituals
4.5 Illicit Worship
4.6 Forbidden Sexual Relations
4.7 Blasphemy
4.8 Summary
Chapter 5 The Semantic Field of the Verb in the Septuagint
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Qal of and Covenant Formation
5.3 Terms for Non-Covenantal
5.4 The Niphal of outside the Krt -Formula
5.5 The Hiphal of outside the Krt -Formula
5.6 The Niphal and Hiphil of in the Krt -Formula
5.7 The Semantic Field of Krt in the LXX
5.8 Summary
Chapter 6 Krt in the Dead Sea Scrolls
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Manual of Discipline
6.3 War Scroll 1QM I,4
6.4 Thanksgiving Hymns
6.5 Pesher to 4QpPs37
6.6 Patriarchal Blessing 4QPB
6.7 Zadokite Fragments
6.8 Summary
Chapter 7 Krt and Afterlife
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The Expression
7.3 The Expression sbj n k3.f
7.4 What's in a Name?
7.5 Death and Afterlife in Mesopotamia
7.6 Notes on Rabbinic Krt and Afterlife
7.7 Summary
Chapter 8 Synopsis and Conclusion