Mis)Use of Intertextuality in Qoheleth Exegesis

TLDR: Fischer as discussed by the authors presents the most explicit example of intertextuality and which is receiving growing attention in contemporary research, viz. Qoheleth iv 17-v 6.

Abstract: The interaction between a received text and a fresh social context brings a new textual and symbolic world into being. This chapter prefers this approach to "intertextuality" over the more generally accepted one, which considers intertextuality as "concerned with the text as a thing independent of its author, while an approach oriented towards allusion is concerned with the author as well as the text and reader". Applied to biblical exegesis, this sort of intertextuality is part of the widespread naivete which believes that synchronic methods and the study of general and vague connections between texts will help one to avoid the shortcomings or unsolved problems of the diachronic approaches. The chapter presents the most explicit example of intertextuality and which is receiving growing attention in contemporary research, viz. Qoheleth iv 17- v 6. According to A.A. Fischer, Qoheleth cites the Torah with approval and recommends it. Keywords: A.A. Fischer; biblical exegesis; intertextuality; Qoheleth; synchronic methods; Torah