Abstract / DOI
Remembering and Forgetting in the Bibel. Remembering is not only an individual matter, but also a social and cultural phenomenon. If an event of the past is to be preserved beyond the regular period of remembrance, it must be transferred from communicative to cultural memory. This sensitive process of transition is paradigmatically enacted and reflected within the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy. Cultural memory is kept going through institutionalized forms of mnemonics. These usually include the written record of events and the canonization of a binding corpus of texts, the recitation and memorization in the context of regularly recurring festivals. Futhermore, there is no proof that anything has been completely forgotten. This is true not only for the individual bodily memory, but also for the collective memory. Researchers speak of transgenerational transmission.