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Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode

Author: Robert S. Kawashima

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2004-12-09

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780253003201

Informed by literary theory and Homeric scholarship as well as biblical studies, Biblical Narrative and the Death of the Rhapsode sheds new light on the Hebrew Bible and, more generally, on the possibilities of narrative form. Robert S. Kawashima compares the narratives of the Hebrew Bible with Homeric and Ugaritic epic in order to account for the "novelty" of biblical prose narrative. Long before Herodotus or Homer, Israelite writers practiced an innovative narrative art, which anticipated the modern novelist's craft. Though their work is undeniably linked to the linguistic tradition of the Ugaritic narrative poems, there are substantive differences between the bodies of work. Kawashima views biblical narrative as the result of a specifically written verbal art that we should counterpose to the oral-traditional art of epic. Beyond this strictly historical thesis, the study has theoretical implications for the study of narrative, literature, and oral tradition. Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature -- Herbert Marks, General Editor

Reading Genesis

Author: Ronald Hendel

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-09-27

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1139492780

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Reading Genesis presents a panoramic view of the most vital ways that Genesis is approached in modern scholarship. Essays by ten eminent scholars cover the perspectives of literature, gender, memory, sources, theology, and the reception of Genesis in Judaism and Christianity. Each contribution addresses the history and rationale of the method, insightfully explores particular texts of Genesis, and deepens the interpretive gain of the method in question. These ways of reading Genesis, which include its classic past readings, map out a pluralistic model for understanding Genesis in - and for - the modern age.

The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative

Author: Danna Fewell

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-06-01

Total Pages: 688

ISBN-13: 0199967733

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Comprised of contributions from scholars across the globe, The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative is a state-of-the-art anthology, offering critical treatments of both the Bible's narratives and topics related to the Bible's narrative constructions. The Handbook covers the Bible's narrative literature, from Genesis to Revelation, providing concise overviews of literary-critical scholarship as well as innovative readings of individual narratives informed by a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. The volume as a whole combines literary sensitivities with the traditional historical and sociological questions of biblical criticism and puts biblical studies into intentional conversation with other disciplines in the humanities. It reframes biblical literature in a way that highlights its aesthetic characteristics, its ethical and religious appeal, its organic qualities as communal literature, its witness to various forms of social and political negotiation, and its uncanny power to affect readers and hearers across disparate time-frames and global communities.

On Biblical Poetry

Author: F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-08-19

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 0190463538

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On Biblical Poetry takes a fresh look at the nature of biblical Hebrew poetry beyond its currently best-known feature, parallelism. F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp argues that biblical poetry is in most respects just like any other verse tradition, and therefore biblical poems should be read and interpreted like other poems, using the same critical tools and with the same kinds of guiding assumptions in place. He offers a series of programmatic essays on major facets of biblical verse, each aspiring to alter currently regnant conceptualizations in the field and to show that attention to aspects of prosody--rhythm, lineation, and the like--allied with close reading can yield interesting, valuable, and even pleasurable interpretations. What distinguishes the verse of the Bible, says Dobbs-Allsopp, is its historicity and cultural specificity, those peculiar encrustations and encumbrances that typify all human artifacts. Both the literary and the historical, then, are in view throughout. The concluding essay elaborates a close reading of Psalm 133. This chapter enacts the final movement to the set of literary and historical arguments mounted throughout the volume--an example of the holistic staging which, Dobbs-Allsopp argues, is much needed in the field of Biblical Studies.

Divine Aggression in Psalms and Inscriptions

Author: Collin Cornell

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1108915558

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The aggression of the biblical God named Yhwh is notorious. Students of theology, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East know that the Hebrew Bible describes Yhwh acting destructively against his client country, Israel, and against its kings. But is Yhwh uniquely vengeful, or was he just one among other, similarly ferocious patron gods? To answer this question, Collin Cornell compares royal biblical psalms with memorial inscriptions. He finds that the Bible shares deep theological and literary commonalities with comparable texts from Israel's ancient neighbours. The centrepiece of both traditions is the intense mutual loyalty of gods and kings. In the event that the king's monument and legacy comes to harm, gods avenge their individual royal protégé. In the face of political inexpedience, kings honour their individual divine benefactor.

Created Equal

Author: Joshua A. Berman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-08

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0199832404

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In Created Equal, Joshua Berman engages the text of the Hebrew Bible from a novel perspective, considering it as a document of social and political thought. He proposes that the Pentateuch can be read as the earliest prescription on record for the establishment of an egalitarian polity. What emerges is the blueprint for a society that would stand in stark contrast to the surrounding cultures of the ancient Near East -- Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, and the Hittite Empire - in which the hierarchical structure of the polity was centered on the figure of the king and his retinue. Berman shows that an egalitarian ideal is articulated in comprehensive fashion in the Pentateuch and is expressed in its theology, politics, economics, use of technologies of communication, and in its narrative literature. Throughout, he invokes parallels from the modern period as heuristic devices to illuminate ancient developments. Thus, for example, the constitutional principles in the Book of Deuteronomy are examined in the light of those espoused by Montesquieu, and the rise of the novel in 18th-century England serves to illuminate the advent of new modes of storytelling in biblical narrative.

The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge

Author: Robert S. Kawashima

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2022-07-05

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 0253062144

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The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge reconstructs in carefully researched detail the worldview of the ancient Israelites writers responsible for the Hebrew Bible. What was the role of God in their lives? How did they see the relationship between God, nature, and themselves? Contrary to prevailing scholarly understanding, Robert Kawashima argues that the ancient Israelites saw God in a radically different way than the peoples around them. God no longer interconnected everything—humans, nature—but became seen as sharply separated from nature. Elegantly written and powerfully argued, The Archaeology of Ancient Israelite Knowledge is essential reading for anyone wanting to grasp the Hebrew Bible and the ancient world that gave rise to it.

Characters and Characterization in the Book of Samuel

Author: Keith Bodner

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-12-12

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 0567680878

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Characters provide the entry point to the story of the books of Samuel, just as they do in all stories. In this book the history of research into characters in Samuel, and the role(s) they play in the text are examined and discussed. The contributors look at the interpretative function of characters in the Samuel stories, and at issues of textual composition and what profiling of characters within the text can add to theories surrounding this issue. Specific characters are also profiled and studied. The character of God is examined: is God kind towards Israel? Is God loving and 'worthy to be praised' 2 Sam 22.4. Characters such as Hannah are examined from the perspective of literary type, as well as Eli as priest and Samuel himself as prophet. All of the major characters within the books are studied, including David and Jonathan, and chapters also treat the minor characters and offer information on their roles in the structure of the text. The contributors provide a range of different approaches to characterization, according to their specific expertise, and provide a thorough handbook to the characters in Samuel and their roles in the literary make-up of the text.

Some Wine and Honey for Simon

Author: A. Joseph Ferrara

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-04-24

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1532692986

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This volume celebrates the life and work of the late Simon B. Parker (1940-2006), the Harrell F. Beck Scholar of Hebrew Scripture at the School of Theology and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. Contributors Edward L. Greenstein Mark S. Smith Karel van der Toorn Steve A. Wiggins N. Wyatt Katheryn Pfisterer Darr David Marcus Herbert B. Huffmon Bernard F. Batto Tim Koch F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp Amy Limpitlaw