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Reading Between Texts
Intertextuality (the reading of one text in terms of another) is a diverse practice. It is a central and prevalent subject in poststructuralist literary theory. Reading between Texts is the first book to address intertextuality as it relates specifically to interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. The contributors bring together lucid theoretical discussion and sophisticated interpretations from a variety of backgrounds, offering biblical scholars and students a helpful and thorough introduction to the issues and possibilities of intertextuality. The Literary Currents in Biblical Interpretation series explores current trends within the discipline of biblical interpretation by dealing with the literary qualities of the Bible: the play of its language, the coherence of its final form, and the relationships between text and readers. Biblical interpreters are being challenged to take responsibility for the theological, social, and ethical implications of their readings. This series encourages original readings that breach the confines of traditional biblical criticism.
Sex Working and the Bible
The Bible contains many stories of prostitution. Feminist and liberation readings of these biblical narratives have often made sex workers invisible. 'Sex Working and the Bible' examines stories of biblical prostitution through the experiences and understanding of sex workers today. The Bible narratives - ranging across Rahab in the Book of Joshua, the story of Solomon and the two prostitutes, the anointing women traditions, and the apocalyptic vision of the whore of Babylon in Revelation - are set within both a practical and theoretical framework. This radical book offers a new, more inclusive way of approaching issues of gender, sexuality and prostitution in the Bible.
Freedom and Confinement in Modernity
Kafka's literary universe is organized around constellations of imprisonment. Freedom and Confinement in Modernity proposes that imprisonment does not signify a tortured state of the individual in modernity. Rather, it provides a new reading of imprisonment suggesting it allows Kafka to perform a critique of a modernity instead.
Reduced Laughter
In this book Helen Paynter offers a radical re-evalution of the central section of Kings. Reading with attention to the literary devices of carnivalization and mirroring, she demonstrates that it contains a florid satire on kings, prophets and nations. Building on the work of humorists, literary critics and biblical scholars, the author constructs diagnostic criteria for carnivalization (seriocomedy), and identifies an abundance of these features within the Elijah/Elisha and Aram narratives, showing how literary mirroring further enhances their satirical effect. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars concerned with the Hebrew Bible as literature but will be valued by those who favour more historical approaches for its insights into the Hebrew text.
Development of an Icon
The most extensive royal accounts in the Hebrew Bible are those of kings David (the "Succession Narrative," usually identified as 2 Sam 9-20 and 1 Kgs 1-2) and Solomon (the "Solomon Story," 1 Kgs 3-11). Yet, even though Solomon immediately follows David in the Deuteronomistic History, little has been done to correlate these accounts. But what if these passages were meant to be read together? Utilizing the "Double Redaction" theory, Herbst proposes that an exilic "Deuteronomist" inserted the Succession Narrative into the Deuteronomistic History, then revised the Solomon Story in light of this addition. His key contribution was 1 Kings 1-2, a passage designed to connect the two larger sections...
Subversive Scribes and the Solomonic Narrative
Subversive Scribes and the Solomonic Narrative considers 1 Kgs 1-11 through the optics of propaganda and subversion with primary attention given to subversive readings of portions of the Solomonic narrative. Seibert explores the social context in which scribal subversion was not only possible but perhaps even necessary and examines texts that covertly undermine the legitimacy or the legacy of Solomon. The book is divided into two parts. In the first, Seibert develops definitions of propaganda and subversion and notes other studies which have understood certain biblical texts to function in these ways. Primary consideration is given to developing a theory of subversive scribal activity in thi...
Characters and Characterization in the Book of Kings
This book is an examination of characters in the books of Kings; showing how understanding and interpretation of key characters affects readings of the story. The volume begins with more general pieces addressing how the study of characters can shed light on the composition history of Kings and on how characters and characterization can be considered with respect to ethics, particularly with respect to the moral complexity of biblical characters. Contributors then consider key characters within the Kings narrative in depth, such as Nathan, Bathsheba, Solomon and Jezebel. The contributors use their own specific expertise to analyze these characters and more, drawing on insights from literary theory and considering such approaches as questioning our view of a particular character with based on the character within the text with whom we identify. Contributors also assess whether or not characters as portrayed in the biblical text necessarily match up to their possible counterparts in history.
Weighing Hearts
Issues involving 'character' have been the object of increasing interest and debate in recent years. Social psychologists attempt to determine the role of character as a cause of human behavior, moral philosophers explore the significance of character for understanding ethics and virtue, and literary scholars investigate the depiction of character in narrative. Weighing Hearts represents the first serious attempt to integrate all these approaches in order to gain a deeper and more precise understanding of how readers evaluate characters in biblical narrative. While the primary focus is on the Hebrew Bible, the author also includes several comparative analyses involving other ancient and modern literary works. Weighing Hearts also shows how biblical historians and redaction critics can make their analyses more precise and nuanced, by taking into account what psychology has learned about the consistency of character and the 'attribution errors' people make when evaluating others.
The Historical Books
This volume is part of a series which brings together the best articles on major fields of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies from the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. The aim of the series is to provide for scholars and students a convenient and up-to-date briefing on developments in the field. The so-called historical books embrace a vast amount of diverse biblical material, from Joshuah to Nehemiah, and this selection of 20 essays covers a breadth of biblical material using a wide range of methodological approaches. The breadth of its scope combined with the depth of scholarship makes this Reader a useful and comprehensive resource for both undergraduate and graduate courses.
Jonah and the Human Condition
Stuart Lasine examines all aspects of the human situation and condition in Yahweh's cosmos as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. As his starting point Lasine uses the phrase “the human condition”, which has been used to describe features of existence with which every person must cope, in ways which vary according to their culture, their situation within that culture, and their personality. In particular the most consistent factor that is basic to the human condition is mortality and, in the biblical context, the sometimes difficult relationship between the creator God and humankind. An examination of this forms the basis of Lasine's study, which draws analytical tools from several disciplines, including literary theory, psychology and philosophy. In the first part of the book Lasine examines a number of relevant biblical texts which display different aspects of the human condition. Part two engages in a detailed case study of one human life-situation, that of the prophet Jonah. Finally, Lasine draws together his conclusions about life and death in Yahweh's cosmos, both for characters within the world of the scriptural text and for present-day readers of the Hebrew Bible.
