Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 4: Article 2 (2002)
Abstract:
First Chronicles 4:9–10 has not received much sustained scholarly attention, but Bruce Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez has made those two verses both well-known and newly popular in mass-market Christianity. Leaving aside the furor over Wilkinson’s popular treatment, this article elucidates the sense (including overlooked ambiguities in the lexical sense) and structure of this brief passage internal to Chronicles, explores certain intertextual connections between 1 Chron 4:9–10 and selected passages in the book of Genesis, and suggests some possible functions for 1 Chron 4:9–10 and related passages in 1 Chron 4–5 within the socio-historical context of Achaemenid Yehud.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 4: Article 1 (2002)
Abstract:
This study of the different accounts concerning the circumstances of the death of Jehoiakim and of his burial place leads to the conclusion that he died after an eleven-year reign and was buried in Jerusalem, exactly on the eve of Nebuchadrezzar’s campaign. His death saved the city from destruction and enabled the small kingdom an additional eleven years of rule. Insofar as the writer in Kings knew of the events in Judah in the last years of the kingdom, the king’s death was not attended by any unusual circumstances. Did secret events take place in the royal palace that were unknown to the residents of the city? Was Jehoiakim’s death the result of a sophisticated conspiracy whose perpetrators or circumstances were unknown to his contemporaries? This may be the case, but it is better to remember that there is no contemporary information of that kind, and later accounts of it are filling in the gaps and try to create harmony between the lacunae in the Book of Kings and the curses concerning the fate of the sinner king that were proclaimed by the prophet Jeremiah.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 10 (2001)
Abstract:
In this paper attention to literary-lexical and traditio-historical aspects of Zech 3:1-10; 4:1-14 and 6:9-15, challenges the common interpretation of these pericopae. It is argued that rather than advocating priestly intrusions into prophetic or royal arenas, these passages interpret the arrival and instatement of the Zadokite priestly house as heralding the imminent arrival of the royal house while sustaining an enduring role for prophecy.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 9 (2001)
Abstract:
As some have recognized long ago, Nehemiah 9 is the theological centerpiece of Ezra-Nehemiah. Yet, until recently the long prayer has not received the attention that it deserves. The excellent essays about Nehemiah 9 by Rolf Rentdorff and Hugh Williamson stand out as exceptions to the general neglect of the prayer.
Fortunately, the neglect
has been remedied with some new and important studies that greatly enrich our
ability to appreciate Nehemiah 9.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 8 (2001)
Abstract:
Even though the concept of Israel would appear to many to be one of the most straightforward ones in the Hebrew Scriptures; it is not always clear what it actually refers to. Yet, delimiting or eliciting the implied [physical, social and ideological] contours of Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures in their totality is way beyond the scope of any single article. Here we shall concentrate on Ezek 12:21-25, 26-28. It is my hypothesis that in these two short disputation speeches more than one view of Israel are implicitly presented.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 7 (2001)
Abstract:
Modern interpretations of Tamar’s actions in Genesis 38:15 fall into two groups: those who maintain that the veil indicated her prostitute status and those who counter that it only concealed her identity. I argue that the expansion to and subsequent interpretive history of this verse, coupled with the lack of correlation between veil and prostitution historically, suggest that the first mentioned interpretation - Judah believed her to be a prostitute because of the veil - should be reconsidered. Rather, the separation of shroud from profession, both exegetically and historically, provides a compelling historical precedent for the second view, namely, that Tamar’s veil concealed more than it revealed.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 6 (2001)
Abstract:
This paper introduces a programme in historical linguistics with important implications for biblical criticism. Traditionally, grammatical variation in the Bible has been interpreted in light of nineteenth-century historical-literary criticism. In this light, such variation appears erratic and random. To date we have developed a somewhat vague distinction between “early” and “late Biblical Hebrew” (EBH vs LBH). The programme outlined here proposes to let the Hebrew language speak for itself, to let natural diachronic processes explain the distributions independent of the literary paradigm. The results should suggest a new alignment of texts and sources. The paper has two parts. The first, polemical part situates the programme within recent, indeed controversial, departures in biblical studies. The second part works through a problem that has hitherto resisted explanation to showcase the methodology and to indicate the anticipated results. As a first approximation a fivefold stratification is proposed, considerably refining the traditional taxon “early Biblical Hebrew” (EBH). The most interesting conclusion is the priority of Deuteronomy within the five books of Moses. Another result is the sorting of composite books like Psalms by linguistic criteria. The programme is expected to yield a three-volume study: morphology, syntax, lexicon (in that order).
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 5 (2001)
Abstract: At first glance, the
names of the localities in Judg 18:12 do not seem to fit the framework of
chapter 18. Traditionally, v.12 (in particular 12ba) is therefore labelled as an
etiological note which was added later. P. J. van Dijk has made it clear,
however, that texts viewed as etiological often do not explain or legitimize any
phenomena, but -as rhetorical devices -lend credibility to stories. However, the
fact that a place named Mahaneh-dan is unknown to us argues against both the
classical-etiological understanding of v.12 and that of van Dijk. A solution to
the problem begins with the geographical location and the theological meaning of
the city of Kiriath-jearim. Geographically, Kiriath-jearim is in Judah, on the
boundary of the Northern Kingdom; theologically the city may be associated with
the ark of the covenant, and thereby with the Torah of YHWH. That the Danites
are encamped at or beyond of Kiriath-jearim, shows from a Judean perspective
that they distance themselves from Judah and the Torah of YHWH. Their way
-leading diagonally from the Southwest to the Northeast through the Northern
Kingdom, and therefore representing pars pro toto the conduct of life for all of
the Northern tribes -is a way of brutal force and uninhibited serving of idols.
Because the location of the encampment of the Danites is called Mahaneh-dan,
"Dan's Camp", the Danites are characterized as anti-Yahwist
desperados. Judg 18:12 is neither a classical etiology nor a rhetorical device,
but a metaphorical etiology, i.e. a verse governed by its context in such a way,
that it signifies something other than what it appears to signify.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 4 (2000)
Abstract: To a large extent past scholarship has been absorbed with textual, source-critical, and redactional issues. Each of the major approaches surveyed attempts to deal with the formidable problems presented by the text. Inasmuch as an effort has been made to understand the genealogy historically, most of that effort has been expended on recovering the early history of Judah and its growth during the monarchy. Because genealogies are essentially histories of generations, it is only natural for scholars to want to plumb the depths of these records as one means to reconstruct the past. But whatever traditions may have been available to the authors, one should inquire further about what functions the genealogy may have fulfilled in the late Persian or early Hellenistic period, the time in which the authors wrote. Genealogies in the ancient Mediterranean world were caught up with fundamental issues of self-definition, identity, territory, and relationships. They were composed mainly to address claims about social status, kinship ties, and territorial affiliations and not to satisfy idle curiosities about the distant past. In most, albeit not all, cases lineages "establish and validate living relationships." Given that the postexilic Judah constructed by modern scholarship is not known for having a diverse social and ethnic makeup, pursuing the heterogeneity within the Judahite genealogy holds much promise.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 3 (2000)
Abstract: Erasmus' failure to master Hebrew raises the question of how his ad fontes approach to biblical interpretation applied to the Old Testament. His 76-page 'commentary' on Psalm 2 shows that he does make use of Hebrew, though his insights are derivative, mostly from Jerome or Augustine. In some places, however, he bases his exposition on the LXX and, where this differs from the Hebrew, on both. Erasmus reads the psalm as applying to Christ rather than David, and his philological scholarship is used to serve his interpretative aim of contemporary application in accordance with his 'philosophy of Christ'.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 2 (2000)
Abstract: The status and use of Primary History (the books Genesis – 2 Kings) as a historical source is highly dependent on its literary nature as a unitary work written after 440 BCE, most probably between 440 and 420, the structure of which apparently derives from and refers to the Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Another important literary feature is the peculiar use of alternative versions to indicate uncertainty and doubt about the narrative itself, the result of which used to be regarded as proof for the Documentary Hypothesis. The contrasting absence of such alternatives for much of the history of the ninth-sixth centuries BCE as found in the Books of Kings provides a formal indication that it was meant to give a more or less accurate picture of the period.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 3: Article 1 (2000)
Abstract: The biblical picture of ancient Israel does not fit in, but is contrary to any image of ancient Palestinian society that can be established on the basis of ancient sources from Palestine or referring to Palestine. There is no way this image in the Bible can be reconciled with the historical past of the region. And if this is the case, we should give up the hope that we can reconstruct pre-Hellenistic history on the basis of the Old Testament. It is simply an invented history with only a few referents to things that really happened or existed. From an historian’s point of view, ancient Israel is a monstrous creature. It is something sprung out of the fantasy of biblical historiographers and their modern paraphrasers, i.e., the historical-critical scholars of the last two hundred years.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 2: Article 6 (1999)
Abstract: This article presents a paradigm example of confused language in an ancient Near Eastern literary text, the Egyptian tale of "The Shipwrecked Sailor." It explains the pertinent passage as a clever literary device in which confused and irregular syntax is utilized to portray the confusion that characterized the moment of the shipwreck. It then proceeds to treat seven biblical passages where similarly confused language is invoked to portray confusion, excitement, or bewilderment. Two of these passages have been treated previously in the secondary literature: 1 Sam 9:12-13 and Ruth 2:7. The five new treatments concern Gen 37:28, Gen 37:30, Judg 18:14-20, 1 Sam 14:21, and 1 Sam 17:38.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 2: Article 5 (1999).
Abstract: This paper is a contribution to a discussion of feminism, deconstruction and embodiment at the Canadian Society for Biblical Studies Meeting in June, 1999. I briefly align and contrast deconstruction, as a practice of resistance to totalizing discourses, with feminism, as a practice of resistance to totalizing hierarchies. I then engage with three student responses to a course I taught on Leviticus, as part of the dialogic of biblical studies (and certainly deconstructive/feminist ones). In one, I discuss Leviticus as pornography, in the context of the nexus between prohibition and desire, and pay especial attention to the points where Leviticus changes subject position. A second concerns land, imagined in anticipation and retrospectively from exile, as the object of memory and frustration, and speculates on the sexual imagery of sacrifice. A third turns to narrative in Leviticus, in particular that of 24.10-23, as potentially destructive of the whole rhetorical enterprise of the book, which posits a static society. In my conclusion, I express distrust of pure deconstructive or feminist programs, and turn to the paradox that Leviticus is both a text preeminently about the body, and profoundly phallocentric.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 2: Article 4 (1999).
Abstract: In 1980 Robert Polzin engaged the narrative structure of Deuteronomy and introduced Mikhail Bakhtin's literary theory to biblical studies. Few however have carried forward the implications of this pioneering work, leaving Bakhtin and the narrator sidelined in critical Deuteronomic discussions. This paper demonstrates the unrealized potential inherent in Bakhtin's dialogic theory for the interpretation of biblical narrative. Reading with sensitivity the voice structure of Deuteronomy, it is possible to discern not only a dialogic angle between Moses and the narrator, but also a subtle polemical nuance in the narrator's superlative evaluation of Israel's first prophet
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 2: Article 3 (1999).
Abstract: David L. Petersen's 1997 paper, "Rethinking the Nature of Prophetic Literature" posits a five-fold typology of prophetic literature and prophetic roles: (1) divinatory chronicles about seers; (2) vision reports concerning seer/visionaries; (3) prophetic speech from prophets; (4) legends about men of God; (5) prophetic histories, attributed to intermediaries with no formal title. Petersen critiques other scholars for stereotyping prophets as formal speakers or poets, viewing prophetic literature too often as the actual words of prophets, and reducing its diversity to a single message. Petersen makes a number of valid points, especially his call for an interdisciplinary dialogue. Yet, he himself is dismissive of many approaches in the "methodological stew" that he considers "uninformed". His typology is supported by ambiguous evidence, and he works with an uncritically studied premise that the Hebrew Bible reflects accurate data about prophets. Similar objections can be raised concerning his complaints about the prejudgments.
My critique is based on a fundamentally different historical paradigm than that of Petersen. Cross-cultural comparisons cannot reliably describe the social institution of prophecy, although other types of social scientific research may provide heuristic tools for study in different directions. The biblical portrait of 'classical' prophecy needs analysis as the construction of a later era. The literary qualities of the texts also deserve attention. Perceptual role theory, as opposed to the role theory employed by Petersen, may provide a link between literary and historical research into the manufacturers of the biblical portrait. The required dialogue is much more eclectic than Petersen's paper would allow.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 2: Article 2 (1998).
Abstract: This article presents a detailed analysis of the different forms of anti-Jewish interpretations of Psalm 1 by M. Luther and in Modern German Protestantism (as exemplified by W.M.L de Wette, E.W. Hengstenberg, H. Hupfeld, B. Duhm, R. Kittel, H. Gunkel, A. Weiser, and H. -J. Kraus). These commentaries reviewed fall into three models of interpretation. The first model is marked by positive interpretation and Christian appropriation. In this model the Jews are deemed incapable of attaining the theological level of the Psalm, becauseand reducing what these interpreters say to its essencethe Jews in their strict adherence to nomism cut themselves off from the Christian truth. The second model is that of religio-historical degeneration. The distinguishing feature of this model is that the Psalm is seen as the product of a "decayed post-prophetic Judaism." The third model is that of religio-historical progression. In contrast with the Hebrew-Jewish level of religious development, which is characterized as external and superficial, Christian religiousness is seen as more spiritual, more inward, and thus it is considered higher on the religious scale. If one were to look for a common basis of the anti-Jewish statements of these exegetes, a decisive factor, in my opinion, is Christology, more specifically, the Reformations justification-Christology with its exclusivist, anti-Jewish configuration.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 2: Article 1 (1998).
Abstract: This paper proposes a form-critical rereading of Hosea based upon synchronic literary criteria. Past scholarship generally argues that the book of Hosea articulates a message of judgment against Israel in three basic parts, Hosea 1-3; Hosea 4-11; and Hosea 12-14. Each component begins with material pertaining to Israel's judgment, but concludes with material pertaining to restoration. This view is based upon redactional-critical criteria, and posits an original core of judgmental material against Israel that has been supplement and "softened" by later texts concerned Israel's restoration. A rereading of the book in relation to its formal syntactical and semantic features indicates a very different structure in which an anonymous narrator presents Hosea's prophecy are parenetic appeal to Israel to return to YHWH by abandoning its alliances with foreign powers, specifically Assyria and Egypt. Although Hosea's oracles were originally delivered in the north, the present form of the book is directed to a Judean audience, and may be read in relation to the reigns of either Hezekiah or Josiah.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 1: Article 6 (1997).
Abstract: The article seeks to apply the interpretative content of Ecclesiastes 1:15 within a specific situation. The quest to do so uncovers a surrounding literary structure (1:13-18) that describes two parallel tasks. With specific reference to one of the tasks (1:16-17 + 18) and its thematic expansion in 2:12-17, the article understands the proverb of 1:15 to describe a crooked world which is without any permanent reward for the wise. The article also proposes that the proverb depicts the strong presence of a subjective idealism in the evaluation of the world's events.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 1: Article 5 (1997).
Among the conclusions of this article: Canonizing begins and continues as an open-ended process. To canonize a work is not an entirely conscious process at all stages and does not entail that other works have to be barred from being canonized, or definitely excluded from such a status. Only when definitive canonical lists emerge does the canonizing process stop. While canonizing does entail listing, organizing and labelling, a single definitive list is not, indeed, the purpose of the canonizing process, any more than death is the purpose of life: just its end.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 1: Article 4 (1997).
Abstract: A reexamination of the anecdote in Qoh 4:13-16 supports the following understanding: There was a succession of four protagonists: an old but foolish king; youth1, who came forth from prison; youth2, a poor man born in the latter's reign; and youth3, who is not an individual but whichever young man may come next in line. Wisdom is effective but its accomplishments undermined by the fickleness of public favor and memory.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 1: Article 3 (1997).
Among the conclusions of this article:
The apology of David (David's Accession Story) was written during David's reign and utilized for Solomon's Accession Story, which integrated it and duplicated it with satiric plagiarizing. So David's Accession History (without the satiric plagiarizing) was written during David's reign (eleventh century BC), and Solomon's Accession History resumed David's, duplicated it (satiric plagiarizing) and brought it to its final triumph with the transport of the Ark to the Temple of Solomon. This was done during Solomon's reign, which seems to have been even more controversial than that of David. The final form of the Story must have been completed in the tenth century BC.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 1: Article 2 (1997).
In 1996 Raymond F. Person, Jr. published the first monograph on Jonah in which the text is approached primarily from the perspective of Conversation Analysis (i.e., R.F. Person, In Conversation with Jonah: Conversation Analysis, Literary Criticism, and the Book of Jonah [JSOTSup 220, Sheffield, 1996]). The volume already warranted a formal discussion at the (November) 1996 meeting of Socio-Linguistics Group of the Society of Biblical Literature. The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures (JHS) is glad to provide its readers a (revised) version of the papers that were presented at that meeting.
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Journal of Hebrew Scriptures - Volume 1: Article 1(1996)
Abstract:
The starting point of the article is a triple crisis of the traditional historical exegesis of the OT. Proposed is a "theory of exegesis" which offers a basis for transformations of traditional questions and methods and which offers "interfaces" for both, the integration of recent trends of literary sciences and the dialog with non-academic, contextual approaches. The (biblical) text is basically understood as an "aesthetic subject" in order to stress that the interrelation between the text and its readers proceeds from the productive encounter between both. As "co-ordinates" of the theory function U. Eco's three "intentions of interpretation" and their relations: the "intentio operis" which opens the perspective on descriptive text theories, the intentio lectoris which integrates "aesthetics of reception" and the intentio auctoris which offers the link to the traditional historical-critical exegesis.
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