Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.9
P. Fredriksen
Abstract:What happens if we think of "Jewish law" not as a category of Christian theology but as an element of ancient kinship construction, "ancestral custom" (Gal 1:14)? We will see more clearly how much late Second Temple Judaism shared with contemporary Mediterranean cultures. We will see how ancient ethnic essentialism—the conviction that different peoples evinced different behaviors because of their very "nature" (φύσις)—shapes Paul's thought about gentiles no less than it shaped Greek thought about Persians, or Roman thought about Greeks. We will see how Jewish law provided not the contrast to Paul's gospel but in fact much of its content. We will see that there is no reason to assume that Paul stopped living Jewishly (Ἰουδαϊκῶς) just because he wanted gentiles to stop living "paganly" (ἐθνικῶς). We will let Paul reside coherently in a world radically different from our own—the ethnically essentialist, behaviorally variegated, god-congested world of first-century Jewishness.
{"title":"What Does It Mean to See Paul \"within Judaism\"?","authors":"P. Fredriksen","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.9","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:What happens if we think of \"Jewish law\" not as a category of Christian theology but as an element of ancient kinship construction, \"ancestral custom\" (Gal 1:14)? We will see more clearly how much late Second Temple Judaism shared with contemporary Mediterranean cultures. We will see how ancient ethnic essentialism—the conviction that different peoples evinced different behaviors because of their very \"nature\" (φύσις)—shapes Paul's thought about gentiles no less than it shaped Greek thought about Persians, or Roman thought about Greeks. We will see how Jewish law provided not the contrast to Paul's gospel but in fact much of its content. We will see that there is no reason to assume that Paul stopped living Jewishly (Ἰουδαϊκῶς) just because he wanted gentiles to stop living \"paganly\" (ἐθνικῶς). We will let Paul reside coherently in a world radically different from our own—the ethnically essentialist, behaviorally variegated, god-congested world of first-century Jewishness.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"359 - 380"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46383639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.2
Elizabeth VanDyke
Abstract:This article reexamines the creation of the golden calf in Exod 32:4a. Though the text in question is brief, it has been a puzzle to translators and commentators since the time of the LXX and warrants reassessment in light of new inscriptional and linguistic data. Syntactical analysis and comparative Semitics show that Aaron not only produced the calf but designed it as well. This interpretation requires glossing the verb in the passage, , according to its cognates in Akkadian and Aramaic as "to draw" or "to design." The resulting translation solves the grammatical difficulties of the text and fits a greater cultural concern for the "divine design" of cultic objects. I will also suggest that the implement Aaron used to design the calf was not an engraving tool but a rush pen. Artifacts from Egypt as well as from Kuntillet 'Ajrud evidence how ancient scribes sketched, played with, and practiced their craft with ink and pen before creating a final product. Understanding the tool in this manner also suits its usage in Isa 8:1 as a writing instrument used on a large piece of papyrus. In sum, the translation "and he designed it with a rush pen and made it into a cast-metal calf" solves the grammatical and lexical difficulties of the passage while adding to our understanding of Exodus's overall polemic against the bovine image.
{"title":"Designing the Golden Calf: Pens and Presumption in the Production of a \"Divine\" Image","authors":"Elizabeth VanDyke","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article reexamines the creation of the golden calf in Exod 32:4a. Though the text in question is brief, it has been a puzzle to translators and commentators since the time of the LXX and warrants reassessment in light of new inscriptional and linguistic data. Syntactical analysis and comparative Semitics show that Aaron not only produced the calf but designed it as well. This interpretation requires glossing the verb in the passage, , according to its cognates in Akkadian and Aramaic as \"to draw\" or \"to design.\" The resulting translation solves the grammatical difficulties of the text and fits a greater cultural concern for the \"divine design\" of cultic objects. I will also suggest that the implement Aaron used to design the calf was not an engraving tool but a rush pen. Artifacts from Egypt as well as from Kuntillet 'Ajrud evidence how ancient scribes sketched, played with, and practiced their craft with ink and pen before creating a final product. Understanding the tool in this manner also suits its usage in Isa 8:1 as a writing instrument used on a large piece of papyrus. In sum, the translation \"and he designed it with a rush pen and made it into a cast-metal calf\" solves the grammatical and lexical difficulties of the passage while adding to our understanding of Exodus's overall polemic against the bovine image.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"219 - 233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44670139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.4
H. Smith
Abstract:Second Maccabees 1:10–2:18 ascribes authority to Nehemiah for the reinstatement of pure and acceptable worship in the Second Temple, including an extensive comparison between Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and Solomon. This concern for the sanctity of the temple and the presentation of Nehemiah's role therein respond to the ever-shifting political circumstances characterizing Jerusalem and the diasporic community in the second century BCE. There are important correlations between the portrayal of Nehemiah in 2 Macc 1:10–2:18 and in several of the latest compositional changes preserved in MT Ezra-Nehemiah. My analysis of these correlations provides a framework for interpreting these compositional changes, supporting recent conclusions regarding the pro-Hasmonean character of MT Ezra-Nehemiah. Moreover, it provides insight into the rationale behind the combination of the originally separate Ezra and Nehemiah traditions. Inasmuch as the pro-Hasmonean tradents viewed Nehemiah as a compelling historical antecedent to Judas Maccabeus, they also considered Ezra's Aaronic priestly authority to be an antecedent to their own claims. By fashioning a narrative in which an Aaronic priest confirms the legitimacy of Nehemiah's reforms through communal celebration of the Festival of Booths, the pro-Hasmonean tradents bolster their own political and religious claims to authority while further establishing the Festival of Booths as a compelling symbol for Hanukkah (2 Macc 10:1–6).
{"title":"Reconsidering the Composition of Ezra-Nehemiah in Light of 2 Maccabees 1:10–2:18","authors":"H. Smith","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.4","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Second Maccabees 1:10–2:18 ascribes authority to Nehemiah for the reinstatement of pure and acceptable worship in the Second Temple, including an extensive comparison between Nehemiah, Jeremiah, and Solomon. This concern for the sanctity of the temple and the presentation of Nehemiah's role therein respond to the ever-shifting political circumstances characterizing Jerusalem and the diasporic community in the second century BCE. There are important correlations between the portrayal of Nehemiah in 2 Macc 1:10–2:18 and in several of the latest compositional changes preserved in MT Ezra-Nehemiah. My analysis of these correlations provides a framework for interpreting these compositional changes, supporting recent conclusions regarding the pro-Hasmonean character of MT Ezra-Nehemiah. Moreover, it provides insight into the rationale behind the combination of the originally separate Ezra and Nehemiah traditions. Inasmuch as the pro-Hasmonean tradents viewed Nehemiah as a compelling historical antecedent to Judas Maccabeus, they also considered Ezra's Aaronic priestly authority to be an antecedent to their own claims. By fashioning a narrative in which an Aaronic priest confirms the legitimacy of Nehemiah's reforms through communal celebration of the Festival of Booths, the pro-Hasmonean tradents bolster their own political and religious claims to authority while further establishing the Festival of Booths as a compelling symbol for Hanukkah (2 Macc 10:1–6).","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"257 - 276"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42099997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.7
Nehemia Gordon
Abstract:Standard qere (lit., "it is read") notes recorded in the margin of medieval Hebrew Bible manuscripts instruct the reader how to read and interpret words in the body of the text, the ketiv (lit., "it is written"). Although some qere notes may appear to correct errors in the ketiv, as a rule the ketiv was meant to be preserved unchanged, with the qere perpetuated in the margin. This study will explore a hitherto overlooked, nonstandard usage of the qere notation that served to notify the reader of an error in the text and was intended to replace the ketiv the next time the manuscript was copied. This phenomenon of "text-correcting qere" can be identified when the qere is seemingly superfluous or improbable. Other indicators of text-correcting qere occur when the ketiv has been marked for erasure with a strikethrough or has been left unpointed, when it has been previously corrected, or when it is ambiguous or illegible due to successive corrections. A related phenomenon involves recording the word ketiv itself in the margin along with a correction to indicate "it should be written [X]." A parallel in talmudic manuscripts raises the possibility of understanding this as "I found it written [X] in another manuscript." The former would be an actual correction ("text-correcting ketiv"), whereas the latter would record a textual variant that was meant to be perpetuated as a marginal note ("variant-noting ketiv").
{"title":"Text-Correcting Qere, Scribal Errors, and Textual Variants in Medieval Hebrew Bible Manuscripts","authors":"Nehemia Gordon","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.7","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Standard qere (lit., \"it is read\") notes recorded in the margin of medieval Hebrew Bible manuscripts instruct the reader how to read and interpret words in the body of the text, the ketiv (lit., \"it is written\"). Although some qere notes may appear to correct errors in the ketiv, as a rule the ketiv was meant to be preserved unchanged, with the qere perpetuated in the margin. This study will explore a hitherto overlooked, nonstandard usage of the qere notation that served to notify the reader of an error in the text and was intended to replace the ketiv the next time the manuscript was copied. This phenomenon of \"text-correcting qere\" can be identified when the qere is seemingly superfluous or improbable. Other indicators of text-correcting qere occur when the ketiv has been marked for erasure with a strikethrough or has been left unpointed, when it has been previously corrected, or when it is ambiguous or illegible due to successive corrections. A related phenomenon involves recording the word ketiv itself in the margin along with a correction to indicate \"it should be written [X].\" A parallel in talmudic manuscripts raises the possibility of understanding this as \"I found it written [X] in another manuscript.\" The former would be an actual correction (\"text-correcting ketiv\"), whereas the latter would record a textual variant that was meant to be perpetuated as a marginal note (\"variant-noting ketiv\").","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"317 - 336"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48821373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.141.2.2022.3
Rhiannon Graybill
Abstract:The Hebrew Bible contains multiple texts in which mothers eat their children. Deuteronomy 28, Lam 2 and 4, and 2 Kgs 6 all offer variations on the theme of maternal cannibalism. While these passages are often written off as gruesome, exceptional, or motivated by extreme necessity (such as starvation), such approaches miss the literary and ideological significance of maternal cannibalism. This study, in contrast, approaches the biblical accounts through another body of literature with its own rich assembly of cannibalistic mothers: the classic fairy tales. Reading with fairy tales surfaces four important points: (1) starvation is insufficient to explain cannibalism; (2) cooking children, as much as eating them, is narratively significant and should be analyzed as such; (3) some mothers are indeed Bad Mothers, even as (4) cannibalism does not preclude affection and love—including at least some mothers who cannibalize their children. Taken together, these principles challenge the assumed norms of maternity, while offering new ways of reading and responding to the cannibal mothers of the Hebrew Bible.
{"title":"A Child Is Being Eaten: Maternal Cannibalism and the Hebrew Bible in the Company of Fairy Tales","authors":"Rhiannon Graybill","doi":"10.15699/jbl.141.2.2022.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.141.2.2022.3","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The Hebrew Bible contains multiple texts in which mothers eat their children. Deuteronomy 28, Lam 2 and 4, and 2 Kgs 6 all offer variations on the theme of maternal cannibalism. While these passages are often written off as gruesome, exceptional, or motivated by extreme necessity (such as starvation), such approaches miss the literary and ideological significance of maternal cannibalism. This study, in contrast, approaches the biblical accounts through another body of literature with its own rich assembly of cannibalistic mothers: the classic fairy tales. Reading with fairy tales surfaces four important points: (1) starvation is insufficient to explain cannibalism; (2) cooking children, as much as eating them, is narratively significant and should be analyzed as such; (3) some mothers are indeed Bad Mothers, even as (4) cannibalism does not preclude affection and love—including at least some mothers who cannibalize their children. Taken together, these principles challenge the assumed norms of maternity, while offering new ways of reading and responding to the cannibal mothers of the Hebrew Bible.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"235 - 255"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45920792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.8
Michael Kochenash
Abstract:This article addresses two non sequiturs in Acts 12—the disbelief of Rhoda's announcement of Peter's arrival and the apparent disconnect of the death of "King Herod" to the rest of the chapter—by interpreting Rhoda as a Cassandra figure. Like Cassandra, Rhoda is unable to convince others regarding her accurate pronouncement and is then maligned as maenadic. In conjunction with reading Peter's prison escape as imitating Il. 24, this interpretation allows readers to project the vengeance-related logic of these models onto the Acts narrative's presentation of Herod's death and thereby understand it as divine vengeance for executing James and imprisoning Peter.
{"title":"Unbelievable: An Interpretation of Acts 12 That Takes Rhoda's Cassandra Curse Seriously","authors":"Michael Kochenash","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.8","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article addresses two non sequiturs in Acts 12—the disbelief of Rhoda's announcement of Peter's arrival and the apparent disconnect of the death of \"King Herod\" to the rest of the chapter—by interpreting Rhoda as a Cassandra figure. Like Cassandra, Rhoda is unable to convince others regarding her accurate pronouncement and is then maligned as maenadic. In conjunction with reading Peter's prison escape as imitating Il. 24, this interpretation allows readers to project the vengeance-related logic of these models onto the Acts narrative's presentation of Herod's death and thereby understand it as divine vengeance for executing James and imprisoning Peter.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"337 - 357"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41349050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.6
E. Gallagher
Abstract:Three verses in the book of Daniel describe the Hellenistic world as divided into four segments (Dan 8:8, 22; 11:4). The history of interpretation of the book of Daniel displays a remarkable readiness, even among critical scholars, to take this scheme literally and to press Hellenistic history into the mold supplied by Daniel's apocalyptic visions. Daniel commentators agree, for instance, in understanding the four new horns of the goat in Dan 8 as representative of the Diadochi, the successors of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, but they disagree on precisely which Diadochi the apocalyptic seer had in mind. An examination of our classical sources for early Hellenistic history, particularly the most detailed source, Diodorus Siculus, demonstrates the near futility of trying to identify precisely four parts of the post-Alexander Macedonian Empire. In the present article, I find a symbolic interpretation of the number four to be the most satisfying, but I also make some suggestions for how to understand the number literally as a representation of the Hellenistic world. Nevertheless, commentators taking the number "four" in Dan 8:8, 22; 11:4 as a straightforward and simple reference to a historical reality have underestimated the chaos of the decades following Alexander's death.
{"title":"Daniel and the Diadochi","authors":"E. Gallagher","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.6","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Three verses in the book of Daniel describe the Hellenistic world as divided into four segments (Dan 8:8, 22; 11:4). The history of interpretation of the book of Daniel displays a remarkable readiness, even among critical scholars, to take this scheme literally and to press Hellenistic history into the mold supplied by Daniel's apocalyptic visions. Daniel commentators agree, for instance, in understanding the four new horns of the goat in Dan 8 as representative of the Diadochi, the successors of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BCE, but they disagree on precisely which Diadochi the apocalyptic seer had in mind. An examination of our classical sources for early Hellenistic history, particularly the most detailed source, Diodorus Siculus, demonstrates the near futility of trying to identify precisely four parts of the post-Alexander Macedonian Empire. In the present article, I find a symbolic interpretation of the number four to be the most satisfying, but I also make some suggestions for how to understand the number literally as a representation of the Hellenistic world. Nevertheless, commentators taking the number \"four\" in Dan 8:8, 22; 11:4 as a straightforward and simple reference to a historical reality have underestimated the chaos of the decades following Alexander's death.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"301 - 316"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48700811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.1
H. Levinson
Abstract:In a recent JBL article, David J. A. Clines reviews twenty-two Hebrew Bible texts that allegedly include female god-language. His review concludes: "There is not a single instance of female language about the deity in the Hebrew Bible." Three major methodological difficulties undermine this unqualified conclusion: the selective choice of conversation partners, together with an inattention to the history of feminist biblical scholarship; the author's decision to exclude metaphor theory from the scope of his article; and, finally, his paradoxical failure to define at the outset what "female" language means in reference to the deity. The article's significant methodological deficiencies make its conclusions inevitable and, in effect, yield a literalist reading. Given the importance of the topic to the discipline, the present response provides a more hermeneutically self-aware analysis of the methodological and theoretical issues. This study demonstrates that feminist scholarship has an intellectual history essential to exegetical studies of such texts, and that metaphor theory is essential to any discussion of gendered language for the deity in the Hebrew Bible.
{"title":"Still Invisible after All These Years? Female God-Language in the Hebrew Bible: A Response to David J. A. Clines","authors":"H. Levinson","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.1","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In a recent JBL article, David J. A. Clines reviews twenty-two Hebrew Bible texts that allegedly include female god-language. His review concludes: \"There is not a single instance of female language about the deity in the Hebrew Bible.\" Three major methodological difficulties undermine this unqualified conclusion: the selective choice of conversation partners, together with an inattention to the history of feminist biblical scholarship; the author's decision to exclude metaphor theory from the scope of his article; and, finally, his paradoxical failure to define at the outset what \"female\" language means in reference to the deity. The article's significant methodological deficiencies make its conclusions inevitable and, in effect, yield a literalist reading. Given the importance of the topic to the discipline, the present response provides a more hermeneutically self-aware analysis of the methodological and theoretical issues. This study demonstrates that feminist scholarship has an intellectual history essential to exegetical studies of such texts, and that metaphor theory is essential to any discussion of gendered language for the deity in the Hebrew Bible.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"199 - 217"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46388713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.5
U. Berges
Abstract:One of the main results of the last thirty years of research on the books of Isaiah and Psalms is that both are not just collections of individual texts but well-organized compositions. This is not unique to Isaiah and Psalms but applies to every book of the Old Testament. What is very special about these two books, however, is the centrality of Zion, the contrast of the righteous and the wicked, the inclusion of non-Israelites, the singing to YHWH, and the reservation regarding the sacrificial cult. A few scholars have already put forward the idea of temple singers as collective authors, who had begun their oratorio of hope in the Babylonian exile and continued it after their return to Jerusalem under Darius, connecting it to the literary heritage of Isaiah ben Amoz and his disciples. In this article, I further test the closeness of Isaiah and Psalms by analyzing some striking similarities between Isa 55–66 and the book of Psalms. The goal of this research is not to prove the identity of the authors of both compositions but to substantiate their intellectual neighborhood in postexilic times.
{"title":"Isaiah 55–66 and the Psalms: Shared Viewpoints, Literary Similarities, and Neighboring Authors","authors":"U. Berges","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1412.2022.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:One of the main results of the last thirty years of research on the books of Isaiah and Psalms is that both are not just collections of individual texts but well-organized compositions. This is not unique to Isaiah and Psalms but applies to every book of the Old Testament. What is very special about these two books, however, is the centrality of Zion, the contrast of the righteous and the wicked, the inclusion of non-Israelites, the singing to YHWH, and the reservation regarding the sacrificial cult. A few scholars have already put forward the idea of temple singers as collective authors, who had begun their oratorio of hope in the Babylonian exile and continued it after their return to Jerusalem under Darius, connecting it to the literary heritage of Isaiah ben Amoz and his disciples. In this article, I further test the closeness of Isaiah and Psalms by analyzing some striking similarities between Isa 55–66 and the book of Psalms. The goal of this research is not to prove the identity of the authors of both compositions but to substantiate their intellectual neighborhood in postexilic times.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"277 - 299"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46201156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-15DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1411.2022.5
Rachelle Gilmour
Abstract:This essay examines the literary and compositional inclusion of the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Sam 11–12, in the stretch of narrative concerning David’s court in 2 Samuel, particularly in light of current debates surrounding the so-called Succession Narrative. I argue that the sex-and-murder scandal of 2 Sam 11–12 functions within a Judahite ideology of kingship to legitimize and strengthen the power of the Davidic dynasty and was inserted in rejection of northern notions of a monarchy legitimized through popular support and agency. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt and recent studies on sex scandals in politics, I highlight three ways in which the insertion of the scandal in 2 Sam 11–12 is an effective way of transforming the monarchic ideology of 2 Sam 13–20 and casting the narrative favorably for the Davidic kings: the location of the transgression in an incontestable space, analogous to Arendt’s notion of the private realm; the salaciousness of the narrative effecting enjoyment in the audience; and the distinction between scandal and corruption, where David’s transgression is a single aberration, compared to the northern kingdom portrayed as systemically corrupt.
{"title":"Sex Scandal and the Politics of David’s Throne","authors":"Rachelle Gilmour","doi":"10.15699/jbl.1411.2022.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1411.2022.5","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay examines the literary and compositional inclusion of the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Sam 11–12, in the stretch of narrative concerning David’s court in 2 Samuel, particularly in light of current debates surrounding the so-called Succession Narrative. I argue that the sex-and-murder scandal of 2 Sam 11–12 functions within a Judahite ideology of kingship to legitimize and strengthen the power of the Davidic dynasty and was inserted in rejection of northern notions of a monarchy legitimized through popular support and agency. Drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt and recent studies on sex scandals in politics, I highlight three ways in which the insertion of the scandal in 2 Sam 11–12 is an effective way of transforming the monarchic ideology of 2 Sam 13–20 and casting the narrative favorably for the Davidic kings: the location of the transgression in an incontestable space, analogous to Arendt’s notion of the private realm; the salaciousness of the narrative effecting enjoyment in the audience; and the distinction between scandal and corruption, where David’s transgression is a single aberration, compared to the northern kingdom portrayed as systemically corrupt.","PeriodicalId":15251,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Biblical Literature","volume":"141 1","pages":"104 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42968411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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