Abstract The Christian discourse of the literal and spiritual senses in the Bible was, in the long eighteenth century, no less tied to perceptions of Jewish interpretive abilities than it had been previously. However, rather than linking Jews with literalism, in many cases the early modern version of this discourse associated Jews with allegory. By touching upon three moments in the reception history of the Bible in the eighteenth century, this article exhibits the entanglement of religious identity and biblical allegory characteristic of this context. The English Newtonian, William Whiston, fervently resisted allegorical interpretations of the Bible in favor of scientific and literal explanations, and blamed Jewish manuscript corruption for any confusion of meaning. Johan Kemper was a convert whose recruitment to Uppsala University reveals an appetite on the part of university and governmental authorities for rabbinic and kabbalistic interpretive methods and their application to Christian texts. Finally, the German Jewish intellectual Moses Mendelssohn responded to challenges facing the Jewish community by combining traditional rabbinic approaches and early modern philosophy in defense of a multivocal reading of biblical texts. Furthermore, Mendelssohn’s insistence on the particularity of biblical symbols, that they are not universally accessible, informed his vision for religious pluralism. Each of these figures illuminates not only the thorny plight of biblical allegory in modernity, but also the ever-present barriers and passageways between Judaism and Christianity as they manifested during the European Enlightenment.
{"title":"Allegory and Religious Pluralism: Biblical Interpretation in the Eighteenth Century","authors":"Rebecca K. Esterson","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2018-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2018-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Christian discourse of the literal and spiritual senses in the Bible was, in the long eighteenth century, no less tied to perceptions of Jewish interpretive abilities than it had been previously. However, rather than linking Jews with literalism, in many cases the early modern version of this discourse associated Jews with allegory. By touching upon three moments in the reception history of the Bible in the eighteenth century, this article exhibits the entanglement of religious identity and biblical allegory characteristic of this context. The English Newtonian, William Whiston, fervently resisted allegorical interpretations of the Bible in favor of scientific and literal explanations, and blamed Jewish manuscript corruption for any confusion of meaning. Johan Kemper was a convert whose recruitment to Uppsala University reveals an appetite on the part of university and governmental authorities for rabbinic and kabbalistic interpretive methods and their application to Christian texts. Finally, the German Jewish intellectual Moses Mendelssohn responded to challenges facing the Jewish community by combining traditional rabbinic approaches and early modern philosophy in defense of a multivocal reading of biblical texts. Furthermore, Mendelssohn’s insistence on the particularity of biblical symbols, that they are not universally accessible, informed his vision for religious pluralism. Each of these figures illuminates not only the thorny plight of biblical allegory in modernity, but also the ever-present barriers and passageways between Judaism and Christianity as they manifested during the European Enlightenment.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74686952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article examines conceptions of the Bible in early seventeenth-century England by discussing four instances of antagonism toward the Bible. In 1601/2, a group of papists rent and scattered the Bible and the prayer book in their parish church. In 1602, Katherine Brettergh suffered from a crisis of faith, during which she repeatedly threw her Bible away. Also in 1602, the young boy Thomas Harrison, possessed by the devil, snatched books of the Bible from anyone around him and tore them apart. Around the same time, in Christopher Marlowe’s play about Faustus, Doctor Faustus vowed to burn Scripture. In all four cases, views and emotions regarding the Bible were expressed by violent gestures. What is common to these unrelated episodes is an assumption that the Bible was somehow powerful; that the Bible was not simply Holy Scripture but rather a forceful and efficacious book. In the article I analyse this sense of forcefulness in the Bible. Historians are now paying more attention to the Protestant material Bible and the ways the book was employed as quasi-magical object. The article extends this focus on Bible and power to new directions. I examine notions of power in the Bible, expressed by people on the religious margins – some Catholics, a few Godly, one sorcerer – and I examine the attribution of power to Scripture without clearly distinguishing between textual (referential) and material (magical) uses.
{"title":"Scripture and Power: Four Anecdotes from Early Seventeenth-Century England","authors":"Avner Shamir","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2018-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2018-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines conceptions of the Bible in early seventeenth-century England by discussing four instances of antagonism toward the Bible. In 1601/2, a group of papists rent and scattered the Bible and the prayer book in their parish church. In 1602, Katherine Brettergh suffered from a crisis of faith, during which she repeatedly threw her Bible away. Also in 1602, the young boy Thomas Harrison, possessed by the devil, snatched books of the Bible from anyone around him and tore them apart. Around the same time, in Christopher Marlowe’s play about Faustus, Doctor Faustus vowed to burn Scripture. In all four cases, views and emotions regarding the Bible were expressed by violent gestures. What is common to these unrelated episodes is an assumption that the Bible was somehow powerful; that the Bible was not simply Holy Scripture but rather a forceful and efficacious book. In the article I analyse this sense of forcefulness in the Bible. Historians are now paying more attention to the Protestant material Bible and the ways the book was employed as quasi-magical object. The article extends this focus on Bible and power to new directions. I examine notions of power in the Bible, expressed by people on the religious margins – some Catholics, a few Godly, one sorcerer – and I examine the attribution of power to Scripture without clearly distinguishing between textual (referential) and material (magical) uses.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80117601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The exegesis of the burning bush theophany set forth in Eusebius of Caesarea’s Prophetic Extracts and Proof of the Gospel adds a distinctive and original voice to the rich chorus of Jewish and Christian interpreters of Exodus 3. Eusebius posits a disjunction between the visual and the auditory aspects of the theophany – the angel appears, the Lord speaks – and departs from the mainstream of Jewish and Christian tradition by depicting Moses as a spiritual neophyte whose attunement to God ranks much lower than that of the patriarchs of old. Even though scholars point to the overall anti-Jewish context of this exegesis, it is difficult to find satisfactory terms of comparison for some of its details. It appears, therefore, that Eusebius’ understudied Prophetic Extracts and Proof of the Gospel offer a surprisingly original interpretation that should enrich the scholarly account of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the famous burning bush episode.
{"title":"“God Never Appeared to Moses:” Eusebius of Caesarea’s Peculiar Exegesis of the Burning Bush Theophany","authors":"B. Bucur","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2018-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2018-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The exegesis of the burning bush theophany set forth in Eusebius of Caesarea’s Prophetic Extracts and Proof of the Gospel adds a distinctive and original voice to the rich chorus of Jewish and Christian interpreters of Exodus 3. Eusebius posits a disjunction between the visual and the auditory aspects of the theophany – the angel appears, the Lord speaks – and departs from the mainstream of Jewish and Christian tradition by depicting Moses as a spiritual neophyte whose attunement to God ranks much lower than that of the patriarchs of old. Even though scholars point to the overall anti-Jewish context of this exegesis, it is difficult to find satisfactory terms of comparison for some of its details. It appears, therefore, that Eusebius’ understudied Prophetic Extracts and Proof of the Gospel offer a surprisingly original interpretation that should enrich the scholarly account of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the famous burning bush episode.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86326772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In spite of Ireland’s rich and complex religious history, the influence of the Old Testament in the shaping of the island is often overlooked. This study traces the use and reception of the Old Testament in Ireland through the centuries, focusing on stories of transmission, translation, and unexpected influence. In early Christian and medieval Ireland, the transmission of the Old Testament in diverse contexts points to an important role for the Old Testament in relation to social formation and notions of Irish history. Moving to early modern Ireland, the story of the translation of the Old Testament into Irish demonstrates how this collection contributed to contested issues of identity in this highly-charged era. Finally, we encounter stories of unexpected influence relating to Ireland and the Old Testament in James Ussher and John Nelson Darby. In both cases, ideas concerning the Old Testament that took shape in Ireland would go on to have impact on a global scale, even if this subsequent influence was a matter of accidence. Taken together, it is argued that the Old Testament has played a much more prominent role in the shaping of the social, cultural, and religious landscape of Ireland than is often assumed.
{"title":"Ireland and the Old Testament: Transmission, Translation, and Unexpected Influence","authors":"Bradford A. Anderson","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2018-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2018-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In spite of Ireland’s rich and complex religious history, the influence of the Old Testament in the shaping of the island is often overlooked. This study traces the use and reception of the Old Testament in Ireland through the centuries, focusing on stories of transmission, translation, and unexpected influence. In early Christian and medieval Ireland, the transmission of the Old Testament in diverse contexts points to an important role for the Old Testament in relation to social formation and notions of Irish history. Moving to early modern Ireland, the story of the translation of the Old Testament into Irish demonstrates how this collection contributed to contested issues of identity in this highly-charged era. Finally, we encounter stories of unexpected influence relating to Ireland and the Old Testament in James Ussher and John Nelson Darby. In both cases, ideas concerning the Old Testament that took shape in Ireland would go on to have impact on a global scale, even if this subsequent influence was a matter of accidence. Taken together, it is argued that the Old Testament has played a much more prominent role in the shaping of the social, cultural, and religious landscape of Ireland than is often assumed.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83356081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In this article, I present a meta-analysis of reception history as a discipline, followed by a study in the interpretative methods used by transgender Christians. Following Helen Savage’s work on transgender Christians’ spirituality, I concede her three observed hermeneutical methods: 1) establishing a hierarchy of texts, 2) resolution through historical criticism, and 3) changing the subject. I also add to her observations two additional observed methods: 4) self-insertion and 5) Scripture as precedent. These observations noted, the landscape of transgender Christians’ theologies is revealed as more diverse than others have previously anticipated, and increasingly so. This research also opens up space for theologians, scholars, and clergy to understand transgender hermeneutics and theology with a greater deal of nuance and care.
{"title":"The Bible and The Transgender Christian: Mapping Transgender Hermeneutics in the 21st Century","authors":"Katherine Apostolacus","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2016-0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2016-0027","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article, I present a meta-analysis of reception history as a discipline, followed by a study in the interpretative methods used by transgender Christians. Following Helen Savage’s work on transgender Christians’ spirituality, I concede her three observed hermeneutical methods: 1) establishing a hierarchy of texts, 2) resolution through historical criticism, and 3) changing the subject. I also add to her observations two additional observed methods: 4) self-insertion and 5) Scripture as precedent. These observations noted, the landscape of transgender Christians’ theologies is revealed as more diverse than others have previously anticipated, and increasingly so. This research also opens up space for theologians, scholars, and clergy to understand transgender hermeneutics and theology with a greater deal of nuance and care.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91275920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper investigates the Chinese reception and transformation of the Bible through dramatic texts during the early Republican period, and the ways in which members of the Catholic community attempted to resolve the cultural and moral conflicts, mainly through the lens of the martyrdom narratives in the dramatic text Majiabai’a zhuan (The Story of the Maccabees, 1918). The Chinese playwright Fei Jinbiao, well aware of the contesting moral values in the Chinese cultural contexts, adopted some dramatizing strategies to resolve the moral dilemma among most Chinese audiences. The dramatization of biblical and martyrdom stories in Chinese were employed as a tool of proselytization and religious education in Catholic families and schools. The reading and performing of the dramatic texts on martyrdom also contributed to the identity building of the Chinese Catholic community as a distinctive group on the borders of the mainstream Chinese society. From a broader perspective, the making of martyrdom in Chinese Catholic dramatic texts and the performance of martyrdom stories in China facilitated the “re-membering” of not only the Western saints into the Chinese church but also the Chinese martyrs into the universal Catholic Church.
{"title":"Dramatizing the Bible in Chinese: The Making of Martyrdom in The Story of the Maccabees (1918)","authors":"John T P Lai","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2016-0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2016-0028","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper investigates the Chinese reception and transformation of the Bible through dramatic texts during the early Republican period, and the ways in which members of the Catholic community attempted to resolve the cultural and moral conflicts, mainly through the lens of the martyrdom narratives in the dramatic text Majiabai’a zhuan (The Story of the Maccabees, 1918). The Chinese playwright Fei Jinbiao, well aware of the contesting moral values in the Chinese cultural contexts, adopted some dramatizing strategies to resolve the moral dilemma among most Chinese audiences. The dramatization of biblical and martyrdom stories in Chinese were employed as a tool of proselytization and religious education in Catholic families and schools. The reading and performing of the dramatic texts on martyrdom also contributed to the identity building of the Chinese Catholic community as a distinctive group on the borders of the mainstream Chinese society. From a broader perspective, the making of martyrdom in Chinese Catholic dramatic texts and the performance of martyrdom stories in China facilitated the “re-membering” of not only the Western saints into the Chinese church but also the Chinese martyrs into the universal Catholic Church.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90715659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-09-01DOI: 10.1515/jbr-2018-frontmatter1
{"title":"Frontmatter","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/jbr-2018-frontmatter1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jbr-2018-frontmatter1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77877669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In a 1978 study, Krister Stendahl traced the use of Johannine theology in the Book of Mormon’s most central narrative: the climactic story of the resurrected Jesus visiting the ancient Americas. According to Stendahl, the reproduction of the Sermon on the Mount with occasional slight variations suggests an attempt at deliberately recasting the Matthean text as a Johannine sermon. Building on Stendahl’s work, this essay looks at the use of John earlier in the Book of Mormon, in a narrative presented as having occurred almost a century before the time of Jesus. In an inventive reworking of the narrative of John 11, the story of the raising of Lazarus, the Book of Mormon suggests that it bears a much more complex relationship to the Johannine theology than its unhesitant embrace at the book’s climax indicates. Broad parallels and unmistakable allusions together make clear that the Book of Mormon narrative means to re-present the story from John 11. But the parallels and allusions are woven with alterations to the basic structure of the Johannine narrative. As in John 11, the reworked narrative focuses on the story of two men, one of them apparently dead, and two women, both attached to the (supposedly) dead man. But the figure who serves as the clear parallel to Jesus is unstable in the Book of Mormon narrative: at first a Christian missionary, but then a non-Christian and racially other slave woman, and finally a non-Christian and racially other queen. But still more striking, in many ways, is the fashion in which the Book of Mormon narrative recasts the Lazarus story in a pre-Christian setting, before human beings are asked to confront the Johannine mystery of God in the flesh. Consequently, although the Book of Mormon narrative uses the basic structure and many borrowed phrases from John 11, it recasts the meaning of this structure and these phrases by raising questions about the meaning of belief before the arrival of the Messiah. The Book of Mormon thereby embraces the Johannine theology of a realized eschatology while nonetheless outlining a distinct pre-Christian epistemology focused on trusting prophetic messengers who anticipate eschatology.
{"title":"John 11 in the Book of Mormon","authors":"Nicholas J. Frederick, J. Spencer","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2016-0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2016-0025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In a 1978 study, Krister Stendahl traced the use of Johannine theology in the Book of Mormon’s most central narrative: the climactic story of the resurrected Jesus visiting the ancient Americas. According to Stendahl, the reproduction of the Sermon on the Mount with occasional slight variations suggests an attempt at deliberately recasting the Matthean text as a Johannine sermon. Building on Stendahl’s work, this essay looks at the use of John earlier in the Book of Mormon, in a narrative presented as having occurred almost a century before the time of Jesus. In an inventive reworking of the narrative of John 11, the story of the raising of Lazarus, the Book of Mormon suggests that it bears a much more complex relationship to the Johannine theology than its unhesitant embrace at the book’s climax indicates. Broad parallels and unmistakable allusions together make clear that the Book of Mormon narrative means to re-present the story from John 11. But the parallels and allusions are woven with alterations to the basic structure of the Johannine narrative. As in John 11, the reworked narrative focuses on the story of two men, one of them apparently dead, and two women, both attached to the (supposedly) dead man. But the figure who serves as the clear parallel to Jesus is unstable in the Book of Mormon narrative: at first a Christian missionary, but then a non-Christian and racially other slave woman, and finally a non-Christian and racially other queen. But still more striking, in many ways, is the fashion in which the Book of Mormon narrative recasts the Lazarus story in a pre-Christian setting, before human beings are asked to confront the Johannine mystery of God in the flesh. Consequently, although the Book of Mormon narrative uses the basic structure and many borrowed phrases from John 11, it recasts the meaning of this structure and these phrases by raising questions about the meaning of belief before the arrival of the Messiah. The Book of Mormon thereby embraces the Johannine theology of a realized eschatology while nonetheless outlining a distinct pre-Christian epistemology focused on trusting prophetic messengers who anticipate eschatology.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72969493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This short essay follows a thread of evidence employed across many languages and lands, genres and generations to defend the historicity of the Samson story. Based upon this line of interpretation it stresses some necessary lessons for scholars writing the history of biblical scholarship. The inquiry extends beyond an interest in modern history to show the relevance of the history of scholarship for present research on ancient history and biblical literature.
{"title":"Of Lions, Arabs & Israelites: Some Lessons from the Samson Story for Writing the History of Biblical Scholarship","authors":"P. Kurtz","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2016-0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2016-0029","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This short essay follows a thread of evidence employed across many languages and lands, genres and generations to defend the historicity of the Samson story. Based upon this line of interpretation it stresses some necessary lessons for scholars writing the history of biblical scholarship. The inquiry extends beyond an interest in modern history to show the relevance of the history of scholarship for present research on ancient history and biblical literature.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80730143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract David’s lament in 2 Sam 18:33, on hearing of Absalom’s death, has been an extremely popular text for composers to set to music. The traditional English language settings utilise a text that begins ‘When David Heard’, though these words are absent from the 1611 King James Bible, and the 1560 Geneva bible, and no other extant text supports this rendering. However, a cluster of some thirteen settings of the text in the seventeenth century which appropriated this translation established somewhat of a ‘tradition.’ Settings through to the twenty-first century have continued to utilise this text, with one prominent composer assuming that the textual tradition came from the King James Bible. However, Australian composer Nigel Butterley has produced a setting which makes use of Robert Alter’s translation of the David story. Rather than focus on the single verse, Butterley redacts four chapters of Alter’s translation into a comprehensible narrative, punctuated by the refrain ‘Beni Avshalom. Beni, veni Avshalom’ which appears three times, and the full lament which occurs on the last two occasions. This paper examines Butterley’s appropriation of Alter’s translation, and the musical vocabulary which is employed in conveying this deeply moving text. Interested as it is in issues of interpretation, it reveals Butterley as a both sensitive and powerful reader of scripture.
摘要:《撒母耳记下》18:33中大卫听到押沙龙之死的哀歌，一直是作曲家们创作的脍炙人口的歌曲。传统的英语语言设置使用了“当大卫听到”开头的文本，尽管这些词在1611年詹姆斯国王圣经和1560年日内瓦圣经中都没有，而且没有其他现存的文本支持这种渲染。然而，在17世纪，一组13种背景的文本挪用了这种翻译，建立了某种“传统”。直到21世纪的背景都在继续使用这段文字，一位著名的作曲家认为这段文字传统来自詹姆斯国王钦定版圣经。然而，澳大利亚作曲家奈杰尔·巴特利(Nigel Butterley)利用罗伯特·奥尔特(Robert Alter)对大卫故事的翻译制作了一个背景。巴特利没有把重点放在单节诗上，而是将阿尔特译本的四个章节编辑成一个易于理解的叙述，中间点缀着副歌“贝尼·阿夫沙洛姆”。" Beni, veni Avshalom "出现了三次，而完整的哀歌出现在最后两次。本文考察了巴特利对阿尔特译本的挪用，以及在传达这篇感人的文本时所使用的音乐词汇。它对解释的问题很感兴趣，它揭示了巴特利是一个既敏感又有力的圣经读者。
{"title":"A Father’s Lament Doubly Received: Robert Alter, Nigel Butterley, and David’s Lament for Absalom","authors":"Anthony L. Rees","doi":"10.1515/JBR-2016-0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/JBR-2016-0030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract David’s lament in 2 Sam 18:33, on hearing of Absalom’s death, has been an extremely popular text for composers to set to music. The traditional English language settings utilise a text that begins ‘When David Heard’, though these words are absent from the 1611 King James Bible, and the 1560 Geneva bible, and no other extant text supports this rendering. However, a cluster of some thirteen settings of the text in the seventeenth century which appropriated this translation established somewhat of a ‘tradition.’ Settings through to the twenty-first century have continued to utilise this text, with one prominent composer assuming that the textual tradition came from the King James Bible. However, Australian composer Nigel Butterley has produced a setting which makes use of Robert Alter’s translation of the David story. Rather than focus on the single verse, Butterley redacts four chapters of Alter’s translation into a comprehensible narrative, punctuated by the refrain ‘Beni Avshalom. Beni, veni Avshalom’ which appears three times, and the full lament which occurs on the last two occasions. This paper examines Butterley’s appropriation of Alter’s translation, and the musical vocabulary which is employed in conveying this deeply moving text. Interested as it is in issues of interpretation, it reveals Butterley as a both sensitive and powerful reader of scripture.","PeriodicalId":17249,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Bible and its Reception","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77476414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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