Synopses & Reviews
This volume presents a collection of essays aimed at further integration of literary analysis in the study of the Hebrew Bible. In three sections, Bodner studies a range of texts in order to illustrate that literary analysis has value for exploring numerous issues in the discipline, including text-critical problems, the Deuteronomistic History, and Chronicles.
Beginning with a discussion of how literary analysis is a vital, yet neglected, component of textual criticism, Bodner then offers a sustained engagement with one particular section of the Hebrew Bible, the so-called "ark narrative" of 1 Samuel 4-6. Other areas of the Hebrew Bible are subsequently explored, including a sample of the historiographic material in the Deuteronomistic History and a lengthy text from the book of Proverbs. Part four turns to the often neglected books of 1 & 2 Chronicles, illustrating how the Chronicler's work is a congenial site for literary study. The assembled essays petition for a heightened awareness of the artistic achievement of the Hebrew Bible and illustrate that literary thinking is a necessary component for biblical interpretation.
Synopsis
Bodner argues that literary analysis has value for exploring numerous issues in the Hebrew Bible, including text-critical problems, the Deuteronomistic History, and Chronicles. Essays petition for a heightened awareness of the artistic achievement of the Hebrew Bible and illustrate that literary thinking is necessary for biblical interpretation.
About the Author
Keith Bodner is Professor of Religious Studies at Crandall University in New Brunswick,Canada. He holds PhD degrees in biblical studies (University of Aberdeen) and English Literature (University of Manchester). He serves on the editorial board of the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, and is a former section chair (Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination) for the Society of Biblical Literature. His 2008 book 1 Samuel: A Narrative Commentary was awarded the R. B. Y. Scott Award from the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, and his most recent book is Jeroboam's Royal Drama (2012).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: Textual Problems and Literary Analysis1.Crime Scene Investigation: A Text-Critical Mystery and the Strange Death of Ishbosheth
2.The Locutions of 1 Kings 22:28: A New Proposal
3.The "Embarrassing Syntax" of Psalm 47:10: A (Pro)vocative Option
Part Two: Readers of the Lost Ark
4. Ark-eology: Shifting Emphases in "Ark Narrative" Scholarship
5. Mouse Trap: A Text-Critical Problem with Rodents in the Ark Narrative
Part Three: Further Soundings6. A Bad News Bearer: The Dramatic Fulfillment of a Prophetic Word about the Dissolution of a Priestly Line/7. Highway to Sheol: Seductive Speech and Promiscuous Places in Proverbs 7
Part Four: The World of Chronicles8.The Royal Skull in a Temple of Doom: An Interpretation of 1 Chronicles 10:10
9.Abijah's Elevated Rhetoric and the Civil War of 2 Chronicles 13
10. Capital Punishment: The Configuration of Ahaziah's Last Hours in 2 Chronicles 22
Conclusion