Literary Approaches to Biblical Studies

This article argues that the narrator of 1 Samuel presents Saul as a sacrificial victim. As the first king, he becomes the object of divine wrath that arises from Israel's request for a king. His suffering and death redirect divine wrath away from the nation, thus allowing it to survive.

The Torah's censuses of the tribal tallies in Exodus and Numbers, suggesting the flight that some three million Hebrews fled ancient Egypt in ca. 1450 BCE, is one of the major targets of scorn by deniers of Torah tradition. Meanwhile, ultra-Orthodox Torah scholars, if they are even aware of the problems with this, will either deny the science or appeal to magical thinking. Modern Orthodox thinkers might submit to the opposition, but claim that the Torah is "not a history book", tacitly agreeing that the Torah account has little historical value.

This piece was written to show the sceptic and educated religious believer alike that a solution known to and used by academia for sixty years is entirely consistent with belief in the solid logic of the Torah's wording. Plausible reasons are given as to why the Torah tallies human beings as it does.

This Overview is from the book 'Pliny The Younger: His Words & Phrases' (Pliny As The New Testament Paul), by Roman Piso. This work details the way in which the Letters (Epistles) & Panegyricus of Pliny The Younger should be studied (in contrast to how it had been studied in the past and is still being studied currently).

The account of Saul directing an altar (1 Samuel 14:31-35) constitutes the symbolic pivot that marks the dissolution of tribal Israel and the beginning of monarchical Israel. Saul here establishes sacrifical decorum, in contrast to accusations of sacrificial impropriety in 1 Samuel 13 and 15. Saul the king both institutes sacrifice and assumes the role of sacrificial victim, as object of divine wrath at the dissolution of the old tribal system and the  initiatior of a new social order.

This is the proof of the article that was published in CBQ, which incorporated two corrections: 1) addition of "here 28" at the end of note 7 and 2) "26-33" rather than "26-13" in note 9.

The importance of the Bible and its appropriate interpretation for the Filipinos is captured very well in A Fiery Flame: Encountering God’s Word. Although the setting of the book is within the predominantly Roman Catholic Church population in the Philippines, the Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians in the country and elsewhere can benefit much from it. This is because of the deep sense of the role of the Spirit in encountering the Word of God that is well expressed in the pages of this volume. The reflections are perceptive. The impression that the Holy Spirit is still speaking to the people of the contemporary world through the Bible, Catholics or non-Catholics alike, is apparent. The spiritual approach to the Scriptures from a Catholic perspective is insightful. Maturity is notable. It is significant to observe that the place of the Bible at the center of the Catholic faith is clearly highlighted. Furthermore, the emphasis that the encounter with the Word of God through the Holy Spirit should bring a person face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ is such a delight to read.

The question of the historical reliability of the Biblical stories stands in the center of a long debate among biblical scholars, and many have adopted decisive positions on this issue, to one side or the other. This article comes to undermine the decisiveness and replace it with a question mark. For this purpose, we shall deal with one of the least historical stories in the book of Judges, "The Outrage in Gibeah" (Judges 19-21). Due to the structure and style of the narrative, which have been analyzed extensively, most researchers believe it to be completely fictional and with no basis in historical reality. In this article we shall reexamine various clues in the book Samuel that seem to indicate that this story has a certain historical basis. And if a story of such "literary" character has an historical core, then the exaggerated decisiveness of the positions on this issue seem to become undermined, also with regard to other stories in the Bible.

This dissertation examines the effect of intertextuality on interpretive deci­sions about the genre and literary unity of the Revelation of John. In chapter one, the use of the concept of intertextuality in literary theory is examined. Its uses by Harold Bloom, Michael Riffaterre, and Roland Barthes are compared and contrasted, and a reader-oriented definition is offered as the working definition for purposes of this study. In chapter two, the extent and complexity of intertextuality in Revelation is illustrated. First, the intertextuality of its language is discussed; next, its intertextual connections with Paul's letters are considered; and then the entire text of Revelation is surveyed in order to suggest the multiple intertextual connections that readers have made in order to understand the book. In chapter three, the complex intertextuality of Revelation is shown to contribute to the difficulty of specifying its genre. A reader­-oriented genre theory is described in detail, and then the debate over Revelation's genre is examined in light of that theory. In chapter four, the concept of intertextuality is connected with the debates over Revelation's literary unity. Due to a change in presuppositions, interpreters of Revelation have shifted their focus this century from highlighting the gaps in the text to tying the text together into a seamless whole. Texts inevitably contain gaps that must be filled by readers, and the more intertextual the text, the more gaps there tend to be. Revelation is a highly intertextual book with many gaps that allow for readers to tie the text together in multiple ways. Chapter five offers some brief concluding reflections on the connection between Revelation's bibli­ cal and nonbiblical intertextuality and its placement in the canon. While it closes and completes the canon, it is also on the margins of the canon. Its intertextuality con­ tributes to its marginality. The conclusion of this study is that the high degree of inter­ textuality in Revelation contributes to its function as a writerly or open work, a text that invites readers to rewrite it in multiple ways.

The “SIL International Statement of Best Practices for the Translation of Divine Familial Terms” was produced at the Consultation organized by SIL International in Istanbul, Turkey in August of 2011. This Consultation was organized to discuss issues concerning the translation of Divine Familial Terms—with specific focus on the Son of God. The consultation began by considering translation issues, followed by exegetical and hermeneutical considerations, as well as theological and missiological perspectives. This discussion acknowledged the fact that the issues involved in the accurate translation of Father-Son terminology are not merely linguistic in nature. So, even though the Istanbul Statement focuses primarily on best practices for translation, it was drafted in the context of this broader discussion.

This study argues that Moses' call narrative is both a test of Moses, to see whether he will be up to it, and an education of the future hero in the modes by which the deity rules the world. As the tale develops a series of moves evolves in which Moses' firmness is revealed and he is finally compelled to accept the call.

Philosophers have often described theism as the belief in the existence of a “perfect being”—a being that is said to possess all possible perfections, so that it is all-powerful, all-knowing, immutable, perfectly good, perfectly simple, and necessarily existent, among other qualities. But such a theology is difficult to reconcile with the God we find in the Bible and Talmud. The Question of God’s Perfection brings together leading scholars from the Jewish and Christian traditions to critically examine the theology of perfect being in light of the Hebrew Bible and classical rabbinic sources. Contributors are James A. Diamond, Lenn E. Goodman, Edward C. Halper, Yoram Hazony, Dru Johnson, Brian Leftow, Berel Dov Lerner, Alan L. Mittleman, Heather C. Ohaneson, Randy Ramal, Eleonore Stump, Alex Sztuden, and Joshua I. Weinstein.

This paper discusses the dual nature of historical narrative, some alleged anachronisms, the linguistic background of the names of Samuel and David, and the position of Benjamin as part of the house of Joseph, and other ethnicity issues and cultic issues that set the book of Samuel part from 7-5th century Jerusalem.

This article explores the transformation of both the character of Jonah and the text of Jonah, especially in ch. 2, from the Bakhtinian perspective of (re-)authoring. Bakhtin's concept of authoring shows that the disobedient Jonah is transformed into an obedient prophet in ch. 2 in his understanding of God and himself. Simultaneously, Bakhtin's notion of re-authoring reveals that the book of Jonah has been transformed in the history of Bible translation as seen in the Masoretic Text, Septuagint, and Vulgate.

The article explores an unusual literary phenomenon in both biblical and Mesopotamian traditions: a consecutive order of clauses in a law collection serves to structure the plot of a later, narrative composition. The plot of Ruth follows the list of
commandments in Deut 24:16-25:10, while a portion of the Neo-Babylonian work, “Nebuchadnezzar King of Justice” follows the order of LH 1-5. Strikingly, these narrative compositions invoke the venerated law codes of their respective traditions, and yet, at the same time, the practice of those very same laws invoked, is seen to be at variance with the prescriptions of the earlier codes. The implications of the phenomenon for understanding processes of legal revision in the ancient Near East are explored.

The stories of Lot (Genesis 19:1-29) and Rahab (Joshua 2:1-24; 6:22-25) share common vocabulary, motifs, and a common plot. Both stories tell of two visitors who enter a doomed city and are given shelter by citizen of the city. The citizen protects the visitors when men of the city seek them and, as a consequence, the citizen and his/her family are spared. This essay identifies and elaborates the common elements of the two stories and asserts that the story of Rahab has been shaped to allude to the story of Lot.

The Book of Ecclesiastes occupies a class of its own in the corpus of Wisdom Literature. In this paper, effort is made at presenting some introductory issues on Wisdom literature generally and Ecclesiastes in particular. The paper narrows down to the literary forms found in Chapter 3:1-8 and applies same to contemporary Christianity.

In this book Itzhak Benyamini presents an alternative reading of Genesis, a close textual analysis from the story of creation to the binding of Isaac. This reading offers the possibility of a soft relation to God, not one characterized by fear and awe. The volume presents Don-Abraham-Quixote not as a perpetual knight of faith but as a cunning believer in the face of God's demands of him. Benyamini reads Genesis without making concessions to God, asking about Him before He examines the heart of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and the other knights of faith (if they are really that). In this way, the commentary on Genesis becomes a platform for a new type of critical theology. Through this unconventional rereading of the familiar biblical text, the book attempts to extract a different ethic, one that challenges the Kierkegaardian demand of blind faith in an all-knowing moral God and offers in its stead an alternative, everyday ethic. The ethic that Benyamini uncovers is characterized by family continuity and tradition intended to ensure that very axis―familial permanence and resilience in the face of the demanding and capricious law of God and the everyday hardships of life.

This article identifies and elaborates the common plot that configures the stories of Rahab, Achan, and the Gibeonites and argues that the accounts have been constructed to destabilize the internal boundaries that construct Israelites and Others.

The book of Genesis tragically narrates the story of the fall of humanity from God's grace through Adam and Eve's sinful disobedience. This catastrophic event that marks the presence of corruption in man's heart would not happen if not because of the woman. By blaming Eve, Adam explicitly magnified the female figure's weakness and accused her of being detrimental to the male figure's inherent perfection. The accusation of Adam continues up to the present state of humanity. Femininity is only considered as the second sex, while masculinity has been elevated to the altar of perfection. The present culture in many regions and countries exults patrimony while belittling femininity. This social condition is deeply manifested in how many interpreted the scripture, particularly the fall narrated in a unique way in Genesis 3:15. Many interpreters of the narrative of the fall still follow the "Adamic" mentality of blaming the woman as the primary agent of the fall. On the other hand, many would also embrace the patriarchal point of view regarding the Protoevangelium focusing on the seed rather than the woman's figure as the primary agent in God's salvific plan. Nevertheless, amid all these interpretations, the writer's intention is still clandestine in the wonders of words and syntax of Genesis 3:15. Why he/she places the figure of the woman first before the seed, this study is an attempt to decipher the intention of the sacred writer and to redeem the figure of the woman who had been deeply abashed by the lingering patriarchal culture and patriarchal exegesis.

This article looks at how priestly legal materials can be seen to have been used in Joshua. This includes the allotment of towns of refuge, levitical towns, the concept of centralization of worship (Joshua 22:9-34) and the Passover. The argument will be that priestly material has been incorporated in a Deuteronomic framework and that Joshua can be seen as a document that quite uniquely combines Priestly and Deuteronomic legal materials. In this, Deuteronomic legal materials can be considered as encompassing priestly materials from an interpretative perspective, in line with the narrative order of Priestly and Deuteronomic materials in the Pentateuch. Relevant textual issues will also be taken into consideration, such as with the portrayal of the Passover in Joshua. In addition, the article considers issues that relate to theory construction and how they relate to the topic in question.

What is the relationship between the Bible and philosophy? Several recent scholarly ventures pursue this question to various ends. The Society of Biblical Literature has a new program unit dedicated to Hebrew Bible and philosophy, which Jaco Gericke and I co-chair. Recent works on the intersection of philosophy and the Bible have prompted a wide response from philosophers and theologians (less so from biblical scholars). Eleonore Stump’s work on theodicy has consistently featured biblical exegesis, including her most recent text Wandering in Darkness. Yoram Hazony’s The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture received in-depth attention in this journal with four separately authored responses (“Symposium,” vol. 2, 2014). In December 2015, a conference was dedicated solely to reconciling theological conceptions of God with Scripture (“The Question of God’s Perfection,” hosted by the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem through John Templeton funding). In line with the recent spate of work at this intersection of Bible and philosophy, this review considers two recent monographs on the topic, emphasizing the methodological distance between them.

Ideally, the gospel should change people. In reality, a gap exists between ideal behavior and what churches actually practice. Paul wrote to try to bridge the gap between the ideal and the real, and that bridge is the theological foundation for all ethical instruction.

The parable of the poor man’s ewe (2 Sam. 12.1-4) is best interpreted along two separate axes as a commentary upon the David and Bathsheba narrative in 2 Samuel 11.  In one, the parable is an allegory for the sin of adultery with Bathsheba.  In the other, the parable is an allegory for the sin of the murder of Uriah.  This double interpretation of the parable matches Nathan’s censure of David in 12.9-12, where the prophet twice uses the formulaic opening, “thus says the Lord”, introducing two separate censures, one that focuses exclusively on the sin of adultery, and one on the sin of murder.

קין היה הילד הראשון בעולם. קין היה הרוצח הראשון בתולדות האנושות.
האם יש קשר בין שני מאפיינים ביוגרפיים יחודיים אלה? האם יש קשר ישיר בין אופן גידולו ונסיבות לידתו של אדם לבין המעשים אותם עשה בבגרותו? האם ניתן להתחקות מתוך התיאור המקוצר מאוד של הרצח ושל יחסי קין וסביבתו (הבל אחיו, למשל) אחרי דעתו של קין על עצמו ועל העולם הסובב אותו? האם ניתן לנבא מראש מי יהיה פושע מסוכן- והאם יש דרך למנוע את הליכתו בדרך זו? האם ניתן לעמוד על החינוך אותו קיבל קין מתוך המסופר אודותיו?  בדברים שלהלן ננסה לענות על שאלות אלה.
בחלקו הראשון של דברנו נקרא את מעשה קין והבל המסופר בבראשית פרק ד'.  תוך כדי קריאתנו נרמוז למספר דילמות חינוכיות העולות מבין שיטי סיפור הורותו, לידתו, ובגרותו של הילד הראשון בעולם. בחלקם השני של הדברים נפרט דילמות חינוכיות אלה וננסה לעמוד על "הראוי" בעיני המקרא בסוגיות העולות.

Paper deals with the historical story of the advent of Christianity. Examines what Christianity had to offer Rome during its war with the Jews (placation of slaves & the poor, promise of life after death & "reward", making soldiers unafraid to die, "comforting" dead soldier's family, etc.).

This paper applies structural, rhetorical, and semantic analysis to Hebrews 10:19-25. The translational and interpretive approach demonstrated here may be qualified as a functional, literary, top-down approach. The ultimate purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a text-linguistic approach can greatly inhibit one's understanding and transmission of the biblical text, and thus to encourage others to do likewise.

Paper exposes and details the usage of rhetoric & propaganda. Knowing this also exposes the purposes and motives involved in the creation of such texts. Which, in turn, leads us to information about the true authorship of these texts. Emphasis is upon the importance of recognizing literary devices.

Within a literary ontology, YHWH in the Hebrew Bible is technically also a fictional entity or object. In Hebrew Bible scholarship, a variety of philosophical issues surrounding fiction have received sustained and in-depth attention. However, the mainstream research on these matters tends to focus on the philosophical foundations of or backgrounds to a particular literary theory, rather than on metaphysical puzzles as encountered in the philosophy of fiction proper. To fill this gap, the present article seeks to provide a meta-theoretical overview of the main contemporary philosophical perspectives on the metaphysics of fictional objects. Three views (and their sub-currents) are discussed, namely possibilism, (neo-)Meinongianism and (literary) creationism. Each view’s theory is introduced and critically appropriated with reference to what is implied to be an answer to the question of what exactly the biblical character YHWH can meaningfully be said to be in the context of the metaphysics of fictional objects. In this way, the present study also goes beyond the traditional concern with the nature of God in Old Testament theology.

Tras una definición de lo que se ha de entender por "Biblia" en la obra de J. L. Borges, y una revisión de lo que la crítica ha dicho sobre dicho tema, se describen los usos que se hacen de la Biblia en la obra de Borges, a saber: la Biblia en los escritos de juventud, la Biblia como fuente de la noción de "texto absoluto" y de "lectura infinita", la Biblia como noción de "libro" y en cierto modo también de la noción de "anti-libro" (una lectura de "El sur" y de "El libro de Arena", y en fin, la Biblia como fuente de algunas figuras y episodios frecuentes en la obra de Borges.

Paper demonstrating the origin of Popes (or Bishops of Rome) from the Calpurnius Piso family, giving the actual identities of the first 10 Popes. 18 pages.

This paper also makes the case for the mention of Christ in the works of Flavius Josephus as being original to that work and points out the need for change in the study of ancient history.

This paper was featured in a volume edited by Darrell Bock and Ed Komoszewski, "Jesus, Skepticism, and the Problem of History: Criteria and Context in the Study of Christian Origins" (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010). It involves a report on the John, Jesus, and History Project (2002-2016), in conjunction with new criteria for determining historicity within an inclusive quest for Jesus, describing what now can only be called "the Fourth Quest for Jesus," given that the Fourth Gospel has been programmatically omitted from the earlier three. For more information on this new approach, see my other essays and books on the subject here on my Academia page and also on my Amazon author's page.

Many of the Gospel narratives are in the form of "Stories". In presenting the life and mission of Jesus, the Gospel writers make use of literary techniques and the narrative strategy of "story-telling". This is true for the Cana episode (Jn 2.1-12) as well, and the narrative method is therefore applied to interpret the text. The author examines its narrative components, such as characters, action, plot, time and space, irony, misunderstanding, symbolism, and author-reader communicative relationship. The book is divided into three main parts: Literary Analysis, Narrative Criticism, and Theological Interpretation. In the course of the book, the reader comes to understand the author's appreciation of the craftmanship and beauty of this biblical narrative and the profound theological message that lies behind the text.

Scholars have long argued whether the story of Judah and Tamar in Gen
38 is an integral part of the story of Joseph or a late interpolation. scholars also disagree as to whether this text shows Judah in a favorable or unfavorable light. Given the lively debate about the composition, redaction, and literary features of Gen 38, the story of Judah and Tamar presents a particularly appropriate case study for narrative analysis. The following interpretation utilizes literary criticism to reveal the design and poetics of the story. It also examines the text so as to discern matters of composition and editing. Thus, the essay seeks to address the following questions: To what extent is the narrative internally consistent? What does the story contribute to its larger literary context(s)? When was it written and by whom? This combination of literary-critical and historical-critical concerns enables one to address questions about the textual infrastructure while also evaluating the artistic features of the text.