Representation in Old Testament Narrative Texts

Representation in Old Testament Narrative Texts
Author: Jacobus Marais
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004497161

This work focuses on the literary conventions of narrative texts in the Hebrew Bible, in particular the mode of representation in the book of Judges. The theory of integrational semantics, developed by Benjamin Hrushovski, is systematized to form a theoretical framework within which representation is conceptualized. The author suggests a novel reading of the Judges-narratives to demonstrate particular conventions of representation. The notions of paradoxality, perspectivity and juxtaposition are used to demonstrate the potential value of types of logic, alternative to modernist logic, in reading ancient Hebrew narratives. A hypothetical representeme is constructed for the book of Judges to make it clear that the mode of representation is neither mimesis nor historiography, but narrative, representing by convention and not by correspondence to history.

Preaching Old Testament

Preaching Old Testament
Author: John C. Holbert
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 1991
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780687338702

Preaching Old Testament meets the need for more direction in how to preach from the Hebrew Bible. You will learn particularly helpful techniques for preaching the narrative portions of the Bible and why preaching from the Old Testament is theologically important. After exploring theological reasons for preaching in the narrative mode, Holbert introduces a narrative homiletics and discusses its definition, problems, and possibilities. He then introduces some of the methods and techniques of a literary analysis of the narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible, which includes such elements as plot, actions and speech, contrasting characters, and point of view. Two sample narrative sermons with brief comments inside the bodies of the sermons and extensive comments at the ends of the sermons illustrate how the pastor can read and interpret the Old Testament story.

Juxtaposition and the Elisha Cycle

Juxtaposition and the Elisha Cycle
Author: Rachelle Gilmour
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2014-01-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567432513

This monograph examines the juxtaposition of narrative units in biblical narrative and the effect this has on interpretation. Early rabbinical and inner-biblical interpretations suggest that juxtaposition was an intentional device used by biblical editors and authors to shape the meaning of their material. Therefore, this monograph develops a framework for recognising the ways in which adjacent units interpret and re-interpret one another and presents this framework as an important hermeneutical tool. Stories and episodes that are linked chronologically affect one another through a relationship of causes and consequences. The categories of contradiction, corroboration and question and answer are also used to describe the types of interaction between narrative units and demonstrate how such dialogues create new meaning. Indicators in the text that guide the audience towards the intended interpretation are identified in order that a 'poetics' of juxtaposition is developed. The theoretical basis established in the first half of the monograph is then applied to the Elisha cycle. Each episode is interpreted independently and then read in juxtaposition with the surrounding episodes, producing a fresh literary reading of the cycle. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate how juxtaposition functioned as a diachronic process, attention is given to the literary history of the cycle. We conjecture earlier interpretations of the Elisha episodes and compare them to the final form of the cycle. Finally, the Elisha cycle is itself a story juxtaposed with other stories and so the same principles of interpretation are used to suggest the meaning of the cycle within the book of Kings.

The Completion of Judges

The Completion of Judges
Author: David J. H. Beldman
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1575064979

The last five chapters of the book of Judges (chs. 17-21) contain some shocking and bizarre stories, and precisely how these stories relate to the rest of the book is a major question in scholarship on the book. Leveraging work from literary studies and hermeneutics, Beldman reexamines Judges 17-21 with the aim of discerning the "strategies of ending" that are at work in these chapters. The author identifies and describes a number of strategies of ending in Judges 17-21, including the strategy of completion, the strategy of circularity, and the strategy of entrapment. The temporal configuration of Judges and especially the nonlinear chronology that chapters 17-21 expose also receive due attention. All of this offers fresh insights into the place and function of Judges 17-21 in the context of the whole book.

Biblical Morality

Biblical Morality
Author: Mary E. Mills
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2001
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

Biblical Morality explores a selection of Old Testament narratives, drawing out their views on morality to offer a unique perspective on the meaning of the term 'biblical morality'. When Old Testament stories are read by a number of different readers, diverse cultural meanings emerge; this book argues that any exploration of biblical morality must take into account plurality of meaning and not expect to settle for a single unified reading which produces a one-dimensional personal behavioural ethic.Presenting a study of biblical morality which allows Old Testament stories to stand in their own right as relevant sources, this book allows for the relevance of 'moral boundaries' without drawing these simplistically or narrowly, and offers an accessible examination of biblical morality to all those exploring biblical texts, narrative criticism and morality and ethics more widely.Biblical Studies/Theology/Literary Criticism

Judges and Ruth

Judges and Ruth
Author: Victor H. Matthews
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2004-01-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780521000666

Sample Text

Judges

Judges
Author: Abraham Kuruvilla MD
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2017-06-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498298230

Judges: A Theological Commentary for Preachers engages hermeneutics for preaching, employing theological exegesis that enables the preacher to utilize all the units of the letter to craft effective sermons. This commentary unpacks the crucial link between Scripture and application: the theology of each preaching text (i.e., what the author is doing with what he is saying). Judges is divided into fourteen preaching units and the theological focus of each is delineated. The overall theological trajectory or theme of the book deals with the failure of leadership in the community of God's people. Since God's people are all called to be leaders in some arena, to some degree, in some fashion, the lessons of Judges are applicable to all Christians. The specific theological thrust of each unit is captured in this commentary, making possible a sequential homiletical movement through each pericope of Judges. While the primary goal of the commentary is to take the preacher from text to theology, it also provides two sermon outlines for each of the twelve preaching units of Judges. The unique approach of this work results in a theology-for-preaching commentary that promises to be useful for anyone teaching through Judges with an emphasis on application.

Story of Stories

Story of Stories
Author: Karen Lee-Thorp
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2012-11-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 083085990X

Taking readers back to the basic act of storytelling that is at the heart of Scripture, Karen Lee-Thorp offers an artful retelling of the major stories of the Bible. With lean prose and an ear for subtlety, her carefully chosen vignettes come together in an unforgettable rehearsal of the great story of redemption.

Cross Vision

Cross Vision
Author: Gregory A. Boyd
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017-08-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506420745

Renowned pastor-theologian Gregory A. Boyd tackles the BibleÕs biggest dilemma. Ê The Old Testament God of wrath and violence versus the New Testament God of love and peaceÑitÕs a difference that has troubled Christians since the first century. Now, with the sensitivity of a pastor and the intellect of a theologian, Gregory A. Boyd proposes the Òcruciform hermeneutic,Ó a way to read the Old Testament portraits of God through the lens of JesusÕ crucifixion. Ê In Cross Vision, Boyd follows up on his epic and groundbreaking study, The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. He shows how the death and resurrection of Jesus reframes the troubling violence of the Old Testament, how all of Scripture reveals GodÕs self-sacrificial love, and, most importantly, how we can follow JesusÕ example of peace.