A Prophet in Debate

A Prophet in Debate
Author: Karl Möller
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2003-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0826465684

An investigation of the literary structure and rhetorical challenge that prompted the book's production. Moller argues that the book of Amos captures and presents the debate between Amos and his eighth-century audience. When read in the light of Israel's fall, the presentation of Amos struggling (and failing) to convince his contemporaries of the imminent divine punishment functions as a powerful warning to subsequent Judaean readers.

A Prophet in Debate

A Prophet in Debate
Author: Karl Möller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2003-06-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567337014

An investigation of the literary structure and rhetorical challenge that prompted the book's production. Moller argues that the book of Amos captures and presents the debate between Amos and his eighth-century audience. When read in the light of Israel's fall, the presentation of Amos struggling (and failing) to convince his contemporaries of the imminent divine punishment functions as a powerful warning to subsequent Judaean readers.

Rhetoric of the Book of Amos

Rhetoric of the Book of Amos
Author: Beom Jin Jeon
Publisher:
Total Pages: 688
Release: 2015
Genre: Bible
ISBN:

This study is an investigation of the book of Amos primarily using rhetorical criticism, built upon the results of a redactional study. The book of Amos was compiled and proclaimed in the time of Josiah's reign in order to persuade the people of Judah to correct their evil acts and thereby avoid disastrous consequences. The ominous situation that the seventh-century Judean audience members confronted was very similar to that of the northern kingdom of Israel, which had fallen about one century prior. The final redactor of Amos (or "the orator") warns that if the seven-century Judean audience members refuse to learn from the failure of the northern Israelites, and reject his message to return to Yahweh, they will experience the fate of the northern kingdom of Israel. In order to avoid Yahweh's judgment and obtain life, therefore, the people of Judah must change their lives and follow the orator's instructions.

Early Christian Rhetoric

Early Christian Rhetoric
Author: Amos N. Wilder
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2014-05-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1625646364

An illuminating New Testament study depicts the power and beauty of language that speaks with the words of God and man. Words call man to battle or summon him to prayer. More and more, today man is analyzing his language and asking: What is the purpose of language? What do the words we speak mean? What is their religious significance? Dr. Wilder's extraordinary work attempts to answer these questions and, in particular, to study the qualities of the language that ushered in a new religion, the early Christian faith.

Reexamining Amos’ Use of Rhetorical Questions in Hebrew Prophetic Rhetoric

Reexamining Amos’ Use of Rhetorical Questions in Hebrew Prophetic Rhetoric
Author: Matthew Bovard
Publisher:
Total Pages: 73
Release: 2019
Genre: Bible
ISBN:

The book of Amos contains a message of repentance and judgment to eighth-century Israel. However, the book also portrays the Hebrew prophet persuading his audience of their condemnation before a God whom they do not fully understand. The prophet employs rhetorical questions to help assert his argument. Modern scholarship, however, does not address the function(s) of rhetorical questions from a purely Hebrew context, but evaluates them from an approach heavily influenced by Classical rhetoric. This error results in an incomplete view of Amos’ rhetoric and message that removes the rhetorical questions from the context of the Hebrew prophet. Thus, a new understanding must be proposed to recover Amos’ rhetoric and message that honors his context. After exegesis of each rhetorical question posed by Amos or YHWH against his audience (2:11-12; 3:3-8; 5:18-20; 5:25-27; 6:2; 6:12; 8:5-8; 9:7), the passages reveal that the prophet drew from common thought in nature, society, and Torah to form agreeable statements in the form of a rhetorical question for the purpose of imposing a superior argument or judgment. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of the book’s structure. The functions listed above are embedded in rhetorical structures familiar to Amos and his audience: disputation speech and entrapment language. Amos’ questions are an integral aspect of his message rather than a literary device merely used to form common ground between a speaker and his audience. Amos’ questions contain strong assertions that draw in the audience with common thought, condemn the audience through their response, and impose the prophet’s divine message. In opposition to Classical rhetoric, this approach results in a view compatible with the prophet, his message, and his rhetoric.

The Composition and Redaction of the Book of Amos

The Composition and Redaction of the Book of Amos
Author: Tchavdar S. Hadjiev
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2009-03-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110212722

This Oxford dissertation offers a fresh redactional analysis of the Book of Amos. It starts with a critical survey of existing approaches and an examination of the methodological issues involved and proceeds with a detailed exegetical analysis of the prophetic text which forms the basis for the redactional conclusions. It steers a middle course between extreme conservative treatments which trace all the material back to the prophet Amos and more radical sceptical approaches which attribute most of the prophetic oracles to the work of later redactors. The composition of the book began with two collections: the Polemical scroll written not long after the end of Amos’ ministry and the Repentance scroll composed shortly before 722 BC. The Repentance scroll was reworked in Judah towards the end of the 8th century BC and the two scrolls were combined to form a single work sometime during the 7th century BC. The Book underwent only one redaction during the exilic period which sought to actualise its message in a new historical context. The study pays special attention to the literary structure, aim and probable historical circumstances of the various collections which gradually evolved into the present Book of Amos and seeks to show how the prophetic message lived on and spoke to the various communities which preserved and transmitted it.