Narrative in the Hebrew Bible
Overview
After almost two centuries of historical criticism, biblical scholarship has recently undergone major shifts, most notably toward the literary study of the Bible. Much germinal criticism has taken as its primary focus narrative texts of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). This study provides a lucid guide to the interpretive possibilities of this movement. Attempting to be both theoretical and practical, it combines discussion of methods and the business of reading in general with numerous illustrations through readings of particular texts. Gunn and Fewell discuss how literary criticism is related to other dominant ways of reading the text over the last 2,000 years. In addition, they address characters—including the narrator and God; plot—modifying recent theory to accommodate the peculiar complexity of biblical narratives; and the play of language through repetition, ambiguity, multivalence, metaphor, and intertextuality. Finally, the authors discuss readers and responsibility, exploring the ideological dimension of narrative interpretation. An extensive bibliography completes the book, arranged by subject and biblical text.
Top Highlights
“There must be events for there to be story; not random events but events that are connected, events that have design, that form a pattern—events that are in fact ‘plotted’” (Page 101)
“for Cain’s sin ultimately at Adam’s door. Here a strong (Augustinian) doctrine of original sin is driving the reading.” (Page 19)
“understand texts to be inherently unstable, since they contain within themselves the threads of their own unravelling” (Page 10)
“Meaning is always, in the last analysis, the reader’s creation, and readers, like texts, come in an infinite variety” (Page xi)
“This survey is intended to serve two ends: to put in historical perspective historical-critical claims to truth” (Page 12)
- Title: Narrative in the Hebrew Bible
- Authors: David M. Gunn, Danna Nolan Fewell
- Series: The Oxford Bible Series
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date: 1993
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Narration in the Bible; Bible as literature; Bible. O.T. Genesis › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. Jonah › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. O.T. Daniel › Criticism, interpretation, etc
- ISBNs: 019213244, 0192132458, 9780192132451
- Resource ID: LLS:NRRTVHBRWBBL
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:53:35Z