Semeia 63: Characterization in Biblical Literature
Overview
Semeia is an experimental journal devoted to the exploration of new and emergent areas and methods of biblical criticism. Studies employing the methods, models, and findings of linguistics, folklore studies, contemporary literary criticism, structuralism, social anthropology, and other such disciplines and approaches, are invited. Although experimental in both form and content, Semeia proposes to publish work that reflects a well defined methodology that is appropriate to the material being interpreted.
- Key perspectives on biblical criticism
- Includes bibliographies and index
Top Highlights
“1983 Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative” (Page 174)
“This indirect method of characterization seems to be the main method of the ancient world, and the Gospels are certainly not an exception (Stanton: 167). The key question is: if the reader is to infer traits about a character from that personage’s words and actions, do the reading conventions of the particular text under scrutiny allow the reader any room to construct the character’s individuality? There are several things that lead to an affirmative answer.” (Page 11)
“for ancient characterization in general it certainly seems that one’s character (ēthos) is revealed through one’s action” (Page 11)
“to the time of the Gospels, it is argued generally that characters were types rather than individuals in any sense” (Page 6)
“the debate about characterization in both classical and Graeco-Roman literature” (Page 3)
- Alice Bach
- David R. Beck
- Adele Berlin
- Fred W. Burnett
- Kenneth M. Craig, Jr.
- John A. Darr
- Laura Donaldson
- Robert M. Fowler
- Elizabeth Struthers Malbon
- David McCracken
- Robert Polzin
- Ilona N. Rashkow
- Adele Reinhartz
- Evelyn R. Thibeaux
- Marianne Meye Thompson
- Title: Semeia 63: Characterization in Biblical Literature
- Editors: Adele Berlin and Elizabeth Struthers Malbon
- Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
- Publication Date: 1993
- Pages: 227
Adele Berlin is Robert H. Smith Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Maryland. She is the author of Biblical Poetry through Medieval Jewish Eyes.
Elizabeth Struthers Malbon is professor in and director of the Religious Studies Program within the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is also the author of Narrative Space and Mythic Meaning in Mark
