The sense of Biblical narrative II : structural analyses in the Hebrew Bible

156 Pages·1986·6.84 MB·English

by  David Jobling

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
39
Editors
David J A Clines
Philip R Davies
Department of Biblical Studies
The University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN
England
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THE SENSE
OF BIBLICAL
NARRATIVE:
Structural Analyses in
the Hebrew Bible
11
David Jobling
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Supplement Series 39
First published by JSOT Press 1986
Reprinted 1987
Copyright © 1986,1987 Sheffield Academic Press
JSOT Press is an imprint of
Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
The University of Sheffield
343 Fulwood Road
Sheffield S10 3BP
England
Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press
and
printed in Great Britain
by Redwood Burn Ltd
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
British Library Cataloguing in Publicadon Data
Jobling, David
The sense of biblical narrative:
structural analyses in the Hebrew Bible.
—(Journal for die study of die Old Testament
supplement series, ISSN 0309-0787; 39)
1. Bible O.T.—Commentaries
I. Tide II. Series
221.6 BS1171.2
ISBN 1-85075-010-6
ISBN 1-85075-011-4 Pbk
To the staff of the Department of Biblical Studies
in the University of Sheffield
this book is affectionately dedicated
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CONTENTS
Introduction 9
Chapter 1
MYTH AND ITS LIMITS IN GENESIS 2.4b-3.24
0. Introduction 17
1. Narrative analyis 20
2. Semantic analysis 27
3. Implications for feminist exegesis 40
Chapter 2
DEUTERONOMIC POLITICAL THEORY IN
JUDGES AND 1 SAMUEL 1-12
0. Introduction 44
1. Government in the larger text:
Judg. 2.11-1 Samuel 12 47
2. The text within a text: Judges 6-9 66
3. Conclusion 84
Chapter 3
'THE JORDAN A BOUNDARY': TRANSJORDAN
IN ISRAEL'S IDEOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY
0. Introduction 88
1. Analysis of Numbers 32 and Joshua 22 93
2. Miscellaneous investigations into the
Trans Jordanian issue 107
3. Conclusions 120
4. A test case: the Jephthah-cycle 124
5. Appendix 132
Notes 135
Works Consulted 148
Index of Authors 153
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INTRODUCTION
By these limited and partial analyses, we have hoped to suggest a
certain manner of reading, a methodological model which seems to
us, at present, the best adapted to the strategy of semiotic research:
it consists, whenever one is confronted by a phenomenon which
has not been analyzed, of constructing a representation of it in such
a way that the model is more general than the case under
examination requires, so that the observed phenomenon registers
itself (s'y inscrive) as one of (the model's) variables (Greimas, 1976:
263).
1. This book is a sequel to The Sense of Biblical Narrative (Jobling,
1978), which, having been for some time out of print, is now
reappearing (as 'Volume F). Like Volume I, Volume II contains three
studies of separate origin, linked rather by commonality of method
than of theme (though there is a narrow overlap between Chapters 2
and 3). Chapter 1 was born as a contribution to a symposium on
Genesis 2-3 in the Structural Exegesis Seminar of the Society of
Biblical Literature (Jobling, 1980b). A biblical text of such importance
resists being simply the object of a methodological exercise, and I
have expanded and recast the present version in the hope of its being
a contribution to wider debate, particularly over feminist hermeneutics
(§4). Chapter 2, which is new, treats the centrally important issue of
Israel's political theory; it continues the line of research begun by
'Jonathan' (VoL I/I). Chapter 3, prepared originally for the Centennial
of the Society of Biblical Literature (Jobling, 1980a), is more obscure
and difficult; obscure in theme and in the main texts it interprets,
difficult in its variety of methods and its ultimate open-endedness. It
was intended, as I explain in the introduction to the chapter, as a
contribution to current debate over Israel's origins, albeit an oblique
contribution, because of vast methodological problems. Whatever its
success in this regard, I see it as the most ground-breaking of the
three studies.