Abstract
How would ancient Israelites have understood the biblical stories? Philip F. Esler argues that answering this question is crucial for the task of modern biblical interpretation and responds by addressing both what separates and what links ancient and modern audiences. Given that the biblical narratives emerged from a high-context culture where the stories' composers and original audiences shared most of the same cultural assumptions, Esler identifies and explains these implicit elements for today's readers of the Old Testament. To this end, he describes key features of Mediterranean culture that would have been broadly influential from ∼900–100
Synthesizing results from anthropological studies, Esler discusses the following concepts (among others) to help modern readers make better sense of the world described in the stories of Judah and Tamar, Hannah, Saul, David, Bathsheba, Amnon and Tamar, and the apocryphal Judith: group orientation, honor and shame, challenge and riposte, limited good, patron-client relationships, and other terminology of social and political organization (e.g., elite and non-elite). With these he joins the seven plotlines Christopher Booker discerns from (mainly) European and Middle Eastern stories, utilizing all but the last: “Overcoming the Monster,” “Rags to Riches,” “The Quest,” “Voyage and Return,” “Comedy,” “Tragedy,” and “Rebirth.” Most biblical scholars might well be familiar with the concepts Esler defines; however, his methodological pairing frequently results in a fresh perspective on the biblical narratives, which can readily elicit insights within and beyond these stories. Even those well-read in social-scientific biblical interpretation might appreciate being introduced to the specific ethnographic studies he cites.
Esler's intriguing anthropological assessments and helpful corrections of popular misconceptions (e.g., regarding primogeniture) recommend his work to a broad readership. His primary audience seems to be those—religious or not and professional or not—with limited background in social-scientific biblical interpretation. Each chapter of narrative analysis stands on its own by summarizing the relevant anthropological categories and plotlines, making the work especially accessible to those with little background in the subject matter as well as for any who would use the book selectively to help prepare a sermon, lesson, or study.
Likewise, Esler's inclusion of ancient and modern examples of each plot type could aid such endeavors. That said, in his analyses his limited selection of scholarly interlocutors and, at times, dismissive judgments of their conclusions beg the reader's caution. For instance, Esler claims that Carol Meyers's so-called failure to recognize Hophni and Phinehas as characters in 1 Samuel 1 leads her to miss “their malpractice in 1 Samuel 2 and Hannah's role in condemning them” (p. 119). Yet, such criticism rings hollow when one considers that Meyers's brief, feminist treatment focuses explicitly on Hannah's “sacrifice” and cultic role in 1 Samuel 1, where the two sons of Eli are simply mentioned and take no part in the chapter's events.
The book is, unfortunately, marred by numerous grammatical and typographic errors and inconsistencies. These range from the relatively innocuous misspelling of names (e.g., Hophi/Hophni, p. 119) to the embarrassing homophone (e.g., she “bares” him a son, p. 316) to the confusion-creating error in word choice (e.g., “his” instead of “her” father's house, p. 103). The book's division into parts titled “Wives,” “Warriors,” and “Sex” seems somewhat arbitrary and, in terms of the last, objectionable. Organizing under the topic of sex two stories that couple a male character's lust with his abuse of political or physical power demonstrates insufficient sensitivity to the cultural context of modern readers, many of whom would be loath to categorize “rape” as “sex.” While these issues detract from the presentation, they do not devalue the content.
The use of the social sciences, in general, and Mediterranean studies, in particular, in Old Testament interpretation has long had its advocates and opponents. Cognizant of the latter's most frequent criticisms, Esler takes care to defend his approach against charges of anachronism (i.e., inappropriately assuming cultural practices and thought forms from a later period existed in a former age) and excessive generalization (i.e., relating findings from a particular culture to other cultures without sufficient basis). On both counts he performs admirably and provides a worthwhile resource for those seeking to overcome the cultural and temporal distance between ancient and modern readers of the biblical text.