Abstract
B
In contrast to the decidedly specialist treatments offered in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception reviewed below (see pp. 119–22), this one-volume dictionary is much more of a general work for the interested non-specialist—the version for the desk rather than the shelf. It aims to provide a point of entry into biblical themes and concepts and their appearance in cultural manifestations, in a way that will enable swift and ready appropriation of said themes and concepts by those who have no prior expertise in the area(s) of biblical studies. The entries themselves are succinct with no more than two or three items of bibliography for further reading, and cover a wide range of topics, from definitions of terms such as ‘Ephod’, ‘Patriarch’, ‘Steward’, to names of people and places (’Mary’, ‘Darius’, ‘Satan’, ‘Jacob’, ‘Jezreel’), to individual biblical books (’Genesis, book of’, ‘Daniel, book of’), to social institutions (’Levirate Marriage’) and concepts (’Blasphemy’, ‘Hope’). Particularly interesting is the inclusion of large numbers of biblical phrases that have entered English usage, which are discussed in their biblical context and in subsequent cultural appearances; examples are ‘Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth’, ‘Finger of God’, ‘Salt of the earth’, ‘Sin will find you out’. As with the larger Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, some of the links between themes as they appear in the Bible and in present-day culture are tenuous, for example, in the case of ‘Child’. However, in such instances the postbiblical manifestation is presented, appropriately, more as a comparison than as an implied claim for biblical influence. This is a much richer volume than a short review can indicate, and its accessibility is such that it invites browsing through it simply to see what nuggets of information it contains. Although it is presented primarily as a reference tool, it could easily serve a much more broadly educational purpose.
D.W. R
B
In this study of Elisha, B. seeks to show through literary criticism that there is more method in the ordering and use of apparently inconsequential detail in the Elisha stories than has often been noticed. He suggests that there are analogies between Elisha's relationship to Elijah and the relationship of Joshua to Moses. Elisha is instrumental in effecting the downfall and replacement of the Omride dynasty which Elijah set in motion, just as Joshua brings about the conquest of Canaan which Moses had proclaimed. In both cases, a unique instance of succession occurs and in both cases the successor enlarges the scope and the action of the story. B. makes much of the double portion of the spirit entrusted to Elisha. Through careful attention to detail in the text and to minor characters, he makes a convincing case for the coherence of this material and its significance for the wider Deuteronomistic history. In doing so, he at times resolves ambiguities in the story where others might think that the ambiguity is the point, but any reader studying these texts will find a wealth of insights and a responsiveness to the peculiar but powerful literary devices in this material that can only enrich their understanding.
H. P
B
This book consists of ten essays by B., some previously published, that have a common theme in the way in which he deploys literary critical methods to account for puzzling aspects of the texts he deals with. The problems range from the detailed discussion of the presence and absence of mice at various points of the Ark Narrative to the potential that close attention to the minor characters in the book of Chronicles offers for understanding the art with which the Chronicler carried out his task. Throughout, B. shows that concentrating on the potential literary functions of problematic verses in the MT and the ancient versions may reveal aspects of design that can be missed if such problems are treated simply as textual variants or corruptions. In his conclusion, he points particularly to political dialogue as a category that warrants careful study. Biblical characters or, more to the point, those who write their dialogue, are well aware of the sophisticated rhetorical devices that establish and alter the power relations between the participants in any conversation. The reader must not underestimate these elements and may go astray by taking such statements at face value. B.'s work is thought-provoking and eminently readable and he succeeds in showing that the need for such literary re-evaluation of texts continues. Those with a particular interest in any of the texts which he looks at will encounter some provocative insights, but more generally the book can act as a series of test cases showing that the untapped potential of applying such approaches to the biblical text is still considerable.
H. P
B
Although not a household name, Nick Cave is an influential and iconic figure in contemporary music. In this multi-disciplinary work combining theological and cultural studies, B. has collected a number of his lectures and papers about his fellow idiosyncratic, musical Australian. Despite occasional overlap and repetition, these are crafted into a lucid and coherent whole. Using methodology founded on the work of Adorno and particularly Bloch, B.'s aim is to focus on theology and the Bible more than musicology. He gives most attention to theological themes in Cave's music and other literary works (particularly Cave's lyrics, although the final chapter explores the philosophy of music). The opening chapter examines Cave's regular engagement with biblical texts and themes in his songs, and also in his autobiographical narratives, which incline towards christological themes in unconventional ways. B. critiques Cave's attempts to direct the interpretation of his own life and work, including his distinctive engagement with the Bible. Subsequent chapters deal with the depravity of Cave's literary world, apocalyptic themes, his focus on death and Christology, and the way themes of pain and the divine intertwine in Cave's love songs, where God and woman sometimes merge into one: Cave's ‘erotic and seductive evocation of Jesus’ (p. 77) reminds B. of John Donne. B.'s final chapter compares Cave's appreciation of theological and utopian dimensions of music with that of Bloch. B. sees a difficult search for redemption permeating Cave's music, in a progression which culminates in his ‘dialectical songs’ (pp. 103–108); this proposal may need further exploration and clarification in order to convince fully.
P.W. G
C
Writing/Scripture and rewriting/’rescripturing’—the delightful double meaning of the French ‘écriture’ cannot be adequately translated—was the theme of the 2010 colloquium of francophone Switzerland's Research Network on Narratology and Bible (RRENAB). This volume gives its proceedings in 37 articles, all but one in French, and arranged in eleven parts according to the different sessions: Methodology (Part 1), Old Testament (Parts 2–4, with a minor focus on Jonah), Second Temple Judaism (Part 5), New Testament (Parts 6–8), Christian Literature (Part 9), Art and Cinema (Part 10), and Varia (Part 11). The chapters are: Claire Clivaz,’ “Quand l’auteur s’écrit et se réécrit: Les postures littéraires”: Ouverture méthodologique’; Jérôme Meizoz, ‘Postures d’auteur: Le cas Rousseau’; Régis Burnet, ‘Peut-on parler de postures pour l’Antiquité? L’exemple paulinien’; Françoise Mirguet, ‘Flavius Josèphe construit son image: Quelques postures d’auteur dans la Vie’; Jean-Daniel Macchi, ‘Lettres de fête et réécriture: Esther 9,20–28 et la construction d’une instance textuelle d’autorité’; Yvan Mathieu, ‘À la recherche du livre retrouvé! Le “livre de la Loi” et son autorité en 2 R 22–23’; Thomas Römer, ‘L’autorité du livre dans les trois parties de la Bible hébraïque’; Christophe Nihan, ‘Phénomènes de réécriture et autorité des recueils prophétiques’; Konrad Schmid, ‘L’auto-compréhension des livres prophétiques comme littérature de réécriture’; Jean-Pierre Sonnet, ‘Jonas est-il parmi les Prophètes? Une réécriture narrative sur les attributs divins’; Claude Lichtert, ‘Perspective narrative sur un personnage dit historique (2 R 14,23–29)’; Anne Pénicaud, ‘Jonas: Un anti-manuel de prophétisme?’; Jacques Vermeylen, ‘La prière de Jonas (Jon 2) et le cantique de Moïse (Ex 15)’; Daniel Barbu, ‘Apis, le veau d’or et la religion des Égyptiens’; Christian-B. Amphoux, ‘Les réécritures du livre de Jérémie (LXX)’; Elian Cuvillier, ‘Références, allusions et citations: Réflexions sur l’utilisation de l’Ancien Testament en Matthieu 1–2’; Christiane Furrer, ‘Hosanna: σ
σoν δή. Du salut annoncé au salut attendu’; Daniel Gerber, ‘Quand Paul cite en 1 Corinthiens 15’; Yvan Bourquin, ‘Faut-il caviarder Matthieu quand il “trahit” Marc?’; Daniel Marguerat, ‘Mise en discours et mise en récit en Matthieu 18’; Simon Butticaz, ‘La relecture des lapsi pauliniens chez Luc: Esquisse d’une typologie’; Jean Zumstein, ‘Intratextualité et intertextualité dans la littérature johannique’; Jacques Descreux, ‘Apocalypse 12 ou de l’art d’accommoder les mythes’; Normand Bonneau, ‘Le dynamisme narratif de Genèse 15 dans Romains 4’; Alain Gignac,’ “Nous savons que toutes les choses que Loi dit…”: Intertextualité, énonciation et construction des personnages en Rm 3,9–20’; Corina Combet-Galland, ‘La première épître de Pierre et la carrière des Écritures’; Frédéric Amsler, ‘États textuels et malléabilité du Martyre de Philippe’; Charles D. Wright, ‘Rewriting (and Re-Editing) The Apocalypse of Thomas’; Jean-Daniel Dubois, ‘Les gnostiques ont-ils pratiqué une lecture inversée des Écritures?’; Anne Pasquier, ‘La figure du Fils de l’Homme dans le gnosticisme: Influence de l’Évangile selon Jean’; Philippe Sers, ‘La transcription iconographique de l’Écriture: L’exemple de l’image du Jugement dernier dans l’oeuvre de Kandinsky’; Alain Boillat, ‘Le “corps” du texte néotestamentaire dans les films Ben-Hur (1925) et Golgotha (1935)’; Valentine Robert, ‘Le Verbe en intertitre, l’Icône en photogramme: Citations canoniques dans le cinéma muet’; Raphaël Oesterlé, ‘La Bible comme pré-texte: Je vous salue Marie et Le lit de la vierge. Deux cas de réappropriation des textes évangéliques par le cinéma’; Inès Kirschleger,’ “Venez m’écouter en ce lieu”: Les Psaumes entre inspiration et réécriture dans la Complainte de Marie Laujois (1698)’; Julie Paik, ‘La conversion de Pierre? La rencontre entre Pierre et Corneille selon le P127‘; Jenny Read-Heimerdinger,’ “Qu’y a-t-il dans un nom?” (Roméo et Juliette, II, ii): L’importance du nom du village dans Lc 24,13–35’. The volume concludes with indexes of names and biblical texts.
P.S. J
E
This is an unusual book. Although it appears to be a commentary, it is not a ‘traditional’ commentary, in that despite going through the text of Leviticus chapter by chapter it does not stop to offer E.'s own thoughts on a verse-by-verse or even pericope-by-pericope basis. Instead, it offers selections from the Christian history of interpretation of Leviticus, demonstrating that despite widespread rejection of Leviticus for devotional purposes in the modern era, previous generations found plenty of spiritual nourishment within its pages. The more than 50 commentators and sources from the works of which E. has made his selection are listed at the beginning; they range from the second-century Clement of Alexandria to the nineteenth-century Alexander McLaren, and encompass a spread of Christian denominations from Roman Catholic to Puritan to Baptist and Presbyterian, even including the influence of mediaeval Jewish exegesis. This is truly a fascinating collection in both the variety of the works that are sampled and the ingenuity of their comments; who would have thought, for example, that leprosy represented heresy (Rupert of Deutz on Lev. 13), or that mixing breeds of animal or types of cloth represented hypocrisy (Abraham Calov on Lev. 19)? The collection testifies to the strong conviction of all of these interpreters that Leviticus is as God-given as the Gospels and should be read and understood as such; a salutary lesson for the millions of modern Marcionites who populate the Christian Church.
D.W. R
E
The aim of the editors for this new journal from Sheffield Phoenix Press is to offer a ‘regular avenue of formal publication’ for research into the Bible and its cultural afterlives. The first volume includes twenty stimulating articles that are organized into six sections: Art, Film, Music, Literature, Theory, and Culture. The contributions, which cover a fantastic range of texts, topics and media, are: Christine E. Joynes, ‘Spot the Difference: Young Men, Angels and the Risen Christ at the Empty Tomb’; Mark Finney, ‘Jesus in Visual Imagination: The Art of Invention’; Ela Nutu, ‘Salomé in Text and Performance: The Bible, Wilde and Strauss’; Laura Grieg Krauss, ‘Restoring Hagar: Rembrandt van Rijn's Painting Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London’; Sara Kipfer, ‘Sinner or Redeemer? David and the Pestilence in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21’; Vivienne Westbrook, ‘The Cinematic Afterlives of Jesus, the Messiah’; Jayhoon Yang, ‘Oh, Father! What a “Fool for Love” Thou Art! Reading Luke 15.11–32 through the Film Secret Sunshine’; Siobhán Dowling Long, ‘The Sacrifice of Isaac: Tales of Heroism and Murder in Two Compositions by Benjamin Britten’; Helen Leneman, ‘Moses and the Exodus in Italian Opera’; William Goodman, ‘Nothing Compares: Sinead O’Connor's Theology’; Richard S. Briggs, ‘Reading Daniel as Children's Literature’; Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, ‘Ruth: Images of an Unfulfillable Longing’; Lina Sjöberg, ‘The Empathetic Pillar of Salt: Bible, Literature and Scholar in Conversation’; Anthony Swindell, ‘Mapping the Afterlife of Biblical Stories’; Brennan W. Breed, ‘Nomadology of the Bible: A Processual Approach to Biblical Reception History’; Katie B. Edwards, ‘Sporting Messiah: Hypermasculinity and Nationhood in Male-targeted Sports Imagery’; Amanda Dillon, ‘Manga Bibles and the Treatment of Female Characters in the Book of Judges’; Amy C. Cottrill,’ “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109.8”: A Reception Critical Approach to the Violence of the Psalms’; Yairah Amit, ‘The Study of the Hebrew Bible in Israeli Education’; Kevin M. McGeough, ‘Negotiating the Real and the Hyperreal: Nineteenth-Century Experiences of the Bible in the Context of Ancient Near Eastern Discoveries’. This periodical provides a much-needed and valuable resource for academics studying the reception, influence and impact of biblical texts, as well as for biblical scholars working outside the field of reception history.
H. M
E
This annual Sheffield Phoenix journal, in lengthy hard-back format, is establishing itself as a compendious resource for the study of biblical reception, in particular in culture and the arts. Over half the 13 articles gathered here focus on the visual arts, with a couple each on music and literature, and one piece (by Mark Finney) being more of a history-of-interpretation study. OT texts illuminated herein include several from Genesis, but are also spread through the whole canon and deutero-canonical literature. There is a wealth of valuable research conveniently gathered in one place here. A particular highlight is Cheryl Exum's enjoyable and appreciative reading of the well-known musical stage version of the Joseph story. The issue contains the following 13 pieces: ‘Illustrating Leviticus: Art, Ritual, and Politics’ (James W. Watts); ‘Ishmael Playing? Exegetical Understandings and Artistic Representations of the Verb metsacheq in Genesis 21.9’ (Jaffa Englard); ‘The Malleability of Jael in the Dutch Renaissance’ (Colleen M. Conway); ‘Sharing a Mirror with Venus: Bathsheba and Susanna with Mirrors in Early Modern Venetian Art’ (Katherine Low); ‘Images of the Indentured: Reading the Narrative of Judith's Slave Woman through Art’ (Andrea M. Sheaffer); ‘French Biblical Engravings and the Education of the Spanish Woman in the Nineteenth Century’ (Carmen Yebra-Rovira); ‘A Place for Pushy Mothers? Visualizations of Christ Blessing the Children’ (Christine E. Joynes); ‘Mary and Jesus in the Garden: Ban and Blessing’ (Deirdre Good); ‘Afterlives of the Afterlife: The Development of Hell in its Jewish and Christian Contexts’ (Mark Finney); ‘Musical Paths to Experiencing Job’ (Helen Leneman); ‘Any Dream Will Do? Joseph from Text to Technicolor’ (J. Cheryl Exum); ‘History and its Contagions: Rethinking the Legacy of Genesis 22 in A.B. Yehoshua's “Early in the Summer of 1970”’ (Nathan Paul Devir); ‘The Flood Story in Middle English: The Fourteenth-Century Alliterative Poem, Cleanness’ (David J.A. Clines).
R.S. B
H
H. is a Bible translation consultant in Ethiopia. This book is a revised form of his doctoral dissertation completed under R.J. Sim. Two threads run through the study: on the one hand H. tries to identify and articulate the voice of the narrator of Gen. 28.10–35.15 and on the other he is concerned to discover that voice with the help of the parameters of vow-making in South Ethiopian Hadiyya culture, with relevance theory as a control. The voice of the narrator is located in large part in an institutional setting in which the making of vows, as described in Gen. 28.20–22 in relation to the chosen place of worship, is prominent; for H. the abduction of Dinah and the problematic actions by Simeon and Levi in Genesis 34 are shameful and threatening so long as Jacob fails to fulfil his vow at Bethel which he should have done very shortly after returning to the land of Canaan. H. argues that the literary structure of Gen. 25.19–37.1 is based on the theme of Jacob and his descendants as the chosen seed; within this larger literary unit 28.10–35.15, with echoes before and after, nevertheless has its own integrity, including Genesis 34, concerning the fulfilment of the vow. H. defines a vow as ‘a human commissive speech act of solemn commitment directed only to God in the context of distress seeking to get relief from God’ (p. 85); it must be fulfilled or adverse consequences will occur. Reading the Dinah story as an adverse consequence of Jacob's unfulfilled vow makes Jacob responsible for terrible things. Overall this is a strong reading of Genesis 34 which tries to explain why it is hard to approve or disapprove of any of the characters in the story: Jacob is to blame.
G.J. B
H
H.'s book is not, he makes clear from the outset, about attempting to discern whether David and Jonathan had a sexual relationship, or even whether the biblical authors understood their companionship as sexual. The Love of David and Jonathan is more focused on trying to decipher why their relationship has often been considered in such terms, especially during the modern period. Following a detailed introductory chapter the book has three main foci, the first of which addresses the history of biblical scholarship on the David and Jonathan narrative and debates among scholars concerning their sexuality. The next chapter turns directly to the biblical text, arguing that although it ‘does not compel the reader to reject a homoerotic construal of the relationship’ (p. 228), the narrative itself does not adequately explain why modern readers have so consistently focused on this issue. To explain why they have nonetheless done so, H. then gives attention to a long sequence of interpreters, highlighting how suggestions of David and Jonathan's homosexuality both pre-date and have influenced more recent biblical scholars. H.'s book is, in sum, about asking why scholars have so often approached David and Jonathan with particular questions about sexuality in mind. Convincingly argued and wide in scope, The Love of David and Jonathan is essential reading for those interested in the interface between the Bible and sexuality.
D.C. To
J
Every discipline has its forbidden—or better, perhaps, frowned-upon—facets, and biblical studies is no exception. Here, in a reworked Oxford DPhil, J. addresses two of the Hebrew Bible's interpretative taboos which might be called the ‘f-words’ of exegesis: funnies, and feminism. J. adopts a final-form approach to offer readings of nine narrative clusters which are characterized by both humour and heroines. Starting with an introduction and first chapter in which she sets out definitions relating to the concept ‘comedy’ and discusses methodological issues concerning its application to the Hebrew text, J. goes on to discuss in detail the trickster matriarchs of Genesis, the women of Exodus 1–2, Rahab, Deborah and Jael, Delilah, David's wives, Jezebel, Ruth, and Esther. Two chapters of insightful conclusions round off the work. J.'s readings are measured and laconic, identifying with clarity the humorous elements in the text at a number of levels—plot, language, characterization, structure—and bringing these into dialogue with feminist concerns. Given that much of the humour in these narratives involves a gender-based inversion paradigm, where stupid men are bested by smart women, J.'s conclusions are surprising: that the comedy in the HB is not the wholly liberative force for women that it might appear to be. Certainly, both comic and feminist interpretations have strong elements of congruence with each other, particularly in their subversive focus on characters from the margins and their bald exposure of unpalatable truths; yet some of their congruences function in opposing directions, especially when the supposedly comic outsider who temporarily subverts the status quo but who is destined to remain outside that status quo is a woman. This is a fine study that addresses fundamental facets of how the Hebrew Bible manufactures meaning.
D.W. R
J
The authors of this volume claim that their different perspectives (male/female, Roman Catholic/Jewish), interests and areas of expertise were not influential in the division of writing tasks—and the seamlessness of the writing witnesses to a successful collaboration in what they describe as ‘somewhere between an afterlife of the book of Lamentations and a reception history’ (p. 11). The book should be accessible to a wide readership, from those whose interest starts with the Hebrew text (or a translation) to those who may only have heard musical settings of parts of the text, or encountered images in art, fiction or poetry. Lamentations is examined chapter by chapter and the commentary looks at a wide variety of material from all periods of history, ranging through possible parallels in ANE writings, Qumran fragments, intertextual biblical references, rabbinic commentary, liturgy, music, art and literature of all periods, as well as academic biblical scholarship. Sometimes the focus is on just a verse or two but brings in voices from different parts of the world, opening insights into how Lamentations has resonated across cultures with those in mourning or suffering the grief of catastrophe, personal or communal, both through direct quotation and allusion. This is a wonderful exploration of the place Lamentations has held and inspired not only in Jewish and Christian cultures, but also in relation to a wider public. Bringing together ‘readers through the centuries’ (p. 195), the authors show that ‘biblical scholars have no monopoly on illuminating exegesis’ (p. 193).
A.S. T
J
Following their outstanding research on the book of Ezekiel and in the field of reception history, Joyce and Mein have made another significant contribution by editing the present volume. It is composed of 14 interesting essays that were mostly presented at SBL: John F.A. Sawyer, ‘Ezekiel in the History of Christianity’; Marvin A. Sweeney, ‘The Problem of Ezekiel in Talmudic Literature’; Gary T. Manning, Jr, ‘Shepherd, Vine and Bones: The Use of Ezekiel in the Gospel of John’; Steve Moyise, ‘Ezekiel and the Book of Revelation’; Hector M. Patmore, ‘Adam or Satan? The Identity of the King of Tyre in Late Antiquity’; Robert A. Harris, ‘The Reception of Ezekiel among Twelfth-Century Northern French Rabbinic Exegetes’; Dalit Rom-Shiloni, ‘Jerusalem and Israel, Synonyms or Antonyms? Jewish Exegesis of Ezekiel's Prophecies against Jerusalem’; Margaret S. Odell, ‘Reading Ezekiel, Seeing Christ: The Ezekiel Cycle in the Church of St. Maria and St. Clemens, Schwarzrheindorf’; Jaime Lara, ‘Halfway between Genesis and Apocalypse: Ezekiel as Message and Proof for New World Converts’; Andrew Mein, ‘Ezekiel's Women in Christian Interpretation: The Case of Ezekiel 16’; Steven Shawn Tuell, ‘The Meaning of the Mark: New Light on Ezekiel 9 from the History of Interpretation’; William A. Tooman, ‘Of Puritans and Prophets: Cotton Mather's Interpretation of Ezekiel in the Biblia Americana’; Christopher Rowland, ‘William Blake and Ezekiel's Merkabah’; Dale C. Allison, Jr, ‘Ezekiel, UFOs and the Nation of Islam’. These essays focus on a number of different parts of the book of Ezekiel and specific periods of reception from the New Testament to the present day. The collection provides a foundation for further exploration of the fascinating subject of Ezekiel's reception, and indeed stimulates fresh work on the book of Ezekiel itself.
E.W.
K
K
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When a subject area is deemed worthy of its own dedicated multi-volume encyclopaedia, it is a sure sign that it has reached a certain stage of development and significance within the scholarly establishment. The appearance of this new encyclopaedia of the Bible and its reception is thus a landmark in the development of reception criticism, and joins other developments such as the appearance of the journal Biblical Reception from Sheffield Phoenix Press in testifying to the growing interest in the field and the academic vigour with which it is being pursued. However, this is not just a catalogue of cultural and textual locations in which biblical texts have made an appearance in some form; as an encyclopaedia of ‘the Bible and its reception’ rather than simply of ‘the reception of the Bible’, it includes entries on topics that have no postbiblical afterlife, but which elucidate the Bible and its world in a more general way. The scope of the encyclopaedia itself is thus immense. Examples of some of the entries will serve to illustrate this. In the area of general biblical context, topics addressed include the names of minor characters such as ‘Bani’ (III. 423–25) or places such as ‘Dabbesheth’ (VI. 1); archaeological features and finds such as ‘Cisterns’ (V.355–57) and ‘Coins’ (V.463–72); ancient cultural institutions such as ‘Archives and Libraries’ (II.676–87) and ‘Cult’ (V.1140–48); aspects of everyday life, such as ‘Bronze’ (IV.537–38) and ‘Birthstool’ (IV.64); geographical locations and cultural regions such as ‘Assyria’ (II.1071–95), ‘Alexandria’ (I.759–63), and ‘Delphi’ (VI.511–18); comparative ancient Near Eastern source material and its content, such as ‘Adapa’ (I.368–69), ‘Amarna Letters’ (I.936–38) and ‘Atra-
asis’ (III.66–67); and famous figures in neighbouring cultures, such as ‘Cicero’ (V.317–19). As well as these ‘background’ articles there are articles on major conceptual and textual interpretative constructs such as the ‘Axial Age’ (III.161–64) and ‘Deuteronomistic History’ (VI.648–53), and on biblical interpreters from antiquity to the present day, such as Karl Budde (IV.580–81), Augustine (III.97–104), C.H. Dodd (VI.1025–28), and Elias Bickerman (III.1191–92). This more traditional Bible dictionary material is accompanied by entries that fulfil the ‘reception’ remit of the title, which can be divided into several types. First, there are entries on biblical books and characters which include the books’ postbiblical reception. ‘Aaron’, for example, the very first entry in the encyclopaedia (I.1–26), contains a discussion of the HB material concerning Aaron, and then a further eight headings under which post-HB manifestations of Aaron are discussed: Judaism (subdivided into Second Temple Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, and Medieval and Later Judaism), New Testament, Archaeological Evidence, Christianity, Islam, Literature, Visual Arts, and Music. ‘Deuteronomy, Book of’ (VI.653–82), for its part, is treated under five headings: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, New Testament, Judaism (subdivided into Second Temple and Hellenistic Judaism; Rabbinic Judaism; Medieval Judaism: General Issues; Medieval Judaism: Karaites versus Rabbanites; and Modern Judaism), Christianity, and Literature. Secondly, alongside the biblical characters and books are a large number of themes and topics that are discussed in both their biblical and their postbiblical manifestations. Some of these themes are what one might expect, and some are more unexpected. This is a rather different kind of reception criticism from the ‘characters and books’ kind in which the biblical text is the point of origin for the element for which the trajectory of reception is being traced. While having an equally broad chronological and cultural range, the topical/thematic entries often have more of a ‘doctrinal’ nature, such as those on ‘Atonement’ (III.24–66), ‘Baptism’ (III.442–72) and ‘Devil’ (VI.688–716). In these instances, the relationship to the actual biblical text is somewhat more oblique, since what is being traced is the history of a doctrine that has arisen out of the text, rather than the reception of specific texts. Indeed, the doctrine arguably takes on a life of its own apart from the text, making the doctrine rather than the text the primary element that is being transmitted; and despite the implied attempts to link cultural manifestations of these doctrines directly with the Bible I find myself questioning just how much portrayals of the Devil in film, for example, really owe to the Bible. A similarly oblique relationship to the Bible characterizes entries such as ‘Bed’ (III.729–33), ‘Child, Children’ (V.83–118), ‘Dance’ (VI.63–84), and ‘Disability, Disabilities’ (VI.864–86); these are topics that not only cannot be said to be founded on biblical sources, but which have a completely independent existence outside the Bible. In these entries, then, the biblical view of the topic is presented more as part of a continuum of attitudes towards that topic rather than as a text that is re-presented down the centuries. Indeed, the entry may well end by reversing the direction of comparison; the ‘Dance’ entry, for example, begins by describing the function of dance in the ANE and HB, and ends up by discussing modern secular types of dance that sometimes use biblical themes as their inspiration. Similarly, the ‘Child, Children’ entry begins with a survey of the biblical view of children, but includes comments on how children from other religious traditions view the Bible. A third type of reception-oriented entry focuses on postbiblical figures who are not professional biblical interpreters, but who have used biblical material or incorporated it in some way into their own life's work—novelist Charles Dickens (VI.789–91), the Dalai Lama (VI.8–9), author Dvora Baron (III.536–37), dancer and choreographer John Butler (IV.679–80), artist Salvador Dali (VI.9–11), and many more, spanning the entire postbiblical period from antiquity to postmodernity. These are some of the most fascinating entries of all, because they show biblical reception in operation at the micro-level as well as at the macro-level, illustrate how individuals’ responses to the text are inseparable from their own situation, and demonstrate the truly global penetration of the Bible. In addition to the written entries, as might be expected of a work that includes consideration of the reception of the Bible in visual art, each volume has 16 pages of colour plates and tens of black-and-white figures illustrating the entries. In sum, then, this is a major undertaking, characterized by breadth as well as depth, that is redefining reception criticism even as it documents it. My one reservation is that the definition of reception criticism should not become so broad as to become meaningless, which is a particular issue for the thematic entries. While I can see arguments for tracing and analysing the biblical components in the development of doctrines such as atonement and baptism in order to foster dialogue between biblicists and systematicians, I am less convinced of the utility of items such as that on ‘Bed’, in which the biblical and postbiblical treatments face in opposite directions. In this instance, the comments on the postbiblical material do not show how biblical scenarios involving beds are transmitted, which is what I would expect, but rather show how beds are inserted into biblical scenarios from which they are absent. This is reception criticism by catchword rather than by logical connection, and I think it weakens the entire concept. This issue aside, the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception promises to be a major new resource for all those involved in the study of cultural appropriations of the Bible.
D.W. R
L
This book examines the history of interpretation of Job's wife through the lens of gender theory, focusing particularly on Christian artistic portrayals of Job and his wife. Chapter 1 looks at how mediaeval theology paralleled Job and his wife with Adam and Eve, with Job's dungheap being seen as a reversal of Eden and their marital discord contrasted with that of the ideal pair. Job's wife blasphemed against God and is thus aligned with the Devil. In ch. 2, L. shows how in mediaeval art Job's wife is seen as a garrulous woman of deviant speech. In early representations of the Job story in cathedral stonemasonry, an open mouth indicating deviant speech and bodily postures of scorn are typical of Job's wife, and she is closely shadowed by a grotesque, menacing Satan. In ch. 3 the changing role of Satan in visual depictions of the story is explored. Job's wife is regarded in more sinister fashion as a bad wife and she takes on a demonic ugliness as Satan increasingly disappears from portrayals. In Renaissance art Job's wife turns into a shrew and is held up as an exemplar of marital discord. In ch. 4 L. discusses sixteenth- and seventeenth-century didactic domestic manuals which clarify expectations of gender roles, with Job's wife seen to fail in offering mutual marital support. Finally in ch. 5 the work of Romantic artist William Blake is explored in which Job's wife is given a more traditional, positive and supporting role. The idea that God might be to blame and that both Job and his wife are human beings battling against an indifferent deity leads to this more positive assessment. The study valuably shows how cultural ideologies of gender change over time. It is illustrated with some, but by no means all, of the images discussed and it is a shame that the quality of reproduction is not better. It is an interesting read and an ambitious project.
K.J.
M
This volume arises from an interdisciplinary conference held at Heythrop College in April 2012, which John Barton in his preface describes as ‘a significant milestone in biblical reception history’. Despite the large number of contributors, its coverage inevitably is not systematic or comprehensive, and is largely limited to the West. The early chapters are mostly only concerned to identify allusions to the Decalogue, and interest in how the Commandments are understood and applied only begins to pick up in the contributions on the mediaeval period. Jewish study and usage has little attention, and only the section on the Reformation period gives a rounded impression. Most of the contributors are not Hebrew Bible scholars, but they are expert in their own fields, and the book as a whole is learned and informative. Within its limitations, this is a valuable survey of the reception of the Decalogue. The individual essays are as follows (some titles have been shortened): Markl, ‘The Ten Words Revealed and Revised: The Origins of Law and Legal Hermeneutics in the Pentateuch’; Innocent Himbaza, ‘The Reception History of the D. through Early Translations: The Case [sic] of the Septuagint, Peshitta and Targums’; J. Cornelis de Vos, ‘The D. in Pseudo-Phocylides and Syriac Menander’; Hermut Löhr, ‘The D. in the New Testament Apocrypha’; Miguel Lluch Baixauli, ‘The D. in Western Theology from the Church Fathers to the Thirteenth Century’; Ruth Langer, ‘The D. in Jewish Liturgy’; Aaron J. Kleist, ‘Vernacular Treatments of the Ten Commandments in Anglo-Saxon England’; Ralph Lee, ‘The Ten Commandments in the Ethiopic Tradition’; Randall B. Smith, ‘Thomas Aquinas on the Ten Commandments and the Natural Law’; Ian Green, ‘The Dissemination of the D. in English and Lay Responses to its Promotion in Early Modern English Protestantism’; Jonathan Willis, ‘Repurposing the D. in Reformation England’; Hans-Jürgen Fraas, ‘The Reception of the D. in Protestant Catechisms’; James F. Keenan, ‘The D. and the Moral Manual Tradition: From Trent to Vatican II’; Luis Resines, ‘The D. in American Catechisms of the Sixteenth Century [written by Spanish clergy for indigenous converts]’; Veronika Thum, ‘The D. in Late Medieval and Early Modern Imagery’; Christopher Rowland, ‘William Blake and the D.’; Luciane Beduschi, ‘Joseph Haydn … and Sigismund Neukomm … Changes in Musical Settings of the Ten Commandments during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’; Gerhard Lauer, ‘On Thomas Mann's Das Gesetz’; David J.A. Clines, ‘The D.: The Scholarly Tradition Critiqued’ (a polemic rather than a survey or analysis, unlike the other essays); Lloyd Baugh, ‘The Reception of the D. in Film: Krysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue’; Steven Wilf, ‘The Ten Commandments and the Problem of Legal Transplants in Contemporary America’ (on the display of the D. in monumental form in legal settings). There are indexes of biblical references and of personal names.
W.J. H
M
M. argues that the Joseph narrative comes from the tenth century
G.J. B
R
This study of the moth metaphor in the HB focuses on eight passages. The metaphor is used in some passages to indicate destruction; in others, transitoriness (Vergänglichkeit). In two passages, it is used as an image of God, combining both meanings. This a useful study, too long for a dictionary article but without unnecessary expansion to a full monograph.
L.L. G
S
The Glossa Ordinaria, compiled primarily by Gilbert of Auxerre (d. 1135), and the commentaries by Rashi (d. 1106), which were expanded by others, are roughly contemporary. Both were extraordinarily influential. S.'s monograph compares the treatment of Genesis 22 in the two works. She argues that ‘it was a key text for Jewish martyrs of the Crusade era and figured prominently in Christian anti-Jewish polemic’ (p. 1). The contents of the commentaries remained distinct and S. notes that there was no direct influence either way, though, of course, subsequent Christian interpreters like Herbert of Bosham used Rashi as an authoritative source. Nevertheless, the techniques used in the commentaries share many features: numerous citations of earlier interpreters, assumptions about how various parts of the Bible can be used to interpret each other, and attention to what has been labelled as literal or historical exegesis. In four chapters S. offers a description of the increasing Jewish–Christian polemic of the twelfth century, a comparison of Rashi and his sources for Genesis 22 (especially Genesis Rabbah and Midrash Tanḥuma), an assessment of the sources behind and evolution of the Glossa Ordinaria for Genesis 22, and an analysis of both in terms of polemic, faith and sacrifice. The major and very welcome innovation in this book, however, is its attention to the way the manuscript evidence for both compositions demands the production of new editions that permit scribal adaptations and textual developments to remain fully part of the presentation of the text. The Bodleian Library is referred to as a Museum and misspelled as Bodeleian more than once.
G.J. B
S
This is the first volume in a series of three that will give a review and assessment of feminist scholarship of the Hebrew Bible over the last forty years. Here, as the title suggests, each contributor presents a survey of feminist scholarship on a particular biblical book that is shaped by the themes they see in the biblical books and in the scholarship. The volume begins with an introduction by Scholz, and then an essay by Helen Leneman, ‘Genealogies of Feminist Biblical Studies: An Interview Report from the 1970s Generation’, in which she interviews several feminist scholars who were influenced by second-wave feminism. Essays on the biblical books are Scholz, ‘Eve's Daughters Liberated? The Book of Genesis in Feminist Exegesis’; Amelia Devin Freedman, ‘Image, Status, and Regulation: The Feminist Interpretative History of Exodus to Deuteronomy’; Beverly J. Stratton, ‘Consider, Take Counsel, and Speak: Re(Membering) Women in Joshua and Judges’; Lai Ling Elizabeth Ngan, ‘Class Privilege in Patriarchal Society: Women in First and Second Samuel’; Julia Faith Parker, ‘Queens and Other Female Characters: Feminist Interpretation of First and Second Kings’; Sandie Gravett, ‘Biblical Metaphors as Part of the Past and Present: Feminist Approaches to the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel’; Susan E. Haddox, ‘Engaging Images in the Prophets: Feminist Scholarship on the Book of the Twelve’; Carleen Mandolfo, ‘Discourses of Resistance: Feminist Studies on the Psalter and the Book of Lamentations’; Fiona C. Black, ‘Looking in through the Lattice: Feminist and Other Gender-Critical Readings of the Song of Songs’; Madipoane Masenya (ngwan’a Mphahlele), ‘Sitting around the Fireplace at Wisdom's House: A Review of Feminist Studies on Proverbs, Job, and Qoheleth’; Yael Shemesh, ‘The Stories of Women in a Man's World: The Books of Ruth, Esther, and Judith’; Julie Kelso, ‘Reading Silence: The Books of Chronicles and Ezra–Nehemiah, and the Relative Absence of a Feminist Interpretive History’; and David M. Valeta, ‘Crossing Boundaries: Feminist Perspectives on the Stories of Daniel and Susanna’. This is an extremely useful collection, giving a state-of-the-art summary of where feminist criticism is on each book or group of books, but by no means self-congratulatory or complacent. It is at once a survey and a manifesto, highlighting the gains that have undoubtedly been made by feminist criticism over the forty years or so of its most recent incarnation, but also well aware of how much there is still to do in unlocking closed and discriminatory systems in both the textual and the real world. To paraphrase the words of Mark Twain, rumours of the death of feminist criticism have been greatly exaggerated; it is not dead, because it has not been rendered obsolete by progress towards a fairer world. If only that were the case; but I don’t think it will be any time soon.
D.W. R
S
The authors, who both teach at Albright College in Pennsylvania, describe their book as ‘an exercise in comparative literature’. They interrogate the similarities between David, Jesus and Jesse James to see whether they matter. They blend traditional critical approaches and reception history with cultural studies. They argue that ‘King David, Jesus of Nazareth and Jesse Woodson James are Hobsbawmian “social bandits,” and it is from this bandit/dissident role that they both awakened fear from the standard authorities and popular support from the masses’ (p. 15). Readers of the B.L. will turn to ch. 2 on David, the bandit, to read an expansion of Hobsbawm's depiction of David as peasant outlaw who emerges at a time of social unrest and economic crisis to attract the disaffected and alienated. The expansion is set against the backdrop of recent debates about the historical David which are creatively understood as in part about the very construction of the figure of David undertaken by subsequent texts of various kinds, both biblical, postbiblical and scholarly. The chapter also has sections on Davidic elements in some Westerns and on the character of the wilderness where much banditry is at home and where legends are born. With most of the rest of the book taken up with Jesus and Jesse James, it is the conclusions that reintroduce David fully into the picture as his genealogy is discussed (a concern largely of the Chronicler) and as stories about him are seen as legendary reanimations. I learnt more about Westerns than about David (or Jesus) from reading this book, but I did enjoy seeing David from several illuminating perspectives; overall I came away, somewhat to my surprise, sensing that this had indeed been a worthwhile project.
G.J. B
S
The new Illuminations series is launched by its General Editor with the first of two volumes on Job. The layout is attractive and easy on the eye. Each section of the biblical text, translated by the author, is followed by his interpretation, written in a fluid and accessible style, with a minimum of technical details, citations and reporting of alternative views. This is followed by a more thorough and detailed commentary, which can serve as a reference to support the interpretation. A major distinctive of the series is the space devoted to the reception history of the biblical text (or ‘history of consequences’, as S. phrases it, to convey a sense of all that comes after the text, including wider effects and cultural influence as well as exegesis and interpretation—a ‘history of conversation’ which the reader is invited to join). In this volume, ‘history of consequences’ involves 138 pages of the introduction, plus roughly a further page for each section of commentary; it covers Jewish, Christian and (briefly) Muslim appropriations of Job over the centuries in translations, commentaries, literary allusions, liturgy, visual arts and music, all succinctly summarized. Including all these dimensions, alongside the familiar issues of versions, language, integrity, provenance, genre, structure and theology, inevitably produces a lengthy volume. The consistent rendering throughout of Hebrew only in transliterated form was disconcerting to this reader, but may be aimed to maximize readership of the series. The end product is a hugely impressive feat and feast of careful and accessible scholarship.
P.W. G
S
For a review of this volume, see Section 9 below.
S
This volume consists of an introduction, thirteen essays, and then three responses, concerning the representation of ‘others’ in the text and images of Bibles packaged for children, with the editors’ stated aim being ‘to put this issue on the scholarly map’. In this they succeed admirably: the whole is a fine example of biblical scholarship engaging with a related discourse of burgeoning critical literature (children's literature theory, in this case), and showing how the critical tools focus and clarify the issues at stake. Contributors wrestle with a basic conundrum, caught between complaining when the text is toned down or moralized, but then struggling with it when it is unleashed. For further consideration in this whole field is thus the question of what counts as responsible ‘brokering’ of stories to children, via text and image. Several essays here begin that analysis, and Cheryl Exum's fascinating concluding reflection draws on her own efforts in co-writing biblical stories for children. After the editors’ introduction, the contributions are: ‘Inside Out: The Othered Child in the Bible for Children’ (Laurel Koepf);’ “All God's Children”: Authority Figures, Places of Learning, and Society as the Other in Creationist Children's Bibles’ (Jaqueline S. du Toit); ‘Looking into the Lions’ Den: Otherness, Ideology, and Illustration in Children's Versions of Daniel 6’ (Hugh S. Pyper); ‘The Other in South African Children's Bibles: Politics and (Biblical) Systems of Othering’ (Jeremy Punt); ‘Veggies, Women, and Other Strangers in Children's Bible DVDs: Toward the Creation of Feminist Bible Films’ (Susanne Scholz); ‘No Greater Love: Jonathan and his Friendship with David in Text, Tradition, and Contemporary Children's Literature’ (Cynthia M. Rogers and Danna Nolan Fewell); ‘The Word Became Visual Text: The Boy Jesus in Children's Bibles’ (Melody Briggs); ‘Depiction of the Devil and the Education of Chinese Children: The Bible in the Taiping Trimetrical Classic’ (Archie Chi Chung Lee); ‘Conflating Creation, Combining Christmas, and Ostracizing the Other’ (Mark Roncace);’ “The Water's Round my Shoulders, and I’m—GLUG! GLUG! GLUG!”: God's Destruction of Humanity in the Flood Story for Children’ (Emma England); ‘Samson's Suicide and the Death of Three Thousand Others in Children's Bible Stories through Two Centuries’ (David M. Gunn); ‘Translating the Bible into Pictures’ (Rubén R. Dupertuis); ‘Samson's Hair and Delilah's Despair: Reanimating Judges 16 for Children’ (Caroline Vander Stichele). The three very helpful responses are ‘Children's Bibles Hot and Cold’ (Timothy Beal); ‘The Otherness of Children's Bibles in Historical Perspective’ (Ruth B. Bottigheimer); ‘What Does a Child Want? Reflections on Children's Bible Stories’ (J. Cheryl Exum). All in all a good and thought-provoking volume.
R.S. B
S
S.'s myriad works on postcolonial hermeneutics will not quite prepare the reader for this volume. Here he attempts a broader project: sketching out the reception of the Bible in Asia—by which he refers to West, East and South Asia. The goal is ‘to draw attention to a selection of stunning examples of Asian exegetical sedition, idiosyncrasy, vitality, and imagination’ (p. 12!). There are seven largely independent chapters. The first, perhaps of most straightforward interest to OT scholars, explores the presence of Asia, and especially India, in the Bible: not just in Esther and the Song of Songs, but with interesting material on an Indian precursor to Solomon's wisdom test in 1 Kings 3, for example. Several case studies follow: the pursuit of Asian scriptures that influenced the Bible; attempts to turn Christian texts against the Empire; and a look at Dharmapala, a Sri Lankan Buddhist ascetic who aggressively opposed the biblical message. After a chapter on the low-key reception of Paul in Asia, S. finally arrives at postcolonial and other hermeneutical strategies in ch. 6, before closing with a reading of Asian fiction for biblical themes. S. only rarely ventures into evaluation, but is not afraid of Asian self-critique. Indeed, so damning is some of this (’Hermeneutics has become an indulgence to express individuality and group feelings’, p. 222) that the end result feels somewhat inconclusive. Actual engagement with the OT is sparse. An illuminating aside that non-Christian Chinese readers would read Gen. 6.1–4 as concerning the regeneration of humanity in divine-human intermarriage leaves one rather wishing there had been more.
R.S. B
T
‘This study seeks to fill in, with admittedly broad strokes, the virtual oversight of pre-modern readings of false prophecy’ (p. 3). T.'s approach, which is ‘historically oriented’ (p. 159), is to look at the political, historical and individual factors involved in shaping the interpreter (p. 3), an emphasis which, for better or worse, means that there is little close reading of biblical passages about true and false prophecy in Jeremiah (Deut. 18 and Jer. 28 being used as test cases of such). This is particularly so in the first part of the book which deals with the pre-modern period. The writing style is sometimes informal with phrases such as ‘fair game’, ‘under fire’ (p. 70), ‘calling card’ and ‘dumbed it down’ (p. 169), and there are some untranslated Greek, Hebrew and German words and short phrases. The work is loosely structured in places; for instance, discussion of Walter Brueggemann comes under the section entitled ‘Brenneman’. In the opening paragraph on R.W.L. Moberly, T. talks about H.W. Wolff and then gives five criteria of a true prophet, but it is ambiguous whether these are Moberly's or Wolff's (they are Wolff's) (p. 169). Nevertheless, the work is informative, has clearly involved much research, and, as such, is a useful tool for those interested in the subject of true and false prophecy. The summary sections are helpful and the reader might benefit from reading these before the main body of the chapter.
J.I. W
Y
Y. seeks to set out a new biblical methodology, perspective criticism, which basically involves looking for clues in the text as to what the point of view of the narrator might be, especially on those occasions when we, as readers, are not given explicit evaluative guidance to indicate whether we should approve or disapprove of a particular character or action. The author argues that point-of-view dynamics can be conceptualized as operating on six distinct planes (not all of which are of equal significance), which he identifies as the ‘spatial plane’, the ‘psychological plane’, the ‘informational plane’, the ‘temporal plane’, the ‘phraseological plane’, and the ‘ideological plane’. The significance of the various planes is helpfully illustrated by a raft of examples from various films, since Y. believes that similar devices are at work in cinematic storytelling. The volume concludes by presenting two case studies, one from the NT (Acts 5.35–39) and the other from the OT (Judg. 6.36–40). The volume contains some illuminating insights and may well appeal as much to film buffs as to those who are interested in reading and analysing biblical texts.
E.W. D