Abstract
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The latest three volumes of the projected thirty that will eventually make up the complete Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception are as full of interest as the ones already reviewed in B.L. 2014 (pp. 119–22). As previously noted, the scope of these volumes is enormous: from antiquity to the modern day, covering reception in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in East and West, in literature, visual arts, music and film, dealing with the subjects received and those who carry out the reception (artists, poets, scholars) and providing a decorous number of figures, maps and colour plates to illustrate the entries. The list of contributors is international and crosses religious and ideological boundaries. Some of the entries are almost the size of a small book in themselves: the treatment of ‘Eden, Garden of’ (vol. 7), for example, discusses Eden in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, in the New Testament, in Judaism (Second Temple, Rabbinic, Mediaeval, Modern), in Christianity, in Islam, in Literature (Jewish and Christian), in the visual arts, in music, and in film, and is authored by a total of 12 different scholars. Other entries have a more indirect relationship to the Bible and its reception, such as ‘Footwear’ (vol. 9) or ‘Education’ (vol. 7), where there is a comparison of the role that the topic plays in biblical life with the role that it played or plays in Judaism and Christianity through the ages, but less of a sense that the later developments are in some way an adoption or reception of the biblical pattern. This means that the Encyclopedia is more than just an encylopaedia of reception history: it is also a source of information on a wide range of topics, themes, people and places relating to the Bible and life in biblical times, as well as on para-biblical literature and on scholars both Jewish and Christian whose work related in some way to the biblical texts, either because they investigated it directly or because they used patterns or motifs from it in otherwise non-biblical scholarship. An example of the latter from these volumes is the article on E.L. Fackenheim (1916–2003) (vol. 8), whose writings on Jewish and Christian theology and philosophy are permeated with biblical ideas and motifs. This is a major resource that will be of significant value to biblical scholarship at many different levels.
D.W. R
B
As the title suggests, Illuminating Moses explores the figure of Moses in the Hebrew Bible and in his many theological and cultural afterlives. Following an explanatory introductory chapter by B. as to how the subject of the book originated and developed, there follow 14 chapters that explore the influence of the figure of Moses and the traditions of the Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Jewish literature, the Church Fathers, Anglo-Saxon literature, the theology of Thomas Aquinas, devotional literature, and the Renaissance. In the first section on the Hebrew Bible, Robert D. Miller II writes on ‘The Role of Moses in the Pentateuch’ while Tawny Holm explores the theme of ‘Moses in the Prophets and Writings in the Hebrew Bible’. In the section on the New Testament and early Christianity, Larry J. Swain writes on ‘Moses: A Central Figure in the New Testament’, while Christopher A. Hall contributes a chapter on ‘Moses and the Church Fathers’ and Luciana Cuppo-Csaki investigates liturgical roles assigned to Moses in ‘Moses and the Paschal Liturgy’. Three chapters focus on the place given to Moses in Jewish philosophy and exegesis: Howard Kreisel writes on ‘The Prophecy of Moses in Medieval Jewish Philosophy’, while Rachel S. Mikva's ‘Epic and Romance, Narrative and Exegesis: Moses in the Minor Midrashim’ and Devorah Schoenfeld's ‘“The Destiny of All Men”: Rabbinic and Medieval Justifications for the Death of Moses’ both focus on rabbinic interpretation. Two chapters explore the literary afterlives of Moses. Gernot Wieland's ‘Legifer, Dux, Scriptor: Moses in Anglo-Saxon Literature’ and Gail Ivy Berlin's ‘“Like a Duck from a Falcon”: Moses in Middle English Biblical Literature, the Mystery Cycles and Piers Plowman B’ both focus on a literary period which showed a sustained interest in the prophet. Two further chapters explore theological interpretations of traditions surrounding Moses: Deborah L. Goodwin, ‘The Biblical-Moral Moses: Type or Stereotype?’ and Franklin T. Harkins, ‘Primus doctor Iudaeorum: Moses as Theological Master in the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas’. The volume concludes with reflections on Moses in traditional Christian worship (Jane Beal, ‘Moses and Christian Contemplative Devotion’) and on the importance of the figure of Moses in the Renaissance (Brett Foster, ‘“Types and Shadows”: Uses of Moses in the Renaissance’). There is certainly broad coverage here of the influence of the Moses story throughout the centuries, although the coverage is not as inclusive as it could have been. For example, there is an emphasis on the figure of Moses in Jewish tradition (three chapters) but none on Islamic tradition and, disappointingly, there is no mention of iconographic traditions of Moses in the chapter on the Renaissance; nor, indeed, are there any images of Moses in the book. The strength of the book lies in its analysis of textual traditions throughout the centuries both in commentaries and in literary works of the classical canon such as Milton. The volume has copious scholarly footnotes and a useful bibliography and will, without doubt, constitute an essential reference work in reception studies of Moses.
M. O'K
B
Rabbi Steven Bob does all readers of Jonah a wonderful service with this elegant little volume, the bulk of which performs admirably its advertised task of laying out in English translation the relevant commentaries of five Jewish scholars. Each is given a chapter, with the translated text printed in bold, and explanatory notes interwoven throughout. The five are, in turn: Rashi, who offers brief comment on a few selected verses; Ibn Ezra, who reads with a restrained thoroughness and attention to detail; David Kimchi, opening up interpretative options and pondering Jonah's own perspective on events; the lengthier work of Isaac Abarbanel, which reminds one of Thomas Aquinas working through propositions and questions section by section and alert to wide-ranging theological implications; and Malbim, a nineteenth-century Eastern European commentator, who suggests that Jonah can flee in ch. 1 because he has not yet received the word of God, but cannot in ch. 3 because he has. Rabbi B. then adds his own 20-page commentary at the end, reflecting an inter-religious sensitivity, and offering a nice clarification of whether the fish was a whale, and whether those categories were available to the author. Overall this is a good resource that would serve as a fine supplement to all those Hebrew classes that use Jonah as a sample beginner's text, with B. opening up a world of detail behind broad claims about ‘what the rabbis said’. My personal favourite comment was Kimchi's on 2.2—‘It was a great miracle that he was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights and remained alive. It is another miracle that he was not in shock … [and was able to pray]’.
R.S. B
B
The evidence of this book might suggest that those waiting for B.'s commentary to accompany his earlier 1 Samuel: A Narrative Commentary (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008; see B.L. 2009, p. 62) may be disappointed. Although not presented as a commentary in the traditional sense, this volume follows the pattern of the earlier work, while principally focusing on 2 Samuel 15–18. However, B. recognizes that it is necessary to place these chapters in context, so after an introduction which lays out the reasons for his largely synchronic approach to the text he devotes two chapters to surveying earlier parts of 2 Samuel that are crucial for understanding Absalom's rebellion. Although B. appreciates the importance of this material in its own right, his concern here is to show how it informs the Absalom story. B.'s subsequent chapters are then devoted to the main sections of this story. Those familiar with his earlier work will recognize his easy turn of phrase and ability to draw on contemporary texts to inform his reading of the ancient one. Although it is clearly a literary reading which is especially attentive to its use of features such as irony, it is also a determinedly theological one as B. explores key themes such as the interrelationship between human and divine purpose through the narrative. Indeed, as B. argues in his conclusion, it is the combination of literary power and theological depth that leads to this being a text which is read and re-read. As a work which is primarily aimed at students, B.'s volume should assist those who first read it, and also those who come to re-read it.
D.G. F
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This study in reception history seeks to present a new theory. B. argues that we can no longer work with the assumption of an ‘original’ (whether text critically or tradition critically): even the earliest text might be reception. He proposes that reception history can be integrated with the historical forms of biblical criticism and seeks to illustrate with two chapters examining Job 19.25–27. Ultimately, rather than ask, ‘What does this text mean?’, we should be posing the question as, ‘What can this text do?’ This is well put, but I believe textual and traditio-historical criticism continue to have an important place in biblical scholarship, in spite of the focus of some on the hermeneutical use of the text. I accept the argument that we must be dealing with more than one version of most biblical writings, and the question of an ‘original’ is often problematic. But this is hardly new: some of us have been arguing this for a long time. Indeed, a number of studies on redaction history have worked with the assumption that the text was passed on in interpreted form, and reception history was a part of the growth and editing process. So the general thrust of B.'s argument is not new. On the other hand, it is useful to make such an approach explicit, and in this he has made a contribution. Unfortunately, his manuscript has not been well served by the publishers who use a typeface that is too small and difficult to read.
L.L. G
B
For a review of this volume, see Section 9 below.
C
Based on a conference held at Duke University in 2012, this volume comprises the expanded papers read at that event. Part 1, ‘The Bible and Politics’, has papers by Jacques Berlinerblau (‘The Bible in the Presidential Elections of 2012, 2008 and 2004, and the Collapse of American Secularism’) and Yaakov Ariel (‘Biblical Imagery, the End Times, and Political Action: The Roots of Christian Support for Zionism and Israel’). Part 2, ‘The Bible, America's Founding Era, and American Identity’, has papers by John Fea (‘Does America Have a Biblical Heritage?’), Shalom Goldman (’ “God's New Israel”: American Identification with Israel Ancient and Modern’), and David Morgan (‘The Image of the Protestant Bible in America’). Part 3, ‘The Bible and Popular Culture’, has papers by Adele Reinhartz (‘Holy Words in Hollywood: De Mille's The Ten Commandments (1956) and American Identity’), David W. Stowe (‘History, Memory, and Forgetting in Psalm 137’), and Rubén Dupertuis (‘Comic Book Bibles: Translation and the Politics of Interpretation’). Part 4, ‘The Bible and Public Schools’, has papers by Charles C. Haynes (‘Battling over the Bible in Public Schools: Is Common Ground Possible?’) and Mark A. Chancey (‘Public School Bible Courses in Historical Perspective: North Carolina as a Case Study’). This is a fascinating collection of material that should be read by every biblical scholar, not only for information, but also as a warning of what can and still does happen to biblical texts. There is, however, a surprising omission. Charles Thomson, the co-designer of the Great Seal of the United States and for its first 15 years the Secretary of the American Congress (his last duty was to tell George Washington that he had been elected President), was a considerable biblical scholar. He was the first person ever to translate the LXX into English—an American Bible—and yet he is not mentioned in this book.
M. B
C
This volume contains six chapters based on the papers read at the International SBL's Bible and Empire programme unit. By far the lengthiest contribution (nearly 60 pages) is that by Yvonne Sherwood, who considers the use of the Bible in the sixteenth-century Spanish Empire; Maria Ana T. Valdez focuses on Jewish messianic expectation as reflected in Menasseh ben Israel's Esperanza de Israel; Mark Somos considers the systematic exegetical attempts to neutralize the Bible in seventeenth-century English political and legal writings; Andrew Mein focuses on the way the Gog prophecy of Ezekiel 38–39 was interpreted in Britain in the early and mid-nineteenth century (Gog being identified with Russia and Britain with Tarshish in the lead up to the Crimean war); Hendrik Bosman investigates nineteenth-century biblical interpretation in Southern Africa and its significance in resistance against British imperialism; and, finally, Hugh Pyper considers the complex interaction between different interpretative strategies applied to the Bible and to Sanskrit texts by the various participants involved in the development of Hindu nationalism. Some errors were noted in the volume (e.g. Katharine Dell's name is misspelt on p. 30) but this is undoubtedly an important contribution to aspects of the Bible and imperialism which have all too often been neglected in the past.
E.W. D
D
Most of this interesting dissertation prepared under the supervision of David Gunn is devoted to exploring how John Calvin himself and four subsequent representatives of the ‘Calvinian’ tradition read David's behaviour in respect of Saul, the Lord's anointed. All shared the ancient view that David was an exemplary figure. For Calvin, David exemplified the patient suffering of common folk faced with royal injustice. But Beza, Calvin's successor in Geneva, looked less to the reactive David of the Psalms, more to the proactive David of Samuel: a tyrant should be resisted. D. finds the anonymous author of Het Wilhelmus (the Dutch anthem) closer to Beza: William of Orange was less a ‘persecuted fugitive’ David, and more a ‘resisting lesser magistrate’ (p. 96). Andrew Willet, a scholarly and politically conservative Cambridgeshire clergyman closer to Calvin, developed twenty analogies between David and James I: ‘David was … both the ideal king who protected true religion and also the ideal non-resister who validated his righteous cause through suffering’ (p. 131). A generation later, Scottish Covenanter and theologian Samuel Rutherford drew heavily on the books of Samuel when writing Lex Rex: despite being anointed by Samuel, according to Rutherford ‘David … remained formally a subject, and not a king, till all Israel made him king at Hebron’ (p. 148). The final chapter argues that the different political appropriations of exemplary David derive from the essential ambiguity of 1 Samuel, epitomized in chs. 24–26.
A.G. A
F
For a review of this volume, see Section 5 (V) above.
G
For a review of this volume, see Section 9 below.
H
This volume offers an insightful exploration of the translation and adaptation of the Bible in and as visual culture, written by a practising artist and historian of visual culture. The aim of this volume is not only to examine the interface between the Bible and visual representation, but also to broaden the field of research and writing on biblical art, by expanding out from the usual reception-history focus on figurative, canonical painting. This is successfully achieved through H.'s discussion of the biblical text in a wide array of visual material, ranging from the work of artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt to Barnet Newman and Mark Rothko, as well as H.'s own abstract visual and aural works, Protestant evangelical merchandise, photography and video games. In his pursuit to ‘foster a more balanced reciprocation of ideas and criticism between biblical- and art-orientated scholarship’ (p. 13), H. examines the relationship between the Bible and visual culture by reflecting on the coalescence of a number of biblical and artistic concepts, such as vision (ch. 1), landscape and Eden (ch. 3), image as text/text as image (chs. 5 and 10), biblical abstracts (ch. 6), visual blasphemy (ch. 8), and evangelical artefacts (ch. 9). Of particular interest is the final chapter of the book that offers a window into H.'s art practice, responding to, and working with, the biblical text in two series, The Pictorial Bible and The Aural Bible. While H. clearly states that the book is selective in its focus on primarily ‘Protestant traditions of visualization’ (p. 13), the volume nonetheless offers valuable material for any scholar interested in the methodological and theoretical aspects of reception studies, the ‘process of biblio-visual translation’ (p. 200).
H. M
K
This fascinating book examines the motif of interethnic eroticism between Hebrew/Jewish and non-Hebrew/Gentile characters that recurs several times in the biblical accounts, and is also built upon in modern Hebrew literature. There are several variations of the motif in biblical literature: the three ‘wife-sister’ narratives relating to Abraham and Isaac, the encounter between Joseph and Potiphar's wife, and the Esther story. K. discusses each of these variations in turn: the three wife-sister narratives indicate an ironically unfounded fear of the non-Hebrew other, that causes the Patriarch to behave more immorally than the supposedly wicked foreigners. The Joseph narrative, as a variation of this, presents the Hebrew male as righteous and confirms the fears about immoral foreigners, which are embodied in the powerful and seductive woman, although this simplistic picture is challenged by Second Temple and midrashic/rabbinic treatments of the narrative. The Esther scroll, yet another variation, draws on several other biblical narratives that involve foreigners and exile, as well as on the wife-sister episodes, to problematize the idea that bold, unassimilated Jewish living in foreign contexts is either desirable or possible. K. then turns to modern works in which the motif appears: Shai Agnon's 1944 short story ‘The Lady and the Peddler’, about a Jewish peddler entrapped by a cannibalistic woman, Ingmar Bergman's 1971 film The Touch, about the relationship between a Jewish archaeologist in Sweden and a local married woman, and Semadar Herzfeld's 1994 novel Inta Omri (You Are my Life) about an Arab man's relationship with a Jewish-Israeli woman during the 1980s Intifada. K. reads all these works as explorations of the complex issues surrounding survival and the maintenance of Jewish identity in situations involving foreignness. The issues raised by K. have a resonance well beyond their biblical and Jewish contexts, and her astute highlighting of the challenges they present will be read with appreciation by many.
D.W. R
L
Music as midrash has a long history but has received scant attention in biblical scholarship over the last century, though there are signs that this is changing. In a proficient and welcome addition to that trend, L. focuses on one particular biblical incident, with character, plot and narrative taking precedence over date and authorship. An introductory chapter (‘The Biblical Story’) stresses listening to the silences. Three further chapters provide the foundation for the rest, outlining how ‘one of the most popular biblical stories in Christian tradition’ (p. 82) has been handled in Christian and Jewish tradition in art, liturgy, embroidery and drama from the third century
A. G
M
‘[T]here can be no neutrality or objectivity about Palestine’ (p. 7), says Edward Said in a passage M. quotes in his introduction. The Zionist Bible is certainly not a book that attempts to evade taking sides, such is the unambiguous critique of Zionist uses of the Bible that runs throughout this text. M. writes engagingly, offering an accessible chronological treatment of how biblical interpretation and archaeology has at times been closely interwoven with Zionist thought from the late nineteenth century to the present. As a demonstration of the manner in which perceptions of biblical past can profoundly shape conflicts in the present world, The Zionist Bible is an effective work. But there are missteps. M. repeatedly suggests, even on the book's final page (p. 295), that modern Palestinians are more closely descended from the biblical Israelites than Zionism's founders. This is not especially helpful amidst an overall discussion in which questions are raised against the very practice itself of making contemporary claims to power based on perceptions of ancient heritage. But seen as a whole, and treated with a critical awareness of how it fits into a spectrum of debate, The Zionist Bible is a direct and sometimes startling contribution to a tough discussion of which Hebrew Bible scholars would be remiss to remain unaware.
D.C. T
P
This engaging book is based on P.'s Vanderbilt dissertation under Jack Sasson, and retains the characteristics of a thesis. It is a study of ‘narrative obtrusion’, the latter term being defined as an ‘omniscient comment employed by the narrator to address potential issues in the text that will create problems for the reader, either because of questions the narrator believes the reader may ask or because of the assumptions the narrator fears the reader may have’ (p. 1). Much of the time P. parses an ‘obtrusion’ as an ‘intrusion’, and arguably the more specific definition is not altogether warranted in the discussion. An opening chapter maps out some familiar issues in narrative and reader-response criticism, with specific reference to laconic narration, before P. launches into his chosen focus. Chapter 3 explores one example at length: the multi-faceted obtrusion of Judg. 14.4, arriving at some interesting reflections on divine action vis-à-vis omniscient narration. There is also a long chapter on ANE examples, making the unexpected claim that Ugaritic literature anticipates the free indirect style of modern novels. This is a study pushing further down the road still less travelled since the breakthrough works of Robert Alter, Meir Sternberg, and to some extent Erich Auerbach. It contains a wealth of helpful examples, of which the Judg. 14.4 one is explored sufficiently to model how this approach might yield real insight, and it deserves to be a reference point for attention to biblical narrators. P. concludes with clearly defined areas for further study, and one may hope that he himself may contribute to such developments.
R.S. B
S
With this volume, S.'s massive undertaking in offering a detailed survey of the history of HB/OT research from antiquity to the present draws near to completion. It is notable that whereas the previous parts of the work have covered several centuries each (vol. 1 in two parts, from early Judaism through the NT to the Church Fathers up to Augustine in 847 pages, and then from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries
D.W. R
S
S. has gathered an impressive array of contributors for the final volume of his monumental history of OT interpretation (see B.L. 1997, p. 106; B.L. 2001, pp. 18–19; B.L. 2009, pp. 127–29; and above, for previous volumes). The first of the three major sections has the ponderous title ‘General Prospects of Context and Approaches of Biblical Interpretation in the Twentieth Century’, and includes contributions by D. Føllesdal on basic questions of hermeneutics, S.E. Fassberg on the linguistic context of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, A.C. Hagedorn on institutions and social life in ancient Israel, J. Barton on the legacy of the literary-critical school and growing opposition to historico-critical Bible studies, A.F. Campbell on form-critical and traditio-historical approaches, D.J.A. Clines on contemporary methods in Hebrew Bible criticism, M. Oeming on the significance of the OT in systematic theology, and D. Olson on the ‘canonical approach’. The second section is concerned with ‘Main Regional and Confessional Areas of the Twentieth Century Biblical Scholarship’, where D.A. Knight surveys studies of the Hebrew Bible/OT in the Americas, H. Bosman does the same for Africa, M.A. O'Brien for Australia and New Zealand, S. Sekine for Asia, J. Barton for the European Continent, UK and Ireland, A. Laato for Northern Europe, and S.D. Sperling surveys developments in Jewish biblical scholarship. The third and longest section is entitled ‘Special Fields and Different Approaches in the Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament’, and deals with research into the history of Israel (J.-L. Ska), Pentateuchal criticism (D.M. Carr), historiography (W. Dietrich), the prophets (M.A. Sweeney), the Psalms (C. Körting), wisdom literature (K.M. Heim), law and ethics (E. Otto), history of Israelite religion (J. Schaper), OT theology (B. Janowski), and Bible translation (J. de Waard). The quality of the essays varies greatly. On the one hand, there are masterful surveys that are both compendious and insightful; on the other, some essays are quite disjointed and/or incomplete. To give just two examples of incompleteness: the survey of Old Testament theology does not mention either W. Eichrodt or W. Brueggemann; and the short sub-chapter on Asia is concerned with just three countries, ignoring two of the big three (India and Indonesia). There are numerous typographical errors, and several essays need stylistic editing. Nevertheless, a great deal of research has been compressed into this work, and there are many lengthy bibliographies, so it will be a valuable reference book for years to come.
D.L. B
S
This is the second in a projected series of three volumes offering a retrospect and assessment of feminist scholarship of the Hebrew Bible (vol. 1 was reviewed in B.L. 2014, p. 125). The remit of this volume is to consider how social and cultural locations have affected the shape of the scholarship that has been produced, and it falls into two parts: ‘Sampling Continental Geographies’, and ‘Sampling Hermeneutical Locations’. S. begins by providing an introduction to the volume, and then ‘Sampling Continental Geographies’ contains six essays: ‘Talitha cum Hermeneutics: Some African Women's Ways of Reading the Bible (Musa W. Dube); ‘Beyond Colonialism and Postcolonialism: Feminist Readings of the Bible in East Asia’ (Wai Ching Angela Wong); ‘Engaging Women's Experiences in the Struggle for Justice, Dignity, and Humanity: Hebrew Bible Readings by South Asian Women’ (Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon); ‘Grounded in a Historical-Literary Divide: Gendered Bible Meanings in Europe’ (Deborah W. Rooke); ‘Thirsty Enough for Feminist Biblical Interpretation? Contextual Readings by Women from Latin America’ (Mercedes L. Garcia Bachmann); and ‘Discovering a Largely Unknown Past for a Vibrant Present; Feminist Hebrew Bible Studies in North America’ (Suzanne Scholz). ‘Sampling Hermeneutical Locations’ consists of eight essays: ‘A Feminist Hermeneutics of Resistance: A Jewish Response to Interpretive Hegemony’ (Esther Fuchs); ‘Women Who Love Women Reading Hebrew Bible Texts: About a Lesbian Biblical Hermeneutics’ (Janet Everhart); ‘The Power of Bodies: Contextual Readings by Women with Disabilities’ (Rebecca Raphael); ‘Standing in the Midst of the Anthropocene: Ecofeminist Approaches to the Hebrew Bible’ (Laura Hobgood-Oster); ‘Feminist-Critical Scholarship from Secular Perspectives: The Hebrew Bible in the Context of Women's Lives in this World’ (Pamela J. Milne); ‘Cultivating a Hermeneutics of Respect for Judaism: Christian Feminist Interpretations of the Hebrew Bible after the Holocaust’ (Katharina von Kellenbach); ‘Recovering Redemption for Women: Feminist Exegesis in North American Evangelism’ (Karen Strand Winslow); and ‘Locating Hajar in Islam: Female Bible Characters from a Feminist Muslim Stance’ (Qudsia Mirsa). Like the first and the forthcoming third volumes, this is an important survey of an approach to biblical studies that has developed exponentially over the decades and has made a real difference to the lives of both women and men in its challenging of the status quo. This collection shows the range, depth and flexibility of feminist approaches, and we can be sure that despite continued cold-shouldering of such approaches at various levels of the establishment, the feminist genie is out of the bottle and is not going to go back in.
D.W. R
S
This is a study of five twentieth-century compositions that set OT subject matter to music, whether using the actual biblical text or basing themselves on a previously paraphrased or dramatized version of it. The works in question are Arthur Honegger's ‘King David’ (1921), Frank Martin's ‘In Terra Pax’ (1944), Leonard Bernstein's ‘Chichester Psalms’ (1965), Winfried Hiller's ‘Schulamit’ (1977–90), and Petr Eben's ‘Jeremias’ (1997). For each work S. explains the context of composition, supplies the libretto (in an appendix, except for the Chichester Psalms where the text is included in the chapter itself), presents a movement-by-movement description-cum-analysis of the work, and then offers final remarks by way of summary or evaluation of the work. The flawed and hesitant David of Honegger's ‘Symphonic Psalm’ is understood to reflect the general collapse of major world monarchies at the time of the work's composition; Martin's ‘In Terra Pax’, written in anticipation of the end of World War II, moves from war and turmoil on earth via the Suffering Servant to the coming of God's kingdom with the new Jerusalem, and adopts a musical style that is simple, harmonious and widely accessible; Bernstein's ‘Psalms’ are seen as an expression of his personal credo; Hiller's ‘Schulamit’, a choral and orchestral piece based on the Song of Songs, uses instrumentation that brings out the Song's character as a love lyric; the Czech Eben's Kirchenoper ‘Jeremias’ stresses the prophet's role as one who strives for peace in the face of war and warmongers, and who is opposed by the masses. A fascinating set of studies that demonstrates how the biblical text still has deep contemporary resonances, especially when incorporated into an artistic medium.
D.W. R
S
Though Genesis 1–3 is, without doubt, one of the most popular topics within biblical studies, and in particular the sub-field of reception history, this volume offers a fascinating and, until now, under-represented perspective on the subject. The editors position this collection of essays on the ‘hidden truths from Eden’ as a direct response to the domination of Western academia by ‘empiricist scientific principles of knowledge’ (p. 3), and in so doing offer valuable insight into the alternative modes of interpretation represented, in this case, by esoteric readings of the biblical texts. The book is thus as much a call to broaden the methodological approaches to the Bible that are employed by scholars today, as a valuable addition to the knowledge bank of the history of interpretation of Genesis 1–3. Following the editors’ introduction are nine varied and fascinating ‘case studies’ in esoteric interpretation, ordered chronologically and divided into three sections. Part 1, ‘Early Christian Explorations’, includes Anna Rebecca Solevåg, ‘Adam, Eve, and the Serpent in the Acts of Andrew’; Tuomas Rasimus, ‘Imperial Propaganda in Paradise? Christ as Eagle in the Apocryphon of John’; Peter W. Martens, ‘A Fitting Portrait of God: Origen's Interpretations of the “Garments of Skins” (Gen 3:21)’. Part 2, ‘Zoharic, Kabbalistic, and Alchemical Speculations’, contains Elliot R. Wolfson, ‘Bifurcating the Androgyne and Engendering Sin: A Zoharic Reading of Gen 1–3’; Peter J. Forshaw, ‘The Genesis of Christian Kabbalah: Early Modern Speculations of Creation’; Georgiana Hedesan, ‘The Mystery of Mysterium Magnum: Paracelsus's Alchemical Interpretation of Creation in Philosophia ad Atheniensis and its Early Modern Commentators’. Part 3, ‘From Modern to Post-Postmodern (Re)Visions’, contains Susanne Scholz, ‘Beyond Postmodernism? Esoteric Interpretations of Gen 1–3 by E. Swedenborg, R. Steiner, and S.D. Gohr’; László-Attila Hubbes, ‘Restoring a Broken Creation during Times of Apocalypse: An Essay on the Analogical Symbolism of Fall and Integrity in the Metaphysics of Béla Hamvas (1897–1968)’; Hugh R. Page, Jr, ‘The Bible and Africana Esotericism: Toward an Architectonic for Interdisciplinary Study’. These are followed by two response essays: Elaine Pagels, ‘Strategies of Esoteric Exegesis’, and Samuel D. Fohr, ‘Esotericism and Biblical Interpretation.’
H. M
V
For a review of this volume, see Section 9 below.
W
W.'s study addresses humour in the Bible (both Old and New Testament, although his main focus is on the Old), which, he notes, is mostly overlooked and clearly underappreciated by virtually all readers. His introductory chapter seeks to show not only that biblical humour, even though often understated, is far more pervasive than we tend to allow, but also that, by missing it, we are in danger of missing the point of many a biblical story. W. investigates Jonah as joke, looks at comic reversal in Esther, and offers a chapter, subtitled ‘Humor as Social Justice’, that focuses on humour in the portrayal of some of the Bible's key female characters (the stories of Sarah, Eve and Deborah are presented as prime examples). The only chapter devoted to the New Testament centres on the way bumbling Peter and man-of-many-words Paul are lampooned in Acts. Further chapters explore David as trickster and ‘odd couples’ in Genesis. Here Jacob and Esau, Abraham and Lot, and Isaac and Rebekah are singled out for closer inspection. A concluding chapter provides further reflections on the importance and purpose of biblical humour, while a bibliography and useful indexes complete a book that, despite perhaps being a little rhetorical and repetitive at times, is a welcome investigation of an important and largely neglected issue in the narrative study of the Bible.
K. M
Z
For a review of this volume, see Section 5 (I) above.
Z
This book, based on the author's doctoral dissertation, is a thorough and careful examination of the way 39 individual stories in Genesis are brought to a conclusion. Z. delimits the stories by the techniques of narratology, especially the Kafalenos system, developed from the work of V. Propp and T. Todorov. The main body of the book consists of several chapters dealing with various linguistic and formal features that contribute to closure, such as repetition (ch. 3), hyperbole and summary statements (ch. 4), aetiologies, proverbs and formulaic language (ch. 5), and ritual actions (ch. 6). A seventh chapter discusses various elements that constitute ‘anti-closure’ such as new information and unanswered questions, which may serve to leave the way open for later stories. The Kafalenos system proves insightful in the structural and literary analysis of the stories, and the resulting analyses would surely help anyone needing to expound the stories to see the wood as well as the trees. The book is almost (though not completely) free of misprints, and provides a useful model and stimulus for a similar analysis of stories in other parts of the Bible. If there is a reservation, it lies in the rather unquestioning acceptance of source-critical views, though such discussion is beyond the scope of this otherwise highly commendable study.
D.J. C