‘Of all the Characters in Scripture, She Is the Least’: The Levite’s Concubine and the Discourse of Silence
A Rejoinder to A. Brenner, “Regulating ‘Sons’ and ‘Daughters’ in the Torah and in Proverbs: Some Preliminary Insights”
Gorgias Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2007
I and Eye in Isaiah, or Gazing at the Invisible
Journal of Biblical Literature, 2012
In this article I discuss the relationship between prophetic self-construction in Isaiah and the ... more In this article I discuss the relationship between prophetic self-construction in Isaiah and the self-effacement mandated by the prophets role as mediator of the divine vision. The homophone I/Eye expresses both the identification and absorp tion of the prophet in his vision, and the potential opposition between the prophet and what he sees, the prophet as a site of resistance to the prophecy. I will devote most of my discussion to ch. 6, which is both the first autobiographical passage in the book and its inaugural vision. I will examine different approaches to the para dox of the Verstockungsauftrag, the prophet's commission to speak so as to prevent communication of the divine message. Each of these approaches constructs the prophetic persona differently, as well as the gap between vision and interpretation. I will then turn to some other texts that concern the relationship of the prophet to the message, in particular in chs. 7; 20; and 61. I focus on the relationship between the "I" and the "Eye," between the prophet and the vision, as a way of thinking about the problem of poetic unity of the book of Isaiah and of a language that will communicate the prophetic experience. This has been the subject of intense discussion over the last thirty or so years, from both literary and historical perspectives.1 In the superscription (1:1), the book of Isaiah
Sternberg has been a major critic of biblical narrative ever since his ground-breaking article, "... more Sternberg has been a major critic of biblical narrative ever since his ground-breaking article, "The King through Ironic Eyes," appeared in Hasifrut in 1968. Hebrews between Cultures is a complement to his Poetics of Biblical Narrative (1985), and is a massive work: closely argued, printed, infuriatingly difficult to read, it nonetheless offers a complete, challenging, brilliant, and formidable synthesis of Meir Sternberg's views and of the biblical narrative as a whole. Sternberg's thesis is that the "master plot" of the Hebrew Bible is a struggle between Hamites and Hebrews, the cursed and the blessed, the slave and the enslaver, and that thereby it sustains a critique of slavery across both narrative and legal corpora. Hebrewness is a sign of intercultural denomination: thus Hamites name Israelites, at least when they want to denigrate them. It is also how Israelites speak of themselves when addressing a Hamite superior. Sometimes the use of the word "Hebrew" grants us insight into the consciousness of a character, such as Moses; at other times, it expresses the narrator's disapproval of individuals or groups. Hebrew is contrasted with Israel as unchosen to chosen; it represents the people before or outside the eponymous struggle with God. Whenever it is used, then, it is a throwback, to an inglorious origin "across the River," or a moral exclusion from the covenant community. Sternberg has other objectives. In particular, he wishes to show the fluidity, flexibility, and dense resistance to stereotypes of the biblical narrative, in the service of what he calls its "foolproof composition."
This is a collection of seven somewhat disparate essays by Isaac Kalimi, who has worked for many ... more This is a collection of seven somewhat disparate essays by Isaac Kalimi, who has worked for many years on Chronicles, but whose research interests cover the spectrum of Jewish folklore, Midrash, of which Chronicles is an early example, and issues of Jewish and Christian interpretation. The essays are highly readable, extremely erudite, and always have a sharp and distinctive point. Two are on the Akedah; one concerns the topos of biblical heroes who were born circumcised; two are on aspects of the Joseph story; and two are on the relationship of theology to biblical studies, including a review-article on a book by Rolf Knierim. Earlier versions of the articles have been previously published in various languages.
FewellL, Danna Nolan and Gunn, David M., Gender, Power and Promise: The Subject of the Bible's First Story. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993. Pp. 208. Pbk. $14.95. ISBN 0-687-14042-0
Biblical Interpretation, 1996
Prophecy as trap
Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology, Jan 2, 2015
In Isaiah 6, the prophet is commissioned to speak so that people should not understand and thus b... more In Isaiah 6, the prophet is commissioned to speak so that people should not understand and thus be destroyed. The commission has parallels in other 8th century prophets, notably Amos and Hosea, for whom prophecy and history are a divine trap. I will proceed through a discussion of the ethical implications of the commission, using especially the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, to a reading of particular texts: Isaiah 6, 29:1–14, and the Immanuel prophecy in 7:14–25. I will end with a consideration of reading and meaning. Criticism is a process of bafflement, of realising that one will never fully understand, that there are doors in the text one will never open.
Why I am Such a Good Christian: Comments on Gil Anidjar, Blood: A Critique of Christianity
Method & Theory in The Study of Religion, Jun 25, 2019
Gil Anidjar begins his immensely ambitious bookBloodwith a strange statement/question “Why I am S... more Gil Anidjar begins his immensely ambitious bookBloodwith a strange statement/question “Why I am Such a Good Christian.” I begin by examining this question for its implications for cultural hybridity, for myself as well as for Anidjar, through the lens of Anidjar’s concluding discussion of Freud’sMoses and Monotheism. On the way I critically explore Anidjar’s insistence that blood is not a signifier of kinship or ancestry in the Hebrew Bible or in Judaism, and argue that both are in fact much more complex. I suggest also that Christianity has other elements than blood, such as the bread of the Eucharist, and that Anidjar devotes little attention to the differences between Protestant and Catholic Christianity. I conclude by reverting to Freud’s account of an experience of innocence inThe Interpretation of Dreams, as indicative of Freud’s ambivalent position between Judaism and Christianity.
Why Ask My Name?" Anonymity and Identity in Biblical Narrative
Journal of Biblical Literature, 2000
Anonymous characters - such as Lot's wife, Jephthah's daughter, Pharoah's baker, and ... more Anonymous characters - such as Lot's wife, Jephthah's daughter, Pharoah's baker, and the witch of Endor - are ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible, and appear in a wide variety of roles. Adele Reinhartz here answers two principal questions concerning this aspect of biblical narrative. First, is there a "poetics of anonymity," and if so, what are its contours? Second, how does anonymity affect the readers' response to, and construction of, unnamed biblical characters. She is especially interested in issues related to gender, determining whether female characters are more likely to be anonymous than male characters, and whether the anonymity of female characters functions differently from that of male characters.
Review of Claudia V. Camp, Ben Sira and the Men Who Handle Books: Gender and the Rise of Canon-Consciousness, Sheffield, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013
The Bible and Critical Theory, Nov 14, 2016
Review of Israel Knohl, The Divine Symphony: The Bible’s Many Voices
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Dec 31, 2005
Israel Knohl is best known for his The Sanctuary of Silence (Philadelphia: JPS, 1995), in which h... more Israel Knohl is best known for his The Sanctuary of Silence (Philadelphia: JPS, 1995), in which he defended an early dating for P, and proposed that the Holiness Code is a priestly response to prophetic critique. His latest book builds on his earlier research to suggest that the ...
Paradoxes of Paradise. Identity and Difference in the Song of Songs
Vetus Testamentum, Apr 1, 1985
Review of Isaac Kalimi, Early Jewish Exegesis and Theological Controversy: Studies in Scripture in the Shadow of Internal and External Conflicts
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Dec 31, 2003
Isaac Kalimi, Early Jewish Exegesis and Theological Controversy: Studies in Scripture in the Shad... more Isaac Kalimi, Early Jewish Exegesis and Theological Controversy: Studies in Scripture in the Shadow of Internal and External Conflicts. ... In the first, The Land/Mount Moriah, and the Site of the Jerusalem Temple in Biblical Historical Writing (pp. ...
Poetry, Catastrophe, and Hope in the Vision of Isaiah
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Papers by Francis Landy