Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis: Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text

Published by Penn State University Press 2016

Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis

Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text

Edited by: Elizabeth R. Hayes and Karolien Vermeulen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781575064550

Overview
Contents

About this book

The style of the Hebrew Bible has long been of significant interest to scholars and exegetes alike. Early Jewish and later Christian commentaries point out the importance of the exact wording in interpreting the text, and many an article has been written on features such as repetition and inclusio. With the rise of literary and narrative criticism in biblical studies, these features have received even more attention. The current book stands in the tradition of Robert Alter in that it focuses on how the text of Genesis is written and phrased. More explicitly, it is interested in why Genesis is formulated the way it is and how this affects the reader in his/her encounter with the text. Doubling and Duplicating is not only concerned with a style-as-analysis frame for interpreters but also with its role as a guide for any audience and its gateway to the ancient mind-set (ideological, ontological, and so on).

All of the contributors to this collected volume focus on the form of the book of Genesis—that is, on its use of language and formulation. Yet, each author does this in his/her own way, depending on the most fitting tool for the specific research question or based on the researcher’s methodological background. Thus, the essays represent the various approaches in current literary and stylistic criticism as applied to the biblical corpus. Furthermore, the recurring duality of the features discussed in each of the contributions adds to the overall unity of the volume. This recurrence suggests the presence of a stylistic feature in the book of Genesis, the feature of doubling and duplicating, that surpasses the other features of the individual units or stories. This book offers insights about meaning-making on both the micro- and the macro-text levels.

Reviews

“The move toward more methodically inclusive reading being championed here is definitely to be welcomed, and the collection deserves to enjoy a wide readership.”
—Megan Warner, Review of Biblical Literature

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction: The Stylistics of Genesis Karolien Vermeulen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1 Formal Doubles and the Whole
1 Doubled Request and Doubled Refusal: The Verb פצר in Biblical Narrative George Savran Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2 The Expulsion of Ishmael Narrative: Boundaries, Structure, and Meaning Jonathan Grossman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. The Proof-and-Play of Quoted Speech in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37–50) Samuel Hildebrandt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
4. The Intersection of Orality and Style in Biblical Hebrew: Metapragmatic Representations of Dialogue in Genesis 34 Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé and Jacobus A. Naudé Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
5. Alliteration in the Book of Genesis Gary A. Rendsburg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Part 2 Thematic Pairs
6. One, Two, or Three . . . ? The Confusion of the Trees in Genesis 2–3 and Its Hermeneutical Background Michaela Bauks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
7. The Art of Blessing and Cursing in Genesis 1–11: Stylistic Patterns and Their Ideological Motivation Karolien Vermeulen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
8. Distinguishing Abraham from the “Terahides”: The Ideology of Separation behind Etiology Zvi Shimon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Part 3 Doubling Plots and Duplicating Stories
9. Whose World? Whose Time? A Text World Theory Examination of the Style and Message of Genesis 1:1– 2:25 Elizabeth R. Hayes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
10. Double-Plotting in the Garden: Stylistics of Ambiguity in Genesis 2–3 Karalina Matskevich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
11. Inclusio in Genesis 28 and 32: Synchronically and Diachronically Urmas Nõmmik Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Indexes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 224

eBook

Published: August 25, 2016
ISBN: 9781575064550