Hollow men, strange women : riddles, codes, and otherness in the Book of Judges /
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In Hollow Men, Strange Women , Robin Baker provides a masterly reappraisal of Israel's experience during its Settlement of Canaan as narrated in the Book of Judges. Written under Assyrian suzerainty in the reign of Manasseh, Judges is both a theological commentary on the Settlement and an esoteric work of prophecy. Its apparent historicity subtly encrypts a grim forewarning of Judah's future, and, in its extensive treatment of otherness, Judges explores the meaning of God's covenant with Israel. Robin Baker's scholarly and perceptive reading draws on a deep understanding of ancient Hebrew and Mesopotamian symbolic codes to interpret the riddles in this many-layered text. The Book of Judges reveals complex literary configurations from which past, present, and future are simultaneously presented.
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1 online resource (xx, 354 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004322677 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The rhetoric of the book of Judges /
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This volume describes how the rhetorical devices used in Judges inspire its readers to support a divinely appointed Judahite king who endorses the deuteronomic agenda to rid the land of foreigners, to maintain inter-tribal loyalty to YHWH's cult, and to uphold social justice. Matters of rhetorical concern interpreted here include the superimposed cycle-motif and tribal-political schemata, concerns reflected in the plot-layers of each hero story, the force of narrative analogy for characterization, the strategy of entrapment which foreshadows portrayals of Saul and David in 1 Samuel, and the relation between Judges' implied situation of composition and its compiler's intention. In addition to offering new insights into the rhetorical strategy of the Judges compiler, this book illustrates a new method for understanding how plot-layered stories work.
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1 online resource (xix, 541 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 486-504) and indexes. :
9789004275874 :
0083-5889 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Compositional strategy of the book of Judges : an inductive, rhetorical study /
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This volume represents an inductive, literary/rhetorical analysis of the book of Judges to determine whether recent synchronic approaches that read the book as an integrated whole are indeed justified. As possible rhetorical links connecting Judges' prologue (1:1-2:5), epilogue (17:1-21:25), and central section (2:6-16:31) are examined in detail and the implications of such links carefully considered, the author concludes that, contrary to the consensus view that sees the central section of Judges as a part of Deuteronomistic History and the prologue and epilogue as later additions, the book in its current form may have been a unified composition of a single creative author. If so, not only does this have significant implications for the validity of the Deuteronomistic History Hypothesis, a new possibility also emerges which sees the interpretive key to the book as residing in the prologue and epilogue rather than the central section.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-270) and indexes. :
9789047409410 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Unheard Voice of God : A Pentecostal Hearing of the Book of Judges /
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With the wealth of colorful characters described in the book of Judges, scholars and general readers alike have a strong fascination for Israel's leaders in its earliest days. Theologians and biblical scholars from Luther on have found it difficult to relate to these figures. From a Pentecostal point of view, in particular, those characters can sometimes be an embarrassment, as their personal lives appear to be in stark tension with the purity-conscious, holy life to be expected of those touched by the Spirit of God. Apart from the moments of power, where is God in the lives of these characters? As the title suggests, it is time to listen and learn from God's role and perspective in these stories, who in faithfulness to his covenant acts with constant patience to save his flawed servants. Through a fresh hearing of The Unheard Voice of God,/i> the positive message of the book of Judges can become more apparent and accessible. Readers are shown a crucial part of the book's dynamics which they may have missed.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004397095
Samson : hero or fool? : the many faces of Samson /
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Samson is a peculiar character. He is the most powerful of the Israelite judges and three whole chapters in the book of Judges are allocated to him. Yet he demonstrates many weaknesses, not least for the charms of women. In the international conference "Samson: Hero or Fool?" organised at the University of Nijmegen in April, 2008, the texts of Judges 16-18 were studied from different perspectives, investigating how the complex character of this (anti)hero lived on in various ways in the later traditions about him. The contributions discuss also the reception history of the Samson traditions in later Jewish, Christian and Islamic literature, as well as his representation in figurative and performing arts
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004262362 :
1388-3909 ;
Dialogue on Monarchy in the Gideon-Abimelech Narrative : Ideological Reading in Light of Bakhtin's Dialogism /
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"In Dialogue on Monarchy, Albert Sui-hung Lee applies Bakhtin's dialogism to interpret the "unfinalized" dialogue on monarchical ideologies in the Gideon-Abimelech narrative. Lee associates the Bakhtinian concepts of "double-voiced dialogue," "authoring," "unfinalizability," and heteroglossia with the literary features of "twoness," dual images, and macrostructure of the dialogical narrative to illustrate the dialogue of genres as well as that of ideological voices, wherein the pro- and anti-monarchical voices constantly interact with each other. Studying archaeological evidence and literary examinations of prophetic books together, Lee explores the narrative redactor's intention of engaging both remnant and deportee communities in an unfinalized dialogue of different forms of polity for the restoration of their unity and prosperity in exilic and post-exilic contexts"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004443853
9789004426269