A Chorus of Prophetic Voices: Introducing the Prophetic Literature of Ancient Israel, written by Mark McEntire, 2015; and Interpreting Prophetic Literature: Historical and Exegetical Tools for Reading the Prophets, written by James D. Nogalski, 2015 (original) (raw)
Related papers
Prophetic discourse and popular rhetoric in the Hebrew Bible
ABSTRACT The prophetic texts of the Old Testament exhibit a sophisticated rhetoric that is at times hard to understand. Partly the difficulty stems from lack of familiarity with the stylistic conventions current among ancient Israelites. A possible approach to the study of prophetic oracles is afforded by the observation that some of their stylistic features are encountered also in samples of reported speech contained in the historical books. The phenomenon tends to show that prophetic rhetoric is rooted in popular modes of persuasive speech. Since the reported speeches are generally easier to understand than the oracles, the comparison throws light on prophetic oratory. The article illustrates the approach by the help of a few striking figures of speech that are found in both prophetic oracles and speeches imbricated in narrative texts: 1) the “dialectic negation” implying that what is negated is not denied absolutely but only relatively; 2) the “pseudo-quotation” that consists of attributing to someone words that were never spoken with a view to characterizing the person or his behavior. 3) the “antonomastic vocative,” whereby someone is addressed by a different name expressing an implicit judgment.
Shorter Reviews, The Hebrew Prophets: An Introduction
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2012
bearing on how one reads it. In "The ?salms as Corpus״ (ch. 6), Brown tips his hat to the plethora of reeent work on the subjeet and then gives his own fresh reading of the ?salms as a book that takes Psalms 1 and 2 as a point of departure. The final ehapter ("The Psalms as Theologieal Anthropology") is a theological foray into what the Psalms say about God and humankind and draws from observations in previous chapters. This is an excellent introduction to the Psalms. Brown combines literary insight with theological sensitivity to illuminate the Psalms for those who read them as a resource for devotion, theology, and worship. Brown's own characterization of the book as "invitational" is appropriate. With an accessible style, judicious handling of issues, and sensitivity to literary features, Brown masterfully draws readers into and reveals the riches ofthe Psalms. JEROME ?٠ D. CREACH ?ITTSBURGH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ?ITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA Copyright and Use: As an ATLAS user, you may priut, dow nload, or send artieles for individual use according to fair use as defined by U.S. and international eopyright law and as otherwise authorized under your respective ATT,AS subscriber agreement. No eontent may be copied or emailed to multiple sites or publicly posted without the copyright holder(s)' express written permission. Any use, decompiling, reproduction, or distribution of this journal in excess of fair use provisions may be a violation of copyright law.
Journal of Biblical Literature, 2019
The prolific study of prophets and prophetic literature has produced several influential scholarly paradigms over the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries. This article calls attention to two of the paradigms that have shaped our scholarly mind-sets-literary criticism and redaction criticism-and asks what stands behind the different treatments of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the prophets and their books, in these strands of biblical scholarship. The discussion raises challenges to these paradigms concerning three topics: prophets as personae (historical or literary), prophetic activity within the societies of Israel and Judah, and the literary evolution of prophetic literature. The study of prophecy and prophetic literature has grown to be one of the most fascinating and prolific fields within biblical studies. This article developed from one basic question: What stands behind the different treatments of Jeremiah and Ezekiel-both the prophets and their books-that have been offered in biblical scholarship? The study calls attention to two of the paradigms that have shaped our scholarly mind-sets on Jeremiah and Ezekiel over the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries: literary criticism and redaction criticism. Highlighting their influence on several generations of scholars and their continuous influence on current scholarship of prophecy in general, I examine the basic assumptions held and the observations made by leading scholars on questions concerning Jeremiah and Ezekiel as personae (historical or literary), prophetic activity within early sixth-century Judean societies, and the literary evolution of the prophetic
This chapter provides an introduction to the essential issues, questions, and methods of textual criticism of the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve Minor Prophets). Particular focus is put on their major textual witnesses, i.e. the Masoretic Text (MT), the Septuagint as the oldest pre-Christian translation of the biblical text (LXX), the Qumran fragments of the prophetic corpus, and the Vulgate. The chapter confines itself to present basic text-critical issues of each of the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor prophets. Attention is paid to new methods and procedures using a number of selected examples, each of which illustrates a specific category of problems.
JBL 138,3, 2019
The prolific study of prophets and prophetic literature has produced several influential scholarly paradigms over the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries. This article calls attention to two of the paradigms that have shaped our scholarly mindsets—literary criticism and redaction criticism—and asks: What stands behind the different treatments of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the prophets and their books, offered in these strands of biblical scholarship? The discussion raises challenges to these paradigms concerning three topics: prophets as personae (historical or literary), prophetic activity within the societies of Israel and Judah, and the literary evolution of prophetic literature.
The Use and Reception of the Prophets in the New Testament
Religions, 2022
This article explores the use of the Prophets in the New Testament by looking at explicit quotations, clusters of allusions and narrative patterns. It shows that the NT authors applied the Prophets to a range of issues, such as God’s inclusion of the Gentiles, as well as key events in Jesus’ life. It also demonstrates that they generally used a Greek translation of the Prophets, though sometimes a revised or indeed Christian version of the text. Like the Jews of Alexandria, they believed that this was inspired by God, though that did not prevent them modifying the text to make the application seem more obvious to the readers.
1984
This review is perhaps somewhat longer than usual, but this is on account of the rarity of publications on the topic of O T ethics. Also, I would state that although in the foregoing paragraphs I have raised some basic issues relating to Kaiser's volume, his work is a serious attempt to come to grips with O T ethics in a refreshing way. The cheap law/gospel and simplistic OT/NT or old-covenant/new-covenant dichotomies are avoided, and the Bible is set forth so as to be seen as a whole, without denying the varieties of emphasis it contains. The indexes of texts, names, subjects, and Hebrew words enhance the usefulness of this tome. I would urge that in any future printing all Hebrew terms be transliterated, so that the person without a knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet can use this volume with maximum benefit. It indeed deserves that broad a readership.