Hannah’s Agency in Catalyzing Change in an Exclusive Hierarchy [Journal of Biblical Literature -- JBL 140 (2021): 271–289 ] (original) (raw)
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Old Testament Essays, 2015
The practice of polygyny (polygamy) is attested to in many parts of Africa. One reason among many for consolidating this practice in some African cultures is the emphasis families place on having male progeny. For many polygamous men, it serves as a way-out of childlessness and "sonlessness." But what becomes of the childless wives in such polygamous marriages? In those patriarchal African societies, where men are at the centre of the stage, the plight of childless or "sonless" wives in a polygamous marriage often goes unnoticed or ignored. By using the childless ordeal of Hannah (1 Sam 1) to mirror the plight of childless women in some polygamous African families, this article highlights the silent sufferings of such childless women and makes a clarion call for an informed and just response to their plight. In addition, it calls attention to the "silent" ordeal of Hannah in 1 Sam 1; an aspect of the text that until now has received very little attention.
Barren Mother, Dutiful Wife, Church Triumphant: Representations of Hannah in I Kings Illuminations
differentvisions.org
The Hannah story (I Kings 1:1-17/I Samuel 1:1-17) is written within the social context of marriage around 1100 B.C.E.: the complications of the contractual marital obligations, the expectations of procreation, and the politics of remarriage and comarriage, particularly around the production of heirs. * In this essay, I am focusing on the nature of Hannah"s prayer in the text and in medieval illumination. Prayer is critical as the human communication with the divine and Hannah"s prayer draws attention as a singular example of a woman at prayer, subsequently upheld in Jewish traditions even as the paragon of prayer. 1 Because she is both submissive and transgressive, Hannah is both role model and anti-role-model; the Biblical type-scene of the barren woman granted a miraculous child was a common narrative technique used to reinforce cultural stereotypes and accentuate the positive while clarifying the negative. Over the course of the Middle Ages, the image of Hannah becomes a type-scene for medieval illuminators and readers. These compositions use model forms which gloss the characters as Christ, Church and Synagogue to create monastic models, radical abstractions of prayer, and constructions of marriage. The image of Hannah becomes the image of the Church and a paragon of a good wife.
Presbyterion, 2022
Proverbs scholarship often seeks interpretive help with the difficult "words of King Lemuel" (Proverbs 31:1–9) in 1 Samuel 1–2, but with limited consideration of intertextuality and interpretive implications. The present study leverages the literary convention of the annunciation type-scene to affirm the validity of the Hannah–Samuel parallel for exegeting Proverbs 31:1–9—but encourages deeper consideration of Hannah’s annunciation type-scene divergence for Proverbs 31:1–9 than currently recognized. While the mother’s admonitions in Proverbs 31:1–9, as many exegetes note, do call leaders to exercise self-restraint and preserve justice for the marginalized, multiple points of resonance with Hannah’s type-scene suggest the poetic argument of 31:1–9 goes beyond moralistic instruction and invites a more substantial connection with the broader biblical meta-narrative: as discussed here, the mother’s underlying motivation, the importance of human response to divine covenant, and whispered call to faithfulness in suffering. This call to covenant remembrance diverges significantly from how Proverbs 31:1–9 is typically exegeted, but offers fresh interpretive context for the many hermeneutic difficulties within Lemuel's words.
It may be said that the entire theological framework of 1 and 2 Samuel is indelibly contained and poetically predicted in the songs which begin and end it. Said differently, the songs of Hannah and David, which form a kind of collaborative prologue and epilogue, contain the primary theological motifs of 1 and 2 Samuel in hymnic form. This phenomenon is made clear not only in the narrative of Hannah’s own experience in the early chapters of 1 Samuel, but also in the many subsequent chapters of the one story, in which are worked out the key themes of kingship, the Davidic covenant, and the reversal of fortunes in the humiliation of the prideful and the exaltation of the humble. The significance of these songs should not be understated, as they provide a coherent structure, as well as a prophetic foreshadowing and interpretation of the events of the book. Indeed, V. Philips Long affirms: “the story [and song] of Hannah provides essential orientation to the dynamics of the book of Samuel as a whole.” Likewise, William J. Dumbrell, in “The Content and Significance of Books of Samuel” agrees, stating: “the song [of Hannah] in substance presents the program to which the books of Samuel will be devoted.” While scholars have historically debated whether the Song of Hannah is her own composition, or a psalm later compiled in the post-exilic period and inserted into the text anachronistically, the content of the song clearly and undoubtedly functions in an organic way to serve the whole by establishing a narratival and theological lens through which the rise and fall of Israel’s monarchy, and the significant characters involved, may be understood. Therefore, it follows: if we desire to better understand the plot, theme, and theology 1 and 2 Samuel, we would do well to understand the content and significance of Hannah and David’s songs. The significance of songs that are full of theological import and reflect on the events of Biblical history should come as no surprise to the careful reader of Scripture. The people of the LORD have always been a people of song. In key moments of redemptive-historical significance, God’s people have verbally and poetically recounted the wondrous works of YHWH, solidifying in their memory the particular events associated with them. The power of song and of poetry is particularly the capability to compress significant theological and narratival data into relatively brief stanzas. And this is precisely how Hannah and David’s songs function; capturing the broader theological landscape of 1 and 2 Samuel in a combined total of 60 verses. Thus, it is the scope and purpose of this paper to provide an exegetical examination of the hymnic theology of Hannah’s Song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 in comparison with David’s Song in 2 Samuel 22:2-51, to demonstrate that these psalms provide the theological framework or grid through which the whole of 1 and 2 Samuel may be understood, and therefore provide the key to understanding not only how the monarchy of Israel comes to be established, but also how and why it will ultimately fail and fall. This examination will inevitably lead us to consider the redemptive-historical significance of Israel’s search for a true king who can fulfill the perfect, personal, and perpetual requirements of obedience to the covenant of God and lead the people of God into the promised land of perfect peace and rest. Thus, our study will ultimately conclude with a brief examination of one final song—that of another divinely favored woman, Mary, in Luke 1:46-55; which song forms the biblical-theological bridge to the content and theology of 1 and 2 Samuel, demonstrating convincingly that it is God’s prerogative to take what is lowly, abased, and weak in the eyes of the world, and by it shame the strong, self-righteous, and prideful (1 Cor. 1:26-31), for truly God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5-6; James 4:6-7). Finally, through our examination of Mary’s Magnificat, we will seek to show the fulfillment of these theological motifs in the person and work of Jesus Christ, whose advent, life, ministry, and death, is the penultimate model of humiliation unto exaltation.
Textus
This article aims to demonstrate the urgency of new methodological thinking through the analysis of one biblical passage. The main focus is on the two passages that give expression to Hannah’s vow (1 Sam 1:11 and 22–23): Was it originally meant as a Nazirite vow on behalf of an unborn child? The analysis results in the identification of editorial reworking, especially in the MT, and less so in 4QSama, whereas the Septuagint mainly represents an older Hebrew Vorlage, often in agreement with 4QSama. The chain of changes concerning Hannah’s vow in the MT seems to spring from halakic motivation. The fact that the textual evidence is found to reveal processes at work during the editorial history of the text makes it evident that the borderline between so-called “lower” and “higher” criticism no longer exists. The paradigm shift after Qumran thus means a paradigm shift for the historical-critical methodology.
Hannah at Pentecost: On Recognizing Spirit Phenomena in Early Jewish Literature
Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 2018
This essay argues that Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1–2 is an example of a ‘spirit phenomenon’ in the Hebrew Bible. The story displays an uncanny sensitivity to Hannah’s psychological state, which is consistent with how spirit language is used as self-language in biblical literature. Hannah describes herself as a ‘woman of hard spirit’ (1 Sam 1.15) and engages in a kind of trance, which is disruptive enough to draw the attention of Eli. Through inner-biblical allusion and intentional alterations in the Old Greek and Dead Sea Scroll versions of 1 Samuel, Hannah comes to be associated with other prophetic women in biblical literature. Several Second Temple Jewish interpreters read Hannah as a prophetess and as a practitioner of spirit ecstasy, culminating in Philo’s association of Hannah with Bacchic possession and in Hannah’s experience at Shiloh serving as a model for Pentecost in the book of Acts.
“The Textual History of the Song of Hannah: 1 Samuel II 1-10,” Vetus Testamentum 44 (1994) 18-46
The thanksgiving hymn found in 1 Sam. ii 1-10 has a timeless character. Most scholars assert that it had an independent life apart from its present context. The hymn was applied to Hannah's fortunes at a later point in time most likely because of the mention of the birth of children. Later still, the hymn was used as the principal model for the Magnificat (Luke i 46-55).' An apocalyptic Jewish community took the text in yet another direction to describe the eschaton.2 This article seeks to provide a textual base for exegetes of this hymn. Sadly, many exegetes have failed to recognize the revolution which has taken place in textual criticism, and continue to rely on the MT as a Hebraica veritas3 seeking out the LXX, or for that matter any other version, only when the MT is unintelligible.4 Modern text critics share part of the blame when exegetes ignore textual criticism or fail to take it seriously. Most text-critical articles are rendered useless to the exegete by their complexity or narrow scope. Rarely does one come across an article devoted to the textual 1 The assessment "principal model" is J.A. Fitzmyer's. See his treatment of the Magnificat in The Gospel According to Luke (New York, 1981), pp. 356-71. Fitz-myer also includes an extensive bibliography on the Magnificat. 2 D.
Expository Times, 2016
This paper argues that spiritual leadership is a unique model, where followers as well as leaders become connected and committed to the group's wellbeing through a Spirit-filled way of living for positive transformation. The theories on spiritual leadership, thus, should not only be on functional leaders but also on followers who provide an essential motivation to rediscover life-filled pathways that are fulfilling for the group. In this light, the follower who identifies a need, bonds to it, and shares the burden to fulfil the need qualifies to be a spiritual leader. Such a person is one who is empowered by the Holy Spirit to become connected and committed to the network to drive the goals of the organization and initiate moves for positive transformation. The paper uses a narrative critical reading of Hannah's story in 1 Samuel 1:1-28 to support the argument that some followers play key roles as spiritual leaders.
Hearing Tamar's voice : contextual readings of 2 Samuel 13:1-22
2012
The story of Tamar in 2 Sam 13:1-22 formed the basis of a qualitative research inquiry that investigated the intricate functioning of the intercultural Bible reading process. It is a process theoretically based on the combined hermeneutical frameworks of Feminism and African hermeneutics. Although the research showed that the intercultural Bible reading process cannot avoid the complexities of an inherent power dynamic, it proved to be a space that promotes human dignity and has the inherent capacity to facilitate social transformation. The intercultural Bible reading space can thus be described as a dynamic meeting place: a space that facilitates the meeting of individuals from various cultural backgrounds and reading positions, but also the meeting between modern readers and the culturally removed biblical text. In this paper I will look at the reception history of 2 Sam 13:1-22, describing the rape of Tamar in traditional scholarship as well as feminist and African scholarship. S...
“The Songs of Hannah and Deborah: HDL-II,” Journal of Biblical Literature 104 (1985) 105-108
The Song of Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10) contains a series of events where the scales of fortune of two contrasting groups have been reversed. We read about the bow of the mighty being broken, while the weak gird on strength (v 4), and how the barren woman bears seven, but she who had many children now languishes (v 5b). In the midst of this context is a crux that has presented problems to commentators ancient and modern. As it stands the MT leaves one hanging and seems to be unintelligible (v 5a): sbe'im bal-lehem niskaruf fure'bim haidllu 'ad The well-fed hire themselves out for food, But the hungry cease until-The RSV with its translation "have ceased to hunger" shows a common solution followed by many in which the Hebrew text is seen as elliptical. Other scholars in the past have tried to solve the problem through many ingenious emendations: hadelu 'abod, "cease to toil,"l hadellfi li'ad, "have ceased (to hunger) forever,"2 hdlw r'b, "ceased to hunger,"3 hidui la'ad, "rejoice forever,"4 haledu 'bd, "have become 1 This suggestion, first put forth by Jacob Reifmann (Minhat Zikkiron [Breslau: