The Book of all Books

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The Book of all Books

• Dr. Azila (Tzili) Talit Reisenberger
• Head of Hebrew
• University of Cape Town

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Lecture 4Story vs. History

• Can one establish that things really happened?
• is it a story or history?
• is there His-tory vs. Her-story
• Did it happen as it is described?

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This lecture distinguishes between what
happenedand how it is told

• The history
• The narrative
• What we hold in our hands is The Narrative

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The hand that holds the pen rules the world

• The saying there are two sides (at least) to
  every story applies also to the Bible
• Most recent research shows the 140 affect. Even
  when we agree on a fact as each individual sees
  things from his or her point of view, each is
  sure of their bigger "contribution" 70.

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Ahab and Jezebel

• Background details
• 7th King in the Northern Kingdom
• Ruled 871-851 BCE
• Son of Omri (Dynasty of Omri)
• Married Jezebel, a Sedonite princess
• Their arch-enemy was Elijah

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Biblical portrayal of Ahab

• 1 Kings chapters 16, 18-22
• Married Jezebel
• Built altars to Baal and Ashera
• Great famine in the land
• battle between Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel
• War with Ben-Hadad (the Aramaian)
• Idiom ?? ????? ???? ?????
• Naboths vineyard
• Idiom ????? ??? ?????

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Ahab in the Bible

• Evil
• Ruled by his wife
• Wimp !
• The only positive detail his repentance.
• Why? On the whole he was not a believer
• Who wrote/ edited/ canonized the Bible???

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Ahab in archaeological evidence

• Powerful man
• Consultative ruler
• Mighty king

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Kurkh Monolith (of the battle of Qarqar)

• out of 4000
• chariots, 2000
• were Ahabs
• He put aside
• local differences
• in order to form
• an alliance

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Biblical portrayal of Jezebel

• Question what would have been written if the
  author was a Sidonite?
• So the hand that holds the pen, rules the world

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One does not need to lie,only to emphasize
certain aspects in order to instil prejudice

• Judges 19, as an excuse for the change of
  dynasty. David's scribes hold the pen

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When the Hand (i.e. the scribes)and the Head
(the King, who employed them)do not see eye to
eye.

• An ironic depiction of the king.
• (2 Samuel 1111)

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Prose vs. poetryobjective vs. emotional

• Exodus 14 vs. Exodus 15
• Judges 4 vs. Judges 5

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Poetry reflects emotion

• Miriam and the people mock the nations and
  their fear of Gods mighty hand (Exodus 15)
• Deborah mocks Reubenites discussions if to
  come and help their brethren (Judges 5)
• etc

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Prose the use of subtle hints

• The Bible
• does not use adjectives, unless it is the
• cause of something which follows
• does not pass judgment
• does not express an opinion (not directly...)

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Ways of describing without adj.

• Building expectations and showing reality
• See Genesis 24
• Rebeccas kindness
• Eliezer's wisdom, the first politician in the
  Bible not telling the truth without an actual
  lie.

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The Bible does not pass judgement

• Jacob disregards to birth order
• first, his preferential treatment of Joseph
• then his preferential blessings to Josephs sons
  Menashe and Ephraim (he prefers Ephraim who was
  born after Menashe)

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If not expressing an opinion directly

• How does the Bible transmit The Message?
• By hints
• This is why we have to study and keep studying
  it, in order to unearth / discover The Message.
• It is incumbent upon us to try and find these
  hints
• by reading and re-reading carefully and
  attentively
• (and by coming to Summer School, for example ?)

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• Examples of how to find the hints
• Careful reading
• Sitz im Leben (Hermann Gunkels suggestion)
• Intertextuality

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Examples of Careful reading

• Moses and Miriam
• What we are told
• What we get from "side glimpses
• 2. Joseph in Pharaohs palace

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A modern (and important) method of reading

• Hermeneutic of suspicion
• Michal and David episode (2 Samuel 6 20-23)
• After Michal confronts David, the mighty king,
  and mocks him, verse 23 reads
• And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child
  until the day of her death.

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Intertextuality

• Type scenes
• Key words
• unusual terms/ words
• such as technicolour coat
• words that are "corrupt"
• (misspelled, mispronounced)
• vayaham
• vayetzahek

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• Acknowledgment
• We only scratched the surface.
• But time does not allow us to have more examples
• There is so much to learn

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• This course is a good start
• We should have more in the future
• ?

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• Today we established that we need to read
• beyond the words (beyond the narrative)
• In search of The Word (the real meaning)

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• So -
• see you tomorrow for the final lecture of the
  course.
• Tomorrows lecture is about
• The Word
• Thank you.
• I would like to thank Jutta Schoof for editing
  these notes