First Person

Essays in Biblical Autobiography

edited by

Philip R. Davies

Copyright © 2002 Sheffield Academic Press

A Continuum imprint

Published by Sheffield Academic Press Ltd

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

370 Lexington Avenue, New York NY 10017–6550

www.continuumbooks.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 1-84127-245-0 (paperback)

ISBN 1-84127-320-1 (hardback)

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

List of Contributors

Philip R. Davies

Introduction: Autobiography as Exegesis

Suzanne Shaw

Letters to the Editor of Genesis

Athalya Brenner

Wide Gaps, Narrow Escapes: I am Known as Raḥab, the Broad

Yairah Amit

I, Delilah: A Victim of Interpretation

Hugh S. Pyper

Jezebel

Francis Landy

Ghostwriting Isaiah

Jonathan Magonet

Gomer’s Revenge

Gillian Cooper and John Goldingay

Hosea and Gomer Visit the Marriage Counsellor

Philip R. Davies

Haman the Victim

Bibliography

Index of References

Index of Authors

Acknowledgement and Dedication

Back in 1994, Ulrika Lindblad from Finland sent me a short essay on Susanna, written in the first person. That essay inspired the book that has now appeared eight years later. And so this book is dedicated to Ulrika Lindblad.

Abbreviations

AB Anchor Bible

ABD David Noel Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992)

BDB Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907)

BibInt Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches

BR Bible Review

BWANT Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament

EvT Evangelische Theologie

ICC International Critical Commentary

IEJ Israel Exploration Journal

JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JES Journal of Ecumenical Studies

JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

NCB New Century Bible

neb New English Bible

OTL Old Testament Library

RSR Recherches de science religieuse

SBLDS SBL Dissertation Series

SBLSP SBL Seminar Papers

TQ Theologische Quartalschrift

VT Vetus Testamentum

ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

List of Contributors

Yairah Amit is a Professor of Biblical Studies at Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Athalya Brenner is Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at the Faculty of the Humanities, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Gillian Cooper studied Theology at Oxford, specializing in Old Testament, was ordained, and then taught at St John’s College, Nottingham.

John Goldingay studied Theology at Oxford, specializing ...

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About First Person: Essays in Biblical Autobiography

Hebrew Biblical narratives are notoriously sparing in their portrayal of character, leaving much to the reader’s imagination. Here a number of internationally renowned scholars assume the identities of some familiar biblical characters and use the clues in the text, their own exegetical skills and knowledge of the biblical world, and their readerly imagination to fill in the gaps of the biblical text. In doing so, they remove the point of view of the biblical narrator, allowing the ideology of the text to be affirmed, adjusted or challenged.

Contributors to this volume include Francis Landy, Athalya Brenner, Yairah Amit, John Goldingay, Jonathan Magonet, Hugh Pyper, and Philip Davies; the characters include Rahab, Isaiah, Gomer, Eve, Delilah, Joseph, Jeremiah and Haman.

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