Literary Construction of Identity in the Ancient World: Proceedings of the Conference Literary Fiction and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Literatures

386 Pages·2010·5.17 MB·English

by  Hanna Liss

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Literary Construction of Identity
in the Ancient World
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Literary Construction of
Identity in the Ancient World
Proceedings of the Conference
Literary Fiction and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Literatures:
Options and Limits of Modern Literary Approaches
in the Exegesis of Ancient Texts
Heidelberg, July 10–13, 2006
Edited by
Hanna Liss Manfred Oeming
and
Winona Lake, Indiana
Eisenbrauns
2010
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ç Copyright 2010 by Eisenbrauns.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
www.eisenbrauns.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Literary construction of identity in the ancient world : proceedings of a
conference, literary fiction and the construction of identity in ancient
literatures : options and limits of modern literary approaches in the
exegesis of ancient texts, Heidelberg, July 10–13, 2006 / edited by Hanna
Liss and Manfred Oeming.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-57506-190-0 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Identity (Psychology) in literature—Congresses. 2. Literature,
Ancient—History and criticism—Congresses. 3. Bible as literature—
Congresses. I. Liss, Hanna. II. Oeming, Manfred.
PN56.I42L58 2010
880.09—dc22
2010005674
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.†‰
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Part 1
Thinking of Ancient Texts as Literature
Memory, Narration, Identity: Exodus as a Political Myth . . . . . . . . 3
Jan Assmann
Narrative Poetics and Hebrew Narrative: A Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Joachim Vette
Is There a Universal Genre of “Drama”? Conjectures on the
Basis of “Dramatic” Texts in Old Testament Prophecy,
Attic Tragedy, and Egyptian Cult Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Helmut Utzschneider
Narratology and the Classics: The Proof of the Pudding . . . . . . . . . 81
Irene J. F. de Jong
Part 2
The Identity of Authors and Readers
Ancient Writers, Modern Readers, and King Ashurnasirpal’s
Political Problems: An Exploration of the Possibility
of Reading Ancient Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Barbara N. Porter
The Achilles Heel of Reader-Response Criticism and
the Concept of Reading Hermeneutics of Caution . . . . . . . . 121
Christof Hardmeier
Tell Me Who I Am: Reading the Alphabet of Ben Sira . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Dagmar Börner-Klein
The Powers of a Lost Subject: Reinventing a Poet’s Identity in
Catullus’s Carmen 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Melanie Möller
Part 3
Fiction and Fact
Forms of Talk in Hebrew Biblical Narrative:
Negotiations, Interaction, and Sociocultural Context . . . . . . 167
Frank H. Polak
v
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vi Contents
Of Mice and Men and Blood:
The Laws of Ritual Purity in the Hebrew Bible . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Hanna Liss
Fiction and Imagination in Early Christian Literature:
The Acts of the Apostles as a Test Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Ute E. Eisen
Fictions and Formulations: The Talmud and the Construction
of Jewish Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
David Kraemer
Are Vocation Texts Fictional? On Hesiod’s Helicon Experience . . . 245
Gerrit Kloss
Part 4
Rereading Biblical Poetry
From Aristotle to Bakhtin: The Comedic and the Carnivalesque
in a Biblical Tale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Nehama Aschkenasy
Where Is Isaiah in Isaiah? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Francis Landy
Job 28 and the Climax in Chapters 29–31: Crisis and Identity . . . . 301
Jan Fokkelman
Part 5
Modeling the Future
by Reconstructing the Past
Samuel’s “Farewell Speech”: Theme and Variation in
1 Samuel 12, Josephus, and Pseudo-Philo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Joachim Vette
The Exile: Biblical Ideology and Its Postmodern
Ideological Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Adele Berlin
Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Index of Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Index of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
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Preface
Encountering an ancient text not only as a historical source but also
as a literary artifact entails an important paradigm shift. In recent
years, this shift has taken place in classical and Oriental philology.
Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, and classical philologists have been
pioneers in supplementing traditional historical-critical exegesis with
more-literary approaches. This has led to a wealth of new insights.
While the methodological consequences of this shift have been dis-
cussed within each discipline, there has not yet been an attempt to dis-
cuss its validity and methodology on an interdisciplinary level. In 2007,
the Faculty of Bible and Biblical Interpretation at the Hochschule für
Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg, and the Faculty of Theology at the Uni-
versity of Heidelberg invited scholars from the U.S., Canada, the Neth-
erlands, Israel, and Germany to examine these issues. Under the title
“Literary Fiction and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Litera-
tures: Options and Limits of Modern Literary Approaches in the Exe-
gesis of Ancient Texts,” experts in Egyptology, classical philology,
ancient Near Eastern studies, biblical studies, Jewish studies, literary
studies, and comparative religion came together to present current re-
search and debate open questions.
Different texts or text genres do not all have the same connection to
reality. Not every author wants to report historical events. Many if not
most intend to shape the world view and identity of those who read
them by taking recourse to fictional creativity. When readers interact
with texts, it would be absurd to assume otherwise. This is a common-
place truth for contemporary literary communication; however, reli-
gious fundamentalism in all religions shows clearly that the same
assumptions are not always held when reading ancient literatures. It is
thus the responsibility of philologists, who are concerned with teach-
ing and explaining these texts in church, synagogue, school, and uni-
versity, to address what ancient authors 2,500 or even 3,000 years ago
may have intended with the texts they wrote. Is it possible to show the
beginnings of fictional imagination in these contexts? What might be
its cause, and how could later readers recognize fictional imagination
in ancient texts?
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viii Preface
Each representative of a total of 23 different disciplines has dealt
with literary theory in regard to his or her area of research. So far, their
insights have not been received beyond the boundaries of their own
discipline. In the 19th century, the situation was quite different when,
for example, Protestant biblical scholarship related closely to classical
philology and contemporary ancient Near Eastern studies. Today, the
various disciplines must first agree whether anything is to be gained
from interdisciplinary interaction and how different areas of research
may learn from each other. The Heidelberg conference created the
framework for an important milestone in this kind of methodological
reflection. The present volume has organized the various contribu-
tions along thematic lines that show how similar issues are dealt with
in different disciplines.
Much gratitude goes to the various individuals and institutions
who made the conference and the publication of this volume possible:
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Lautenschläger Stiftung,
and the Stiftung Universität Heidelberg for their generous financial
support; Dr. Joachim Vette for translating; and Kai-Jo Petzold and Dr.
Verena Hug for gathering and copy editing the various manuscripts.
Prof. Dr. Hanna Liss
Prof. Dr. Manfred Oeming
Heidelberg, December 2009
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Abbreviations
General
A. Louvre Museum siglum
Akk. Akkadian
ANE ancient Near East
AO tablets in the collections of the Musée du Louvre
Aram. Aramaic
asv American Standard Version
BM tablets in the collections of the British Museum
chap(s). chapter(s)
col(s). column(s)
cstr. construct
Dar. Darius
DNa Inscription A from the tomb of Darius at Naqs-i Rustam
DtrH Deuteronomistic Historian
E Elohistic writer/source
EASJ European Association of Jewish Studies
fem. feminine
frag(s)./fr(s). fragment(s)
Gr. Greek
Heb. Hebrew
K tablets in the Kouyunjik collection of the British Museum
kjv King James Version
LXX Septuagint
Mnmt monument
mp masculine plural
ms masculine singular
ms(s) manuscript(s)
MT Masoretic Text
N tablets from Nippur in the collections of the University Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
NA Neo-Assyrian
nab New American Bible
NB Neo-Babylonian
Nbk. Nebuchadnezzar
Nbn. Nabonidus
ND field numbers of tablets excavated at Nimrud (Kalhu)
NinA “Niniveh A” in R. Borger. Die Inschriften Asarhaddons: Königs von
Assyrien. AfO Beiheft 9. Graz, Austria: Published by the editor, 1956
njpsv New Jewish Publication Society Version
nkjv New King James Version
nrsv New Revised Standard Version
n.s. new series
obv. obverse
OT Old Testament
pl. plural
ix