Burt The Courtier and the Governor

Transformations of Genre in the Nehemiah Memoir
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-3-647-55076-3
Verlag: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 230 Seiten

Reihe: Journal of Ancient Judaism. Supplements

The Nehemiah Memoir, the narrative of the royal cupbearer sent to rebuild Jerusalem, is central to Ezra-Nehemiah's account of Persian Judah. Yet its emphasis on one individual's efforts makes it a text that ill-fits the book's story of a communal restoration. Sean Burt analyzes the nature of this curious text through the lens of genre criticism and identifies the impact of its use of genres on its early reception in Ezra-Nehemiah. Drawing upon contemporary theorists of literary genre, within the field of biblical studies and beyond, he builds an understanding of genre capable of addressing both its flexibility and its necessarily historical horizon. Burt argues that the Nehemiah Memoir makes use of two ancient genres: the novelistic court tale (e.g. Esther, Ahiqar, and others) and the 'official memorial,' or 'biographical' genre used across the ancient Near East by kings and other governmental officials for individual commemoration. This study contends that the narrative subtly shifts genres as it unfolds, from court tale to memorial. Nehemiah the courtier becomes Nehemiah the governor. While these genres reveal an affinity to one another, they also highlight a central contradiction in the narrative's portrait of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is, like the people of Jerusalem, beholden to the whims of a foreign ruler, but he also simultaneously represents Persia's power over Jerusalem. Burt concludes that the Nehemiah Memoir's combination of these two ultimately incommensurate genres can account for how the writers of Ezra-Nehemiah modified and corrected Nehemiah's problematic story to integrate it into Ezra-Nehemiah's vision of a holistic restoration enacted by a unified people.

Sean Burt, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and English at North Dakota State University, USA.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Burt, Sean

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Kultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Bibelwissenschaften Altes Testament: Exegese, Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Heilige & Traditionstexte: Torah, Talmud, Mischna, Halacha

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Cover
;1
2;Title Page;4
3;Copyright;5
4;Table of Contents;8
5;List of Tables;11
6;Acknowledgements;12
7;Abbreviations;14
8;Introduction;16
9;Part I: What is the Nehemiah Memoir?;20
9.1;1. The Genre of the Nehemiah Memoir: From Impasse to Possibilities;22
9.1.1;1.1 The Mid-Twentieth Century Form-Critical Consensus;22
9.1.1.1;1.1.1 Ancient Near Eastern Royal Inscriptions;23
9.1.1.2;1.1.2 Votive Inscriptions and Egyptian Biographies;28
9.1.2;1.2 The Current Redaction-Critical Consensus: The “Mauerbau-Erzählung” Thesis;31
9.1.3;1.3 Evaluation of the “Mauerbau-Erzählung” Thesis;35
9.1.3.1;1.3.1 The Revised NM as a “Building Inscription”: Nehemiah 6 as a Test Case;35
9.1.3.2;1.3.2 The “Mauerbau-Erzählung” Thesis and the Necessity for a New Understanding of Genre;38
9.2;2. The Definition and Literary Boundaries of the Nehemiah Memoir (Neh 1:1–2:20; 3:33–7:3; 13:4–31);47
9.2.1;Excursus 1: A Note on the Term “Memoir”;49
9.2.2;2.1 Core Texts (Neh 1:1a, 11b; 2:1--20; 3:33--6:19; 13:4--31);50
9.2.3;2.2 Neh 1:1b–11a;51
9.2.4;2.3 Neh 3:1–32;51
9.2.5;2.4 Neh 7, 11, 12:27–43;55
9.2.5.1;2.4.1 The Interdependence of Neh 7 and 11;55
9.2.5.2;2.4.2 The Relationship of Neh 7:5–72a; 11 to Non-Nehemiah Memoir Material;57
9.2.5.3;2.4.3 Neh 12:27–43 (and Neh 7:1–3 Revisited);62
9.2.6;2.5 Neh 12:44–13:3;69
9.2.7;Excursus 2: Is the Book of Nehemiah a Unified Work?;70
9.2.8;2.6 Concluding Reflections;72
10;Part II. Genre in the Nehemiah Memoir: A New Proposal;74
10.1;3. Genre Theory: Toward a Dialectical Theory of Genre;76
10.1.1;3.1 Genre and the Legacy of Form Criticism;78
10.1.2;3.2 Genre’s Historical Horizon;82
10.1.3;3.3 Concluding Reflections: Using Genre Theory to Read the Nehemiah Memoir;94
10.2;4. The Genres of the Nehemiah Memoir: Official Memorials and Court Tales;96
10.2.1;4.1 Official Memorials: A Partial Return to the Form-Critical Consensus;97
10.2.1.1;4.1.1 Late Period Egyptian “Career” Biographies;98
10.2.1.2;4.1.2 West Semitic Memorial Inscriptions (“Autobiographies”);102
10.2.1.3;4.1.3 The Achaemenid Bisitun Inscription of Darius I;108
10.2.1.4;4.1.4 The Gerizim Votive Inscriptions;109
10.2.1.5;4.1.5 Concluding reflections: Is the “Official memorial” a Coherent Genre?;112
10.2.2;4.2 Court Tales (the “Court Conflict” Story);114
10.2.2.1;4.2.1 Characteristics of the Court Tale;117
10.2.2.2;4.2.2 The Court Conflict Story in the Nehemiah Memoir;121
10.3;5. How Genre Works in the Nehemiah Memoir;126
10.3.1;5.1 The Transformation of Genres in the Nehemiah Memoir: From Court Tale to Official Memorial;127
10.3.1.1;5.1.1 In the Court: Neh 1–2;127
10.3.1.2;5.1.2 The Courtier and the Governor: Neh 4–6;131
10.3.1.3;5.1.3 The Transformation Completed: Neh 13;139
10.3.1.4;5.1.4 Reading the Whole from the End: The Duality of the Courtier and the Governor;144
10.3.2;5.2 The Ideologies of the Nehemiah Memoir’s Genres;145
11;Part III: The Nehemiah Memoir in Ezra-Nehemiah;150
11.1;6. The Reception of the Nehemiah Memoir within Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra 7–10; Neh 10; Neh 12:44–13:3);154
11.1.1;6.1 The Nehemiah Memoir and the “Ezra Memoir” (Ezra 7--10);155
11.1.2;Excursus 3: On the Chronology of the Historical Ezra and Nehemiah;163
11.1.3;6.2 Neh 10 and Neh 13;175
11.1.4;6.3 Neh 12:44–13:3;179
11.1.5;6.4 Concluding Reflections: Assimilating the Nehemiah Memoir;181
11.2;7. Reading the Nehemiah Memoir in the Story of Israel’s Restoration;184
11.2.1;7.1 The Restored Community: The Diasporic Court Tale in the Homeland;184
11.2.2;7.2 The Holy City: The Governor in the Temple;195
11.2.3;7.3 The Written Text: Nehemiah’s Concealed Power;198
11.2.4;7.4 Concluding Reflections: Nehemiah’s Foreign Power;204
12;Conclusion: Resolving the Contradictions of Nehemiah’s Genres;205
13;Bibliography;208
14;Index of Ancient Sources;220
15;Index of Modern Authors;226
16;Index of Subjects;229
17;Back Cover
;234

Über Autor(innen)

Burt, Sean
Sean Burt, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and English at North Dakota State University, USA.