Rhetorical Criticism and the Poetry of the Book of Job


Book Description

This work provides a fresh approach to the overall framework of the poems we find in Job 3-42,6, and offers a new theory on the demarcation and meaning of the three speech-cycles which give structure to this composition.




Rhetorical Criticism and the Poetry of the Book of Job


Book Description

Rhetorical Criticism and the Poetry of the Book of Job deals with the structure and meaning of the poems we find in Job 3-42,6. It is demonstrated that these poems exhibit a consistent pattern of cantos and strophes. The recurring structures often place the various thematic aspects of the texts in a different light. The analysis of the poems relates their rhetorical framework to the device of distant repetitive parallelism. These verbal repetitions appear to display distinct patterns and help to discover recurring and leading ideas. The final section offers a new theory on the demarcation of the (three) speech-cycles which give structure to chs. 4-31 and 38-41. This theory is of special importance for the interpretation of chs. 24-28. The work is of interest for all who study the forms and meaning of classical Hebrew poetry.







Job 28 As Rhetoric


Book Description

This volume argues that Job 28, as Job's words in its present position, has a special rhetorical function within the whole book, and more specifically within the context of chapters 22-31




Job 28 as Rhetoric


Book Description

This study seeks to argue that Job 28 is an integral part of the book as it stands, and that it is Job's speech. Job 28 serves a special rhetorical function within the book, and more specifically within chapters 22-31. This work provides a significant interpretative key to Job 28 within the most perplexing section of the book (Job 22-31). Job 28 is in contradictory juxtaposition with other sayings of Job. However, this study argues that such contradictory juxtaposition is a feature of Job's speeches in chapters 22-31, and is part of the author's strategy to make a rhetorical impact upon the audience.




Rhetorical Criticism of the Bible


Book Description

This volume is designed as a resource for using rhetorical criticism as a methodology for interpreting the Bible. Rhetorical criticism is treated in the broader context of the growing interest in the study of the literary character of the Bible. The volume is divided into two parts to accommodate both the Old and New Testaments. Each part begins with a discussion of the history and methodology of rhetorical criticism pertinent to that Testament. Here special emphasis is given to the current state and trends of the discipline and its impact on biblical interpretation. These discussions are followed by extensive bibliographies categorized to facilitate working with the published research on specific biblical texts, books, or categories of books.




Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings


Book Description

Tremper Longman III and Peter E. Enns edit this collection of 148 articles by over 90 contributors on Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ruth and Esther.




Art and Meaning


Book Description

Biblical authors were artists of language who created their meaning through their verbal artistry, their rhetoric. These twelve essays see meaning as ultimately inseparable from art and seek to understand the biblical literature with sensitivity to the writer's craft. Contents: David Clines, The Arguments of Job's Friends. George Coats, A Moses Legend in Numbers 12. Charles Davis, The Literary Structure of Luke 1-2. Cheryl Exum, A Literary Approach to Isaiah 28. David Gunn, Plot, Character and Theology in Exodus 1-14. Alan Hauser, Intimacy and Alienation in Genesis 2-3. Charles Isbell, Story Lines and Key Words in Exodus 1-2. Martin Kessler, Methodology for Rhetorical Criticism. John Kselman, A Rhetorical Study of Psalm 22. Kenneth Kuntz, Rhetorical Criticism and Isaiah 51.1-16. Ann Vater, Form and Rhetorical Criticism in Exodus 7-11. Edwin Webster, Pattern in the Fourth Gospel.




Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible


Book Description

The Book of Job contains the only sustained, through-composed work in verse in the Hebrew Bible. This makes it very suitable as a testing area for the rules of verse structure and all other aspects of prosody that were developed in Major Poems of the Hebrew Bible Vol. II and are now also available in Reading Biblical Poetry. This fourth and last volume completes the study that in Vol. I started with Job 3 (curses and complaint), and continued with the first round of the debate (chs.4-14) in Vol. II. Again, the analysis follows two separate circuits: on the one hand that of language, style and structure, on the other hand that of measuring proportions on at least five textual levels. The poetry section of the Book of Job contains 412 strophes, of which the protagonist Job speaks exactly half. His portion of 206 strophes is also divided into equal halves: in 103 short and 103 long strophes. Even more than in the Psalms, the norm figures 7, 8 and 9 play an essential part in the composition of the poems and their average number of syllables per colon. The forty poems of the book exhibit various forms of numerical perfection, and the correct demarcation of strophes and stanzas is found to considerably improve and expand our understanding of its contents.




Critical Companion to the Bible


Book Description

Presents selections of literary criticism devoted to the Bible.