Enthusiasm and Antagonism
9 Change in Perspective: Literarkritik and Literary Criticism – Source and Discourse
A second element contributed to a change in mentality, namely the growing importance of literary studies on biblical texts. Already in 1938, in his well-known
79 Noth, Chronicler’s History, 98.
80 Patrick M. Graham, Kenneth G. Hoglund and Steven L. McKenzie (eds.), The Chronicler as Historian, JSOT.S 238 (Sheffield: Academic Press, 1997). See also Isaac Kalimi, An Ancient Isra-elite Historian: Studies in the Chronicler, His Time, Place and Writing, Studia Semitica Neerland-ica 46 (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2005); Sara Japhet, “Chronicles: A History,” in Das Alte Testament.
Ein Geschichtsbuch? Beiträge des Symposiums “Das Alte Testament und die Kultur der Moderne,”
anläßlich des 100. Geburtstag Gerhard von Rads, eds. Erhard Blum, William Johnstone and Chris-toph Markschies, Altes Testament und die Kultur der Moderne 10 (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2005), 129–46.
81 Patrick M. Graham, Steven L. McKenzie and Gary N. Knoppers (eds.), The Chronicler as The-ologian: Essays in Honor of Ralph W. Klein, JSOT.S 371 (London: T&T Clark, 2003). See also John Goldingay, “The Chronicler as a Theologian,” Biblical Theology Bulletin 5 (1975): 99–126.
essay, Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuchs,82 von Rad stated that “So far as the analysis of source documents is concerned, there are signs that the road has come to a dead end.”83 This is the reason why he decided to ask central ques-tions about the “final form [of the Hexateuch] as we have it”.84 We find a similar reflection in his work on Chronicles, when he criticizes Wilhelm J. Rothstein’s commentary because of an overstated interest in sources, layers, additions, etc.
that reduces the book to a “Unsumme von disjecta membra” – “a vast sum of disjecta membra.”85 According to von Rad, the imperative of a theological inter-pretation as well as of historical research is to supplement this analytical process with an effort of understanding synthetically the biblical work (“das Bemühen um ein synthetisches Verstehen des Schriftwerkes).”86
The studies on the “final form” of the text had some forerunners, for instance Richard G. Moulton, who specialized in the study of Shakespeare87 before pub-lishing several monographs on a literary reading of the Bible.88 Gunkel also had a strong influence since he shifted the attention from the genesis of the text to its original, oral, form and its typical style. For Gunkel, we may note, “exegesis is more an art than a science” and literary questions are much more important
82 Gerhard von Rad, Das formgeschichtliche Problem des Hexateuchs, BWANT 78 (Stuttgart:
Kohlhammer, 1938); reprinted in Gesammelte Studien zum Alten Testament, TB 8 (München: Kai-ser Verlag, 1958), 9–86; English translation: “The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch,” in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966; London: SCM, 1984), 1–78.
83 Von Rad, “Form-Critical Problem,” 1.
84 Von Rad, “Form-Critical Problem,” 1. The German expression for “final form” is Letztgestalt or Endgestalt.
85 Von Rad, Geschichtsbild, 133. The commentary discussed is by Wilhelm J. Rothstein, Kommen-tar zum ersten Buch der Chronik, KAT 18.2 (Leipzig: Deichert, 1927).
86 Von Rad, Geschichtswerk, 133.
87 Richard G. Moulton, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist: A Popular Illustration of the Principles of Scientific Criticism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1885). See also The Ancient Classical Drama: A Study in Literary Evolution Intended for Readers in English and in the Original (Oxford: The Clar-endon Press. 1890).
88 Richard G. Moulton, The Literary Study of the Bible: An Account of the Leading Forms of Lit-erature Represented in the Sacred Writings (London: Ibister and Company, 1896). See also Select Masterpieces of Biblical Literature (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan &
Co., 1901); A Short Introduction to the Literature of the Bible (Boston, MA: D. C. Heath & Co., 1901);
The Modern Reader’s Bible Translation (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907); The Bible at a Single View. With an Appendix, How to Read the Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918). On this author, see Sarah Lawall, “Richard Moulton and the ‘Perspective Attitude’ in World Literature,” in The Routledge Companion to World Literature, eds. Theo D’haen, David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir (London: Routledge, 2011), 32–40.
than historical questions.89 Later on, in 1968, James Muilenburg delivered an impressive presidential address at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, at Berkeley, California, on December 18, 1968. The text was published afterwards with the telling title: “Form Criticism and Beyond”.90 In a few words, Muilenburg promoted a study of stylistic features and structural compositions of biblical texts, especially poetic texts. He proposed to call this method – but this is perhaps not the most felicitous appellation – “rhetorical criticism”. Here is a short summary of his program:
Persistent and painstaking attention to the modes of Hebrew literary composition will reveal that the pericopes exhibit linguistic patterns, word formations ordered or arranged in particular ways, verbal sequences which move in fixed structures from beginning to end.
Clearly, they have been skillfully wrought in many ways, often with consummate skill and artistry. It is also apparent that they have been influenced by conventional rhetorical prac-tices.91
In the exegesis of Chronicles, the attention to its specific style is witnessed by this outstanding remark found in Roddy Braun’s commentary on Chronicles pub-lished in 1986: “[The Chronicler is] a person of much greater literary skill than usually attributed to him”.92 Two important works developed this insight. The first follows the path traced by James Muilenburg. The article stems from Leslie C. Allen (Pasadena, CA) and is devoted to stylistic devices such as chiasm, inclu-sion, and key words in structuring narrative units in Chronicles.93 The second, by Rodney K. Duke (Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina), chooses a different direction, namely Aristotle’s treatise on rhetoric and endeavors to apply these Greek categories to Chronicles.94 Classifying Chronicles as belonging to the genre of deliberative rhetoric, he analyses the text according to Aristotle’s three basic modes of persuasion, the rational, the ethical and the emotional. Despite laudable efforts, it seems that this work was not entirely successful.95 We have
89 “Denn Exegese im höchsten Sinne ist mehr eine Kunst als eine Wissenschaft” (Hermann Gun-kel, “Ziele und Methoden der Erklärung des Alten Testaments,” in Reden und Aufsätze [Göttin-gen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1913], 11–29, here 14).
90 James Muilenburg, “Form-Criticism and Beyond,” JBL 88 (1969): 1–18.
91 Muilenburg, “Form-Criticism,” 18.
92 Roddy Braun, 1 Chronicles, WBC 14 (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1986), xxv, quoted by Kleinig,
“Current Research,” 49.
93 Leslie C. Allen, “Kerygmatic Units 1 & 2 Chronicles,” JSOT 41 (1988): 21–36.
94 Rodney K. Duke, The Persuasive Appeal of the Chronicler: A Rhetorical Analysis, JSOT.S 88 (Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1990).
95 See Kleinig, “Current Research,” 49; Duke, “Recent Research,” 33–6.
here two of the chief directions in the field of stylistic analysis. On the one side, scholars proceed intuitively and inductively, looking for devices and features observed mainly in Hebrew and Semitic pieces of literature or, on the other side, they adopt a more systematic and deductive method, consulting first handbooks of ancient or more recent rhetoric, and applying these categories to biblical texts, and to Chronicles in particular.96
One of the main consequences of this new way of reading Chronicles is the major attention to its techniques of composition. A significant title to be men-tioned in this context is The Chronicler as Author: Studies in Text and Texture.97 The Chronicler is now an author, after being a historian and a theologian. To this internal development, that is, a new or renewed literary sensibility, we must add now another, external, factor, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.