Book contents
- The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible
- The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue
- 1 The Journey Begins
- 2 Literature as Politics
- 3 Your God Reigns
- 4 The Sense of an Ending
- 5 The Rhetoric of Fear
- 6 Trusted in My Household
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Primary Text Index
- General Index
- The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible
- The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew Bible
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue
- 1 The Journey Begins
- 2 Literature as Politics
- 3 Your God Reigns
- 4 The Sense of an Ending
- 5 The Rhetoric of Fear
- 6 Trusted in My Household
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Primary Text Index
- General Index
Summary
This chapter concludes by revisiting the importance of genre assessment. The wilderness narrative is not history, but this does not mean it has no historicity. As political allegory that became ever more generically complex, it is deeply implicated in Israel’s history. The literary history that emerged from readings of the complaint episodes is summarized here; it entails a pseudo-biographical version, an annalistic version, a tragic version, a hierocratic version, and a prophetic version. This preliminary literary history should be viewed as a map to guide readings of other texts, not a model to be imposed on them. The result is a history of political thought in action.
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- Information
- The Wilderness Narratives in the Hebrew BibleReligion, Politics, and Biblical Interpretation, pp. 235 - 242Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024