Polyphony and Ensemble in Prophetic Literature: Rereading Jeremiah 7-20 (Studies in Old Testament Interpretation): 2 - Hardcover

Mark Biddle (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865545030 ISBN 13: 9780865545038

Publisher: Mercer University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Taking the passage in Jeremiah as an example, proposes an approach to reading Biblical prophetic literature that is both diachronic and synchronic. Argues that the text should not reduced either to an anthology of unrelated oracles as past criticism has held, or to a homogeneous work by a single fic

About this title

About the Author

Mark E. Biddle is associate professor of Religion at Carson-Newman College.

From the Back Cover

Historical criticism generally has viewed Jeremiah and other prophetic "books" as anthologies of nonrelated oracles and prose materials. Recent literary-critical analysis sees the same materials as "fictive literary products", thus ignoring the "composite nature of prophetic literature in favor of a strategy of reading which threatens to force homogeneity on that literature". In contrast, Biddle proposes a method of reading that listens to the voices and characterizations as defined and presented in the text as we have it. The complex history of Jeremiah, for example, should not be reduced to an anthology of "unrelated oracles" or to a single text produced by a fictive author. "In comparison to newer literary theory", Biddle explains, "the method proposed here resembles the task of the sophisticated concertgoer who hears not only the sound of the orchestra, but the voices of the different instruments and the various melodies, counter-melodies, and harmonies contributing to the whole. (This method) reflects an interest in developing something of a new harmonic theory of prophetic literature". Some such theory and method is necessary because prophetic "music" is symphonically complex. Historical-critical and literary-critical readers can recognize only plainsong. Biddle proposes to listen to the full symphonic polyphony of the prophetic voices.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mercer University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0865545030
• ISBN 13: 9780865545038
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160