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Esther against Joseph’s Backdrop : The Theology and History of an Intertextual Relationship / Gabriel Fischer Hornung.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ; 553Publisher: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2024]Copyright date: 2024Description: 1 online resource (VIII, 152 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9783111214139
  • 9783111216836
  • 9783111216119
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 222
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: Currents in Scroll and Intertextual Scholarship -- Part One: The Allusive Megillah and the Scholarly Attempts to Understand It -- 2 Textual Connections and Scholarly Histories -- 3 Other Intertextual Relationships and Esther and Joseph’s Good Looks -- Part Two: Compositional and Structural Considerations -- 4 Esther’s Compositional History and the Development of its Allusive Purpose -- 5 The Redactional Stages and Narrative Cohesiveness of MT Esther’s Final Literary Form -- Part Three: The Theology of Esther and Contrast of Daniel -- 6 The Theological Implications of Esther’s Relationship with Joseph -- 7 Daniel’s Position in Joseph and Esther’s Intertextual Chain -- 8 Conclusion: Esther’s Intertextual Reflections and Theological Additions -- Bibliography -- Subject Index -- Index of Secondary Authors -- Index of Biblical Passages
Summary: An examination of MT Esther’s relationship to the Joseph story, this study employs recent advances in author-oriented biblical intertextuality to address the debate concerning the religious purpose of the Scroll. While previous scholarship has seen Esther’s divine silence indicating God’s hidden hand, the characters’ or readers’ quiet faiths, or the secular concerns of an ancient Jewish nationalism, key aspects of Esther’s allusive character illustrate how the book purposefully constructs a theology of divine absence. As good-looking Israelites continue to rise in foreign courts to deliver themselves and their people from imminent dangers, the patterns God initiated in the Egyptian past are shown to extend into the Persian present even when the divine remains out of sight. Since this diachronically-oriented analysis suggests this theological interest was developed by Esther’s authors, it engages with Esther’s ancient Greek witnesses to demonstrate that the MT redactors altered an earlier version of the Scroll to position the Hebrew Megillah alongside Joseph’s instructive backdrop. By attending to these historical and interpretive issues, this work thus speaks to both Scroll scholarship and the study of inner-biblical allusions.

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: Currents in Scroll and Intertextual Scholarship -- Part One: The Allusive Megillah and the Scholarly Attempts to Understand It -- 2 Textual Connections and Scholarly Histories -- 3 Other Intertextual Relationships and Esther and Joseph’s Good Looks -- Part Two: Compositional and Structural Considerations -- 4 Esther’s Compositional History and the Development of its Allusive Purpose -- 5 The Redactional Stages and Narrative Cohesiveness of MT Esther’s Final Literary Form -- Part Three: The Theology of Esther and Contrast of Daniel -- 6 The Theological Implications of Esther’s Relationship with Joseph -- 7 Daniel’s Position in Joseph and Esther’s Intertextual Chain -- 8 Conclusion: Esther’s Intertextual Reflections and Theological Additions -- Bibliography -- Subject Index -- Index of Secondary Authors -- Index of Biblical Passages

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An examination of MT Esther’s relationship to the Joseph story, this study employs recent advances in author-oriented biblical intertextuality to address the debate concerning the religious purpose of the Scroll. While previous scholarship has seen Esther’s divine silence indicating God’s hidden hand, the characters’ or readers’ quiet faiths, or the secular concerns of an ancient Jewish nationalism, key aspects of Esther’s allusive character illustrate how the book purposefully constructs a theology of divine absence. As good-looking Israelites continue to rise in foreign courts to deliver themselves and their people from imminent dangers, the patterns God initiated in the Egyptian past are shown to extend into the Persian present even when the divine remains out of sight. Since this diachronically-oriented analysis suggests this theological interest was developed by Esther’s authors, it engages with Esther’s ancient Greek witnesses to demonstrate that the MT redactors altered an earlier version of the Scroll to position the Hebrew Megillah alongside Joseph’s instructive backdrop. By attending to these historical and interpretive issues, this work thus speaks to both Scroll scholarship and the study of inner-biblical allusions.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 20. Nov 2024)