Language:
English
Year of publication:
2018
Titel der Quelle:
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Angaben zur Quelle:
43,2 (2018) 205-227
Keywords:
Judah
;
Reuben
;
Bible. Criticism, Narrative
;
Bible Biography
;
Intertextuality in the Bible
Abstract:
'Scholars have long perceived a relationship among Genesis narratives involving Reuben and Judah. Most treatments, historical in orientation, focus on the authorial and editorial processes that produced two episodes in which 'competing' Reuben and Judah narratives are preserved: the sale of Joseph (Gen. 37) and the guardianship of Benjamin (Gen. 42-3). Even literary studies of the Reuben and Judah characters typically address only some of the relevant narratives and reach limited conclusions about the characters' import. This study, in contrast, contends that all of the Reuben and Judah narrative passages in Genesis-whatever the processes leading to their inclusion-comprise a latent complex with a literary purpose. Reuben and Judah compel Jacob to reconsider behaviors from his own life, reminding their father-respectively-of his failings and his nobler aspects. I dub this dynamic a 'reflection complex', consisting of multifarious intertextual links, including multiple instances of the 'reflection stories' described by Yair Zakovitch.
DOI:
10.1177/0309089217711029
URL:
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