Review in: Interpretation
2009 63: 196
Review door: Carol
MeyersGevonden op: http://int.sagepub.com/content/63/2/196.1.full.pdf+html
Judges:
A Commentary
by Susan Niditch Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2008.
290 pp. $45.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-664-22096-9.
DRAWING UPON HER
considerable expertise in folklore studies, Susan Niditch examines the
"multilayered and multivoiced" book of Judges as a repository of
traditional and oral literature. Recognizing its marvelously diverse narrative
materials, she identifies three major voices, all emphasizing the role of God
in Israel's fate:
1) an epic-bardic voice, perhaps
dating to the late second millennium B.C.E., in Judg 5;
2) a covenant-oriented Deuteronomic
theologian, probably of the late monarchic period, in Judg 2 and in the hero
stories of chs. 3-16; and
3) a humanist voice with
nationalist interests, reflecting the postexilic era, in Judg 1 and 17-21.
The introduction provides a clear
summary of the characters and themes of Judges and of the major scholarly views
about its historicity, redaction, and versions. It also explains Niditch's
folkloristic approach, which involves sensitivity to the text, texture, and
context of biblical literature.
The commentary itself examines Judges chapter by chapter. For each
chapter, Niditch first offers her own translation, in which she strives to give
contemporary readers a sense of the oral and aural qualities of the
quasi-poetic text. The translation conveys the rhythms, word plays, and
repetitions of the Hebrew while adjusting to English word order. (An appendix
presents another version of the translation that is even closer to the word
order of the Hebrew original.) The translation is annotated with information
about selected words, phrases, and issues. The emphasis here is on textual
variants, which Niditch takes seriously as witness to the oral-world mentality
of biblical antiquity, in which different versions existed at the same time.
Niditch then briefly discusses the overall contents and "voice" of
the chapter and also, where appropriate, its possible authenticity. Finally,
she provides an analysis
of each subunit of the chapter, focusing on the folkloric features of the
characters and reported events. In so doing she frequently points to parallels
with other biblical materials as well as comparative materials from other
cultures, especially from the Aegean.
Readers who expect a detailed treatment of virtually
every term and concept may be disappointed, but those who are eager to learn
how ancient audiences may have experienced the text will be richly rewarded.
Niditch also offers refreshing new insights into Israelite views of war,
violence, power, national leadership, ethnic identity, and women's roles. Her
interdisciplinary folkloristic approach, although lacking attention to issues
of collective memory, nonetheless delivers a lively exposition that does
justice to the vibrancy of this biblical book.
CAROL MEYERS
DUKE UNIVERSITY
DURHAM, NORTH
CAROLINA
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