Judges 19-21 and Ruth : : Canon as a Voice of Answerability / / Jennifer M. Matheny.

• Superior document: Biblical Interpretation Series ; 200
• VerfasserIn: Matheny, Jennifer M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Biblical Interpretation Series ; 200.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (294 pages)

Judges 19–21 is filled with sexual violence, silent victims, and the lack of an ethical response. Utilizing a Bakhtinian-canonical perspective, this book seeks alternative canonical voices of answerability and non-violence through dialogue with the book of Ruth.

Previous scholarship hints at the connection between Judges 19–21 and Ruth (as set in dialogue), but there has yet to be a study to articulate this relationship. Through a Bakhtinian-canonical perspective, a comparative analysis of these texts unveils intertextual correlations. Lexical and thematic connections include shared idioms, contrasting themes of חרם (“ban”) andחסד (“loving–kindness,” “covenant–faithfulness”), silence and speech, abuse and potential for abuse, gendered violence and feminine agency. This case-study reveals that Ruth, as a text and as a woman, embodies a voice of answerability to the silenced and abused women in Judges 19–21.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Figures and Tables -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Judges 19-21 and Ruth in Canonical Dialogue -- Canon and Answerability -- Reading Silence -- Outline of the Book -- Chapter 2 The Answerability of Canon -- A Voice for the Voiceless in Judges 19-21 -- The Polyphonic Nature of Canon -- On the Quest for a Voice: Discovering the Utterance -- The Chronotopes -- Canon as a Voice of Answerability -- The Use of נתח as a Voice of Canonical Answerability -- נתח in the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic History -- DH: Kings and Samuel (נתח in the Parallel Passage in 1 Samuel 11:7) -- נתח in a Prophetic משל: Ezekiel 24 -- נתח as Canonical Answerability of Judges -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3 Judges 19-21 as a Dialogic משל -- Understanding Judges 19-21 as a Dialogic משל -- Bakhtin's Voice in the Dialogue of Genre -- Dialogic משל -- Breadth of Meaning -- Two Examples from 2 Samuel and One Example from Judges -- To "I.D." a Body of Literature: An Unfinalized Threshold -- The Instrument of Dismemberment: המאכלת -- Thresholds: סף and מפתן -- Parallel Texts of Violence: Judges 19, 1 Samuel 11 and a Mari Royal Document -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4 Haunted Dialogue -- Utterances of the Mute and Mutilated (Judges 20 and 21) -- If There Was "No King in Israel," Who Is in Charge? -- Not a King but Acting like One -- The Account of this Evil -- The Reported Speech of the Levite -- The Woman, the One Slain -- Unity at Mizpah -- Sons of Worthlessness-My Brother? -- Name-Dropping as Theological-Political Symbols: The Ark of the Covenant of God and Phinehas -- Mizpah: Oaths and Weeping -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5 חרם in Canonical Dialogue -- Thresholds of No Return: חרם -- חרם as a Function of Grotesque Realism -- Achan and Rahab: Who is Truly חרם in Joshua? -- Narrative Setting -- חרם: Why All the Fuss? -- חרם in Judges.

Blotted Out: Progenitive Problems Answered by Stolen Possessions -- Filling the Breach -- Canonical Answerability for the Silent? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6 Ruth's Chronotope in the Canon -- Ruth as a Traveling Text -- Ruth as a Threshold Text -- Dating of Ruth -- Ruth's Chronotope in the Canons -- Form, Function, and the Dialogic Nature of Genre -- Previous Scholarship on the Genre of Ruth -- A New Way Forward: Ruth's Function as a Dialogic משל -- Ruth as a Dialogic משל and a Voice of Canonical Answerability -- Answerability as a Feature of Dialogism: Ruth and Tamar -- Conclusion -- Chapter 7 The Answerability of Borders and Identity -- Ruth 1: The Dialogical Nature of Names -- Women in Relational Answerability: Naomi, Orpah and Ruth (Ruth 1) -- The Chronotope of Borders: Between and in between Moab and Bethlehem -- Borders of Ethnicity -- Naomi, Ruth and Orpah: Relational Answerability -- Naomi's Lament -- Intertextual Utterances -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8 Chronotope Encounters in Ruth 2 and 3 -- Chronotopes of Field and Threshing Floor -- The Chronotope of Encounter -- Encounter with Boaz: A Dialogue of Identity -- Ruth's Response: Speak to the Heart -- Canonical Answerability: Genesis 19 and Ruth 2 -- Chronotope of Encounter: The Threshing Floor -- Ruth 3:9 in Canonical Dialogue with the Torah: Violator or Creative Agent? -- Midnight Motif -- The Foot -- Wings -- The Double Request -- Foreign Women in the Canonical Dialogue of Identity -- Conclusion -- Chapter 9 Progentitive Problems in Ruth 4 -- Progenitive Problems Answered by Purchased Possessions -- Chronotope of Encounter: The City Gate -- Boaz, the Elders and the Kinsman-Redeemer -- Wife of the Dead -- The Sandal -- Canonical Answerability for the Silent -- Ruth's Loophole of Identity -- The Women of Bethlehem: A Voice of Answerability for Ruth and Naomi.

The Canonical Dialogue of חסד in Ruth -- Ruth Embodies חסד Towards Naomi -- Genealogy (4:18-21) -- The Dialogic Encounter of Law and Narrative -- Conclusion -- Chapter 10 Judges 19-21 and Ruth in Dialogue -- Ruth as a Voice of Canonical Answerability -- Ruth and Judges as a Dialogic משל -- Idioms in Dialogue: נשא אשה (Judges 21:23 -- Ruth 1:4) and דבר על־לב (Judges 19:3 -- Ruth 2:13) -- A Dialogue of Identity: The Women in Judges 19-21 and Ruth -- Oaths in Dialogue -- Ruth as the Reversal פילגש? Utterances of Identity and Alterity -- Conclusion: Earth-Keeping and People-Keeping -- Appendix: Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, an Unfinalized Life: A Brief Biography and Story of His Honorary Doctorate from Yale University -- Bibliography -- Index of Scriptures -- Index of Subjects.