Compositional strategy of the book of Judges : an inductive, rhetorical study / / by Gregory T.K. Wong.

• Superior document: Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, v. 111
• Author: Wong, Gregory T. K.
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Supplements to Vetus Testamentum ; v. 111.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

This volume represents an inductive, literary/rhetorical analysis of the book of Judges to determine whether recent synchronic approaches that read the book as an integrated whole are indeed justified. As possible rhetorical links connecting Judges' prologue (1:1-2:5), epilogue (17:1-21:25), and central section (2:6-16:31) are examined in detail and the implications of such links carefully considered, the author concludes that, contrary to the consensus view that sees the central section of Judges as a part of Deuteronomistic History and the prologue and epilogue as later additions, the book in its current form may have been a unified composition of a single creative author. If so, not only does this have significant implications for the validity of the Deuteronomistic History Hypothesis, a new possibility also emerges which sees the interpretive key to the book as residing in the prologue and epilogue rather than the central section.

Table of Contents

Setting the stage: previous scholarship and current issues -- Through the lens of Joshua: links between the prologue and epilogue of Judges -- Echoes of the major Judges: links between the epilogue and central section of Judges -- Prologue as paradigm: links between the prologue and central section of Judges -- No king is Israel: understanding the epilogue's refrain -- Compositional strategy and rhetorical purpose of Judges.