The courtier and the governor : : transformations of genre in the Nehemiah memoir / / Sean Burt.

• Superior document: Journal of Ancient Judaism Supplements ; Volume 17
• VerfasserIn: Burt, Sean,
• Place / Publishing House: Göttingen, Germany ;, Bristol, Connecticut : : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,, 2014.; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: German; English
• Series: Journal of ancient Judaism. Supplements ; Volume 17.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (234 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

The Nehemiah Memoir, the narrative of the royal cupbearer sent to rebuild Jerusalem, is central to Ezra-Nehemiah's account of Persian Judah. Yet its emphasis on one individual's efforts makes it a text that ill-fits the book's story of a communal restoration. Sean Burt analyzes the nature of this curious text through the lens of genre criticism and identifies the impact of its use of genres on its early reception in Ezra-Nehemiah. Drawing upon contemporary theorists of literary genre, within the field of biblical studies and beyond, he builds an understanding of genre capable of addressing bot

Table of Contents

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Table of Contents; List of Tables; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I: What is the Nehemiah Memoir?; 1. The Genre of the Nehemiah Memoir: From Impasse to Possibilities; 1.1 The Mid-Twentieth Century Form-Critical Consensus; 1.1.1 Ancient Near Eastern Royal Inscriptions; 1.1.2 Votive Inscriptions and Egyptian Biographies; 1.2 The Current Redaction-Critical Consensus: The "Mauerbau-Erzählung" Thesis; 1.3 Evaluation of the "Mauerbau-Erzählung" Thesis; 1.3.1 The Revised NM as a "Building Inscription": Nehemiah 6 as a Test Case

1.3.2 The "Mauerbau-Erzählung" Thesis and the Necessity for a New Understanding of Genre2. The Definition and Literary Boundaries of the Nehemiah Memoir (Neh 1:1-2:20; 3:33-7:3; 13:4-31); Excursus 1: A Note on the Term "Memoir"; 2.1 Core Texts (Neh 1:1a, 11b; 2:1--20; 3:33--6:19; 13:4--31); 2.2 Neh 1:1b-11a; 2.3 Neh 3:1-32; 2.4 Neh 7, 11, 12:27-43; 2.4.1 The Interdependence of Neh 7 and 11; 2.4.2 The Relationship of Neh 7:5-72a; 11 to Non-Nehemiah Memoir Material; 2.4.3 Neh 12:27-43 (and Neh 7:1-3 Revisited); 2.5 Neh 12:44-13:3; Excursus 2: Is the Book of Nehemiah a Unified Work?

2.6 Concluding ReflectionsPart II. Genre in the Nehemiah Memoir: A New Proposal; 3. Genre Theory: Toward a Dialectical Theory of Genre; 3.1 Genre and the Legacy of Form Criticism; 3.2 Genre's Historical Horizon; 3.3 Concluding Reflections: Using Genre Theory to Read the Nehemiah Memoir; 4. The Genres of the Nehemiah Memoir: Official Memorials and Court Tales; 4.1 Official Memorials: A Partial Return to the Form-Critical Consensus; 4.1.1 Late Period Egyptian "Career" Biographies; 4.1.2 West Semitic Memorial Inscriptions ("Autobiographies"); 4.1.3 The Achaemenid Bisitun Inscription of Darius I

4.1.4 The Gerizim Votive Inscriptions4.1.5 Concluding reflections: Is the "Official memorial" a Coherent Genre?; 4.2 Court Tales (the "Court Conflict" Story); 4.2.1 Characteristics of the Court Tale; 4.2.2 The Court Conflict Story in the Nehemiah Memoir; 5. How Genre Works in the Nehemiah Memoir; 5.1 The Transformation of Genres in the Nehemiah Memoir: From Court Tale to Official Memorial; 5.1.1 In the Court: Neh 1-2; 5.1.2 The Courtier and the Governor: Neh 4-6; 5.1.3 The Transformation Completed: Neh 13; 5.1.4 Reading the Whole from the End: The Duality of the Courtier and the Governor

5.2 The Ideologies of the Nehemiah Memoir's GenresPart III: The Nehemiah Memoir in Ezra-Nehemiah; 6. The Reception of the Nehemiah Memoir within Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra 7-10; Neh 10; Neh 12:44-13:3); 6.1 The Nehemiah Memoir and the "Ezra Memoir" (Ezra 7--10); Excursus 3: On the Chronology of the Historical Ezra and Nehemiah; 6.2 Neh 10 and Neh 13; 6.3 Neh 12:44-13:3; 6.4 Concluding Reflections: Assimilating the Nehemiah Memoir; 7. Reading the Nehemiah Memoir in the Story of Israel's Restoration; 7.1 The Restored Community: The Diasporic Court Tale in the Homeland

7.2 The Holy City: The Governor in the Temple