Judges 19-21 and the “Othering” of Benjamin

A Golah Polemic against the Autochthonous Inhabitants of the Land?

Series: 

Author:
William Krisel
Of all the tribes of Israel, why is Benjamin cast in the role of the villainous “other” in Judges 19-21? Krisel argues that the anti-Benjamin Tendenz in the narrative reflects economic, political and ideological tensions between the Golah community, the deportees who returned from Babylon during the early Persian period, and the people who had not gone into exile, who lived primarily in the Benjamin region. The hypothesis is supported by archaeological and survey data largely overlooked by biblical scholars and by a careful redaction history of the text. Krisel engages critically with the predominant scholarly view that Judges 19-21 uses “irony” to cast the explicit heroes in the narrative, the sons of Israel, as the implicit villains.
Copyright Year:
2022
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-49935-5
Publication:
28 Dec 2021
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-49934-8
Publication:
06 Jan 2022
Cover Judges 19-21 and the “Othering” of Benjamin

Prices from (excl. shipping):

€160.36€152.00 excl. VAT
Add to Cart
William Krisel, Ph.D (2019), Institut Catholique de Paris and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, is an Old Testament specialist and lecturer at ICP. He has published articles on the books of Judges and Ruth and is the co-editor of Réflexions juives sur le christianisme (Labor et Fides, forthcoming).
Contents
List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Judges 19–21 and the “Othering” of Benjamin: A Golah Polemic against the Autochthonous Inhabitants of the Land?

part 1: Text


1 Text Critical Problems in Judges 19–21
 1 Principal Differences between BHS and BHQ Judges 19–21
 2 New Methodological Approach of BHQ to Textual Criticism
 3 Determining the “Preferred” Text of Judges 19–21
 4 Chapter Summary

2 Judges 19–21 in Canonical Context
 1 Judges 19–21 in the Broad Canonical Context of Judges 13–1 Samuel 7
 2 Literary Relationship between Judges 17–18 and Judges 19–21
 3 Literary Relationship between Judges 19–21 and 1 Samuel 1–7
 4 Literary Associations between Judges 19–21 and Ruth
 5 Chapter Summary

3 Literary Structure of Judges 19–21
 1 Status Quæstionis Concerning the Literary Structure of Judges 19–21
 2 Structural Indicia of Caesuras in Judges 19–21
 3 Proposed Literary Structure for Judges 19–21
 4 Conclusions
 5 Chapter Summary

part 2: Texture


4 The Narrator’s Evaluative Point of View
 1 Evaluative Point of View in Judges 19–21
 2 Position 1: The Narrator Portrays the Sons of Israel as Heroes
 3 Position 2: The Narrator Portrays the Sons of Israel as Heroes but Readers Should Reject This Evaluation
 4 Position 3: The Narrator Uses Irony and Absurd Humor to Portray the Sons of Israel as Villains
 5 Position 4: The Narrator Uses a “Non-Critical” Evaluative Point of View Characteristic of “Foundation Myths”
 6 Towards a Methodology for Determining the Narrator’s Evaluative Point of View
 7 Conclusions
 8 Chapter Summary

5 The Phenomenon of Intertextuality in Judges 19–21
 1 Methodology and the Phenomenon of Intertextuality in the HB
 2 Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches to the Analysis of Intertextuality
 3 Edenburg’s Analysis of Intertextuality in Judg 19:22–24
 4 Conclusions
 5 Chapter Summary

part 3: Context


6 Understanding the Anti-Benjamin Tendenz in Judges 19–21
 1 Status Quæstionis through the End of the 20th Century
 2 Recent Iterations of the “Anti-Saul” Political Polemic Hypothesis
 3 Critique of the “Anti-Saul” Political Polemic Hypothesis
 4 Methodological Weaknesses of the Hypothesis
 5 Conclusions
 6 Chapter Summary

7 Situating the Anti-Benjamin Tendenz in Judges 19–21 in Historical Context
 1 Archaeological and Survey Data from the Benjamin Region
 2 Interpretation of Archaeological Data by Biblical Commentators
 3 Relations between the Golah and Those Who Remained in the Land
 4 New Hypothesis to Explain the Anti-Benjamin Bias in Judges 19–21
 5 Chapter Summary

part 4: Textualization


8 Methodological Problems in Diachronic Analysis
 1 Basic Models for Understanding the Compositional History of Judges 19–21
 2 Recommendations for Methodological Controls in Redaction Criticism
 3 Chapter Summary

9 Compositional History of Judges 19
 1 Compositional History of Judges 19:1–10aB
 2 Compositional History of Judges 19:10aC–21
 3 Compositional History of Judges 19:22–30
 4 Chapter Summary

10 Compositional History of Judges 20
 1 Compositional History of Judges 20:1–17
 2 Compositional History of Judges 20:18–31a
 3 Compositional History of Judges 20:31b–48
 4 Chapter Summary

11 Compositional History of Judges 21
 1 Compositional History of Judges 21:1–5
 2 Compositional History of Judges 21:6–23a
 3 Compositional History of Judges 21:23b–25
 4 Chapter Summary

Conclusions and Perspectives for Further Research

Appendix: Translation of Judges 19–21

Bibliography of Works Consulted

Index of Modern Authors
Index of Ancient Sources
  • Collapse
  • Expand

Manufacturer information:
Koninklijke Brill B.V. 
Plantijnstraat 2
2321 JC
Leiden / The Netherlands
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com