Womanist Criticism
Identify: A reading of the biblical text from the perspective of African American women
Significance:
- Helpful critique to feminist criticism (concerned with gender issues)
- Added issues of race & class to ideological readings of the Bible
Symbolic Action Report
Identify: The deity commands the prophet to take a specific action that represents the message
Significance:
- Ex. Isaiah 20:1-6 when God commands Isaiah to walk around for 3 years naked as a sign of portent against Egypt & Ethiopia
- The example shows that the command was towards the inhabitants of the costal land around Judah and not to Judah itself
- The focus is on the reported behavior rather than the narrative potential for such accounts
Davinatory Chronicle
Identify: When a prophet receives a request for a divine oracle from another person and then inquires of the Lord and the Lord gives them an answer
Significance:
- Presents the prophet as a diviner figure who both receives from the Lord and goes to the Lord for answers
- Ex. Jeremiah 38
Oholibah
Identify: A name given to Jerusalem (represented as a sister of Samaria) in Ezekiel 23- meaning my tent is in her in Hebrew
Significance:
- An example of the use of feminine imagery to characterize Judah/Jerusalem
- Plays up the image of harlotry
- Represents the idol worship of Jerusalem as a sexual sin
- Uses the following of the sister city Samaria as a representation of the foolishness of Jerusalem
Inclusio
Identify: A literary device seen in poetry- the bracketing of a literary word with an identical theme, word, or idea at the beginning and end of a stance
Significance:
- Gives insight into the structure of the word
- Provides better understanding of the themes of the word
- Better insight into how poetry works in the Biblical literature
Royal Psalms
Identify: Hymns that have kings as their central figure (often the speaker); composed and used for various occasions (coronations/royal weddings/thanksgivings)
Significance:
- Ex. Psalm 2 & 18
- The king (or community on behalf of the king) ask God for help or express gratitude for help given
- Demonstrates the royal focus of the psalter
- Psalms characterized by its subject matter
Seraph
Identify: Fiery winged creatures that fly around the throne of God in Isaiah 6
Significance:
- Based on iconography analysis they used their wings to protect themselves from the deity and not protect the deity
Tel Aviv
Identify: The place Ezekiel is taken to in Ez. 3; the place where the community of exiles is located
Significance:
- Not the same as current day Tel Aviv
- Members of the Jewish Diaspora returned to Israel after WWII and renamed the place known as Japa as an illusion to the exilic community who lived there in biblical times
- Reception of historical significance
LXX Jeremiah
Identify: Alternate Greek version of Jeremiah- significantly shorter than the Masoretic text (Hebrew translation)
Significance:
- Jeremiah text was translated & circulated in multiple different forms (one of which was translated to Greek)
Acrostic
Identify: The structuring of a word by beginning each new line with a successive letter of the alphabet
Significance:
- Ex. Psalm 119
- Provides insights into the structure of poetic works
- (119) reflection on the torah that is rooted in the alphabet guiding the poem about the torah; providing insight into the text
Immanuel
Identify: Name that means “God is with us”; Isaiah 7-8
Significance:
- Ex. states son will be born to a young woman as a son to Ahaz and that by the time the son knows right from wrong the enemies of Israel will be no more
- Immanuel represented as good- Ch.7 blessing and protection
- Immanuel represented as bad- Ch. 8 judgement and punishment
Reception History
Identify: One of the 4 main categories of methods; a study of a text by looking at its various interpretations and interactions of those interpretations as it is received by different communities over the centuries
Significance:
-draws attention to the importance of the context of the writer and more importantly the context of the various readers of the text
Gomer
Identify: wife of Hosea (1-3); a wife of promiscuity and sometimes referred to as a prostitute; part of a symbolic action report between Hosea and God
Significance:
- provides ex. of a marriage between the unfaithful Israel and God
- Used as a problematic metaphor in present day for domestic violence
Edict of Cyrus
Identify: King Cyrus edict when the Persian govt. took over Babylon allowing conquered nations to return to their places of origin.
Significance:
- Characterized Cyrus as the messiah (2nd Isaiah)
- part of the 2 fold characterization of the return to the land with hope/expectation & undercurrent of disappointment due to returning under Persian occupation
- Less than expected return to promise land
Day of the Lord
Identify: a day in which the deity will revenge his enemies
Significance:
- Characterized as a day of hope for the ppl. of Judah because the Lord will revenge their common enemies
- Judgement day as seen in Amos
- Questions who is the enemy?
Imprecatory Psalm
Identify: Prayer of judgement is made of God by the psalmist
Significance:
- Theologically problematic
1. Importance of communal assent (amen’s)
2. Bringing requests to God rather than God or an individual inflicting the negatives actions
Parallelism
Identify: Two or three cola that share some grammatical/structural similarities using alternate words and expressions
Significance:
- used throughout the Psalms
- Second line provides an echo/expansion/intensification of the first line
- the most definitive device throughout biblical poetry
- allows insights into broader parts of the poem
