Hands, Heads, and Feet: Body Parts as Poetic Device in Judges 4-5
Scholars have identified lists of body parts as a compositional device in Biblical Hebrew poetry and as a way to highlight key themes in the biblical text or uncover hidden meanings. In addition, body parts have been given metaphorical and euphemistic senses. In this article I propose that body part...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of Biblical literature
Year: 2017, Volume: 136, Issue: 4, Pages: 801-819 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Judge 4-5
/ Member of the body
/ Poetry
/ Space perception
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Bible. Judges
B Human body in the Bible B biblical Hebrew poetry B SISERA (Biblical figure) B Bible Criticism, interpretation, etc |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Scholars have identified lists of body parts as a compositional device in Biblical Hebrew poetry and as a way to highlight key themes in the biblical text or uncover hidden meanings. In addition, body parts have been given metaphorical and euphemistic senses. In this article I propose that body parts can form a poetic device an sich. This device is characterized by its willful exploitation of space: bodily space (with oppositions such as up-down and left-right), interpersonal space (connecting different characters), and literal space occupied by words in verses and phrases (with the opposition first-last). I will address each of these types of space and illustrate them with examples from Judg 4-5. In addition, I will examine the effect of the device, in terms of both story building and story decoding. A comparison between the prosaic and poetic accounts of the story of Jael and Sisera will show that the use of body parts, like other poetic devices, generates different reading experiences. |
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| ISSN: | 1934-3876 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Biblical literature
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.15699/jbl.1364.2017.249369 |