The Performative Dimensions of Rhetorical Questions in the Hebrew Bible
The Performative Dimensions of Rhetorical Questions in the Hebrew Bible

Author: Jim W. Adams

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2020-07-23

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0567695581

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This book sets out to describe the multi-dimensional nature and function of rhetorical questions in the Old Testament. Biblical scholars have previously analyzed the use of rhetorical questions in both Testaments, but consistently describe their function in persuasive terms. While this understanding is appropriate in a number of instances, many rhetorical questions do not operate this way, and Jim W. Adams focuses in particular on rhetoric expressing the self-involvement of both the speaker and hearer. Among linguistic philosophers, speech act theory has illuminated the fact that uttering a sentence does not merely convey information; it may also involve the performing of an action. The concept of communicative action provides additional tools to the exegetical process as it points the interpreter beyond the assumption that the use of language is merely for descriptive purposes. Language can also have performative and self-involving dimensions. In relation to speech act theory, linguistic specialists continue to research the nature of rhetorical questions.

Fictive questions in the Zhuangzi
Fictive questions in the Zhuangzi

Author: Mingjian Xiang

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2023-05-15

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9027250030

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Rhetoric is intimately related to interaction and cognition. This book explores the cognitive underpinnings of rhetoric by presenting a case study of the rhetorical use of interactional structures, namely expository questions and rhetorical questions, in the classical Chinese tradition. Such questions are generally meant to evoke silent answers in the addressee’s mind, thereby involving a fictive type of interaction. The book analyzes fictive questions as intersubjective mixed viewpoint constructions, involving a viewpoint blend of the perspectives of the writer, the assumed prospective readers, and possibly also that of the discourse characters. The analysis further shows that in addition to attention, other late developing human capacities such as mental simulation and perspective taking also have a pivotal role to play in rhetoric, on the basis of which a simulation-based rhetorical model of persuasion is proposed to account for meaning construction in rhetorical practices. The book will influence our understanding of rhetorical practices outside the Western tradition but within the framework of cognitive semantics.

War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible
War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible

Author: Jacob L. Wright

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-07-23

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1108574300

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The Hebrew Bible is permeated with depictions of military conflicts that have profoundly shaped the way many think about war. Why does war occupy so much space in the Bible? In this book, Jacob Wright offers a fresh and fascinating response to this question: War pervades the Bible not because ancient Israel was governed by religious factors (such as 'holy war') or because this people, along with its neighbors in the ancient Near East, was especially bellicose. The reason is rather that the Bible is fundamentally a project of constructing a new national identity for Israel, one that can both transcend deep divisions within the population and withstand military conquest by imperial armies. Drawing on the intriguing interdisciplinary research on war commemoration, Wright shows how biblical authors, like the architects of national identities from more recent times, constructed a new and influential notion of peoplehood in direct relation to memories of war, both real and imagined. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Irony and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible
Irony and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible

Author: Carolyn J. Sharp

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2008-12-23

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 025300344X

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Was God being ironic in commanding Eve not to eat fruit from the tree of wisdom? Carolyn J. Sharp suggests that many stories in the Hebrew Scriptures may be ironically intended. Deftly interweaving literary theory and exegesis, Sharp illumines the power of the unspoken in a wide variety of texts from the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. She argues that reading with irony in mind creates a charged and open rhetorical space in the texts that allows character, narration, and authorial voice to develop in unexpected ways. Main themes explored here include the ironizing of foreign rulers, the prostitute as icon of the ironic gaze, indeterminacy and dramatic irony in prophetic performance, and irony in ancient Israel's wisdom traditions. Sharp devotes special attention to how irony destabilizes dominant ways in which the Bible is read today, especially when it touches on questions of conflict, gender, and the Other.

Influence: On Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation
Influence: On Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation

Author: Michal Beth Dinkler

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-03-22

Total Pages: 111

ISBN-13: 9004461426

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The Bible is by nature rhetorical. Written to persuade, biblical texts have influenced humans beyond what their authors ever imagined. Influence: On Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation invites readers to think critically about biblical rhetoric and the rhetoric of its interpretation.

Parables in Changing Contexts
Parables in Changing Contexts

Author: Marcel Poorthuis

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-12-30

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9004417524

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In Parables in Changing Contexts, new venues in the comparative study of parables are addressed by scholars of Judaism, New Testament, Buddhism and Islam. Essays cover parables in the synoptic Gospels, Rabbinic midrash, and parabolic tales and fables in the Babylonian Talmud.

Translating Scripture for Sound and Performance
Translating Scripture for Sound and Performance

Author: James A. Maxey

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-11-01

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1620322978

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The various studies presented in this anthology underscore the foundational matter of translation in biblical studies as understood from the specific perspective of Biblical Performance Criticism. If the assumption for the biblical messages being received is not individual silent reading, then the question becomes, how does this public performative mode of communication affect the translation of this biblical material? Rather than respond to this in general theoretical terms, most in this collection of articles offer specific applications to particular Hebrew and Greek passages of Scripture. Almost all the authors have firsthand experience with the translation of biblical materials into non-European languages in communities who maintain a vibrant oral tradition. The premise is that the original Scriptures, which were composed in and for performance, are being prepared again for live audiences who will receive these sacred texts, not primarily in printed form, but first and foremost in community by means of oral and visual media. This volume is an invitation for others to join us in researching more intensely this intersection of sound, performance, and translation in a contemporary communication of the Word.