Irony and Meaning in the Hebrew Bible

by Sharp, Carolyn J.

• ISBN13: 9780253352446
• ISBN10: 0253352444
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-02
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Carolyn J. Sharp is Associate Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Yale Divinity School. She is author of Prophecy and Ideology in Jeremiah: Struggles for Authority in the Deutero-Jeremianic Prose; and Old Testament Prophets for Today.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Interpreting Irony: Rhetorical, Hermeneutical, and Theological Possibilities	p. 6
Irony and Contemporary Methodological Debates	p. 10
Method: Multiaxial Cartography	p. 28
Leaving the Garden: The Wisdom of Irony	p. 35
Foreign Rulers and the Fear of God	p. 43
Pharaoh and Abimelech as Innocents Ensnared	p. 51
"Am I in the Place of God?": Joseph the Pretender	p. 54
Belshazzar, Darius, and Hermeneutical Risk-Taking	p. 61
The Ending of Esther and Narratological Excess	p. 65
The Prostitute as Icon of the Ironic Gaze	p. 84
Tamar the Righteous	p. 90
Rahab the Clever	p. 97
Jael the Bold	p. 103
Gomer the Beloved	p. 108
Ruth the Loyal	p. 116
The Irony of Prophetic Performance	p. 125
Oracular Indeterminacy and Dramatic Irony in the Story of Balaam	p. 134
Hermeneutics of De(con)struction: Amos as Samson Redivivus	p. 151
Contested Hermeneutics and the Undecidability of Micah 2:12-13	p. 169
Irony as Emetic: Parody in the Book of Jonah	p. 176
"How Long Will You Love Being Simple?" Irony in Wisdom Traditions	p. 187
Ironic Representation, Authorial Voice, and Meaning in Qohelet	p. 196
Rereading Desire as Doublespeak in Psalm 73	p. 220
Conclusion	p. 240
Irony and Scriptural Signifying	p. 241
Leaving the Garden Again: New Beginnings	p. 249
Notes	p. 251
Bibliography	p. 323
Index of Names and Subjects	p. 349
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