Statistical Determination of Genre in Biblical Hebrew - Institute for ...

Evidence for an Historical Reading of Genesis 1:1–2:3 717situationality (a text is conveyed depending on the reading situationof its readers), and intertexuality (earlier texts, which are quotedor alluded to, inform the present text). For her discussion seeGroom [2003, pp. 131–138].16. Unlike Greek literature, in particular, Greek poetry, the Hebrewsdid not leave us a treatise on how to interpret their poetry.17. Winther-Nielsen [2002, p. 61; note 33] critiques Mey’s [1993, p. 281]contention that “the ways textual and dialogical constraints aremanipulated depend entirely on the contemporary conditions.”18. Winther-Nielsen [2002] is quoting Gibbs [1994].19. Sternberg, in his magnum opus, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative:Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading [1985], discussesthree issues that are germane to this study: (1) that in the Bible thereis a non-contradictory balance between its three characteristics:it is a literary masterpiece, it purports to be reporting historicalevents, and it is giving a clear ideological message; (2) that it iseasy to under-read the Bible but almost impossible to counter-readthe Bible. In other words, many times readers do not pick up all thesubtleties of the text, but the theological message is clear; (3) theBiblical authors believed that they were writing real history. SeeSection 7 of the present study for an extended discussion of thehistoriographical aspects of the Old Testament.20. See Dotan’s excellent foreword to Biblica Hebraica Leningradensia[2001, pp. vii–x], in which he discusses the relative merits of thetwo extant Ben Asher texts: The Aleppo Codex and the LeningradCodex.21. “Brick upon brick” refers to an arrangement of the lines of text, inwhich one line is divided into three textual blocks, the next line isdivided into two blocks, the third line is divided into three again,and so forth down the page. The resulting page resembles a brickwall, with the blocks of text as the bricks and the spaces betweenthe blocks as the mortar.22. Perhaps it was meant to honor the authors of these texts, Moses,Samuel, and David. But in the final analysis the reason escapes us.We can conclude, however, that the copyists do not clearly evidence