Some Points of Contact between the Biblical Deborah War Traditions and Some Greek Mythologies*

2011 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-334
Author(s):  
Daniel Vainstub
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Mountain Goat

AbstractThis paper examines three features common to the biblical narrative of Deborah and Cretan myths. In the biblical story two heroines, Deborah and Jael, bear names of fauna, bee and ibex (mountain goat), respectively. Deborah/bee’s prophetic gift enables her to determine the auspicious moment for a victorious battle. Jael/female ibex, gives milk in a special vessel to Sisera, who, fleeing for his life, ironically takes refuge in the tent of Jael, who kills him. In ancient Greece, “Melissa”, which means “bee”, is a common epithet for prophetesses, especially those who provide oracles to military commanders, as did the prophetess of Delphi. In Cretan versions, Melissa has a sister named Amaltheia, which means “mountain goat”. When a prominent fugitive, the deity Zeus, takes refuge in her cave, she likewise gives him milk in a special vessel. In both tales the word for the special vessel expresses plenty.

Global Thefts of Biblical Narrative

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald West
Keyword(s):  
Third World ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Biblical Narratives ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Family Resemblances ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
The Subject

This chapter takes its starting point from the African experience, across a range of African contexts, of Africa as both the subject and object of biblical narrative. When the Bible came to Africa, it came with well-established colonial metanarratives, constructed in part from biblical narratives. These colonial metanarratives were in turn partly reconstructed by the engagement with African others, from both a European and an African perspective along two diverging trajectories, with biblical narrative making a contribution to both. This chapter focuses on the capacity of biblical narrative, biblical story, to be both incorporated into “local” metanarratives and to shape these metanarratives. The contexts that are the focus of this chapter are largely “third world” contexts, across which there are significant family resemblances and important contextual differences.

The Artist as Reader of the Bible. Visual Exegesis and the Adoration of the Magi

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 337-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin O'Kane
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Image Viewer ◽  
The Bible ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
Visual Exegesis ◽  
Textual Meaning

AbstractThe article explores the processes at work in a painting's engagement of its viewer in biblical subject matter. It accentuates the role of the artist as an active reader of the Bible and not merely an illustrator of biblical scenes, the dynamic that occurs in the text-reader process as paradigmatic for the image-viewer relationship and the important role of the developing tradition that felt the need to change or rewrite the biblical story. The processes are explored in terms of hermeneutics and exegesis: hermeneutics defined as 'the interweaving of language and life within the horizon of the text and within the horizons of traditions and the modern reader' (Gadamer) and exegesis as 'the dialectic between textual meaning and the reader's existence' (Berdini). Applied to the visualization of biblical subject matter, the approaches of Gadamer and Berdini illumine the key role given to the viewer in the visual hermeneutical process. The biblical story of the adoration of the Magi (Matt. 2: 1-12), the first public and universal seeing of Christ and one of the most frequently depicted themes in the entire history of biblical art, is used to illustrate their approach. The emphasis in the biblical narrative on revealing the Christ child to the reader parallels a key concept in Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics, namely Darstellung, the way in which a painting facilitates its subject matter in coming forth, in becoming an existential event in the life of the viewer.

Cut & Splice: Reading Judges 19 Cinematically

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Brandon M. Hurlbert
Keyword(s):  
Margaret Atwood ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Patriarchal Ideology

What is the purpose of the violence in Judges 19 and what does this narrative aim to accomplish in its readers? Phyllis Trible (1984), Cheryl Exum (1993), and more recently, Margaret Atwood (2019), suggest that this violence is viewed positively by the narrator and serves to reinforce patriarchal ideology. I propose that a different conclusion may be reached by adopting a ‘grammatical-cinematic’ approach. The goal of this approach is to read the biblical narrative through film, i.e., to tell the biblical story in the language of the cinema by focusing on the ‘cinematic sensibilities’ of the text. Using examples from Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, I argue that this approach can recover the agency and dignity of the woman and better visualize the brutality of violence. Finally, I argue that one can understand the object of the author’s critique to be the events and characters of the narrative.

The Biblical King David and His Artistic and Literary Afterlives

1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 313-347
Author(s):  
Martin O'Kane
Keyword(s):  
Good Effect ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
King David ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
Art And Literature ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe story of David has occupied the minds of biblical critics and fired the imagination of artists over the years. David's status as founder of a dynasty of kings is highlighted in Jewish and Christian traditions and his multifaceted personality has found expression in many and varied artistic forms. The central focus in this article is the way in which the figure of David has been represented in art and literature generally, but with specific reference to Allan Massie's King David, A Novel (1995) as an interpretation of the biblical story of David. By way of introduction some general comments are offered on the attraction and appeal of the biblical narrative for both artist and writer. Such comments help to situate the discussion of the David narrative within the wider cultural approach, an approach used to good effect in the works of Mieke Bal, Cheryl Exum and Larry Kreitzer.

scholarly journals Burials of the Fallen in Ancient Greece

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-180
Author(s):  
Lucia Nováková
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Funeral Services

The paper evaluates works of ancient authors who mention and provide details of the burial of fallen soldiers in ancient Greece, and then it compares them with preserved archaeological finds. Textual analysis shows a long-term tradition of war graves on battlefields. The commanders of the troops provided funeral services in the first place, as the extradition request of bodies was equal to the recognition of defeat. In most cases both sides had enough time to take care of their fallen after the battle, but there were exceptions when the last honors were rather provisional. In addition to burial directly on the battlefield, it seems that, depending on the circumstances, the removal of the remains to the hometown or burial outside the battlefield and outside the home also applies. The tombstones could have various forms, in the case of collective burials, tumuli with stelae bearing the names of the deceased were preferred, in the case of burial of military commanders, tombstones took the form of a monumental statue. Cremation burial is thought to have prevailed over inhumation.

scholarly journals Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora Dimova

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewelina Drzewiecka
Keyword(s):  
Modern Literature ◽  
Individual Experience ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
The Bible

Accuracy and Reception: On Theological and Aesthetic Novelty in Two Novels by Teodora DimovaThis article raises the question of functioning of the Biblical narrative in modern literature in the context of the local/individual experience of faith and the epistemological and existential question of truth. The focus is on two novels by the Bulgarian writer Teodora Dimova (born in 1960): Марма Мариам [Marma, Mariam, 2010] and Първият рожден ден [The First Birthday, 2016]. This case is particularly interesting because the Biblical story about Jesus has not been used here in order to create a parody or blasphemy, which could be expected as far as the postmodern de-contextualisation and re-evaluation of tradition are  concerned, but to offer both an aesthetically original and theologically orthodox vision of the Christian God. So how to paraphrase the Biblical story and remain orthodox? How to actualize the existential potential of the Bible and achieve novelty? The analysis is conducted in the perspective of Paul Ricoeur’s existential hermeneutics and phenomenology of memory, especially his concepts of testimony and mimesis, with regard to the question of the reception of Biblical paraphrases in (Bulgarian) modern culture.Zgodność i recepcja. O teologicznej i estetycznej nowości w dwóch powieściach Teodory DimowejW artykule została poruszona kwestia funkcjonowania narracji biblijnej w literaturze nowoczesnej w kontekście lokalnego i indywidualnego doświadczenia wiary oraz epistemologicznego i egzystencjalnego pytania o prawdę. Autorka koncentruje się na dwóch powieściach bułgarskiej pisarki Teodory Dimowej (ur. 1960): Марма Мариам [Marma, Mariam, 2010] i Първият рожден ден [Pierwsze urodziny, 2016]. Przypadek ten jest szczególnie interesujący, ponieważ biblijna opowieść o Jezusie nie została tu wykorzystana w celu stworzenia parodii lub bluźnierstwa, czego można by oczekiwać w kontekście ponowoczesnych dekontekstualizacji i przewartościowań, ale aby zaproponować wizję chrześcijańskiego Boga, która jest zarówno estetycznie oryginalna, jak i teologicznie prawowierna. Jak więc sparafrazować historię biblijną i pozostać ortodoksyjnym? Jak urzeczywistnić egzystencjalny potencjał Biblii i stworzyć oryginalne dzieło? W analizie autorka odwołuje się do hermeneutyki egzystencjalnej i fenomenologii pamięci Paula Ricoeura, zwłaszcza jego koncepcjiświadectwa oraz mimesis, w odniesieniu do kwestii recepcji parafraz biblijnych w (bułgarskiej) kulturze nowoczesnej. 

scholarly journals Nielsen's 'Saul and David' as Tragedy: The Dialectics of Fate and Freedom in Drama and Music

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anee-Marie Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Voice Leading ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Illegitimate Child ◽  
Harmonic Language ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Instrumental Works ◽  
The Way

In previous studies of Carl Nielsen’s opera Saul og David , Einar Christiansen’s libretto as been compared to the biblical story, and the similarities and differences duly noted. Recently, Pat McCreless suggested that, beyond the biblical narrative, Saul and David might constructively be viewed as a tragedy. Indeed, in this paper I will demonstrate that this perspective illuminates not just Christiansen’s take on King Saul’s demise, but also Nielsen’s methods of underscoring it musically. My title alludes to Paul Ricoeur’s The Symbolism of Evil in which the author states: ‘Without the dialectics of fate and freedom, there would be no tragedy.’ In other words, tragedy depends on the tension between forces beyond a person’s control, and actions taken of his own volition that may postpone, but ultimately cannot alter, his fate. I will argue that Nielsen was drawn to this subject for his fi rst opera in part because Saul’s struggle against the inevitable unfolds in much the way his music does: ‘fate’ is the tonal goal, and ‘freedom’ is the volatile harmonic language and serpentine voice-leading that thwart progress toward that ineluctable goal. This is perhaps why many reviewers have noted the opera’s symphonic nature; Nielsen’s instrumental works depend on these same techniques precisely because he infused all of his compositions with drama. He once admitted as much: ‘I have always felt strongly attracted by the ‘dramatic’ in art, for is not all art actually dramatic?’ It is also tempting to consider the dialectics of fate and freedom in regard to Nielsen’s life at the time that he was writing Saul og David . He was just over thirty when he began, yet already had one illegitimate child, a wife and three kids depending on him. Attempting to develop a career that requires imagination and inspiration, while burdened with the mundane necessities of making a living and raising a family, he may have identified intuitively with Saul’s sense of entrapment, and viewed him more sympathetically than the less complicated David. Saul’s humanness surely resonated with Nielsen’s own.

scholarly journals “The Lord Struck Him Down by the Hand of a Female!” Baroque Artists Depicting Judith in the Renaissance

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Tina M Delis
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Gender Issue ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Biblical Narrative ◽  
Female Figure ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Artemisia Gentileschi

Gender themed Research Project, using the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes to examine how Baroque artists tackled representing Judith as a female figure who openly subverts the Renaissance gender norms by defeating a male.  Focusing on the artists, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Orazio Gentileschi and Artemisia Gentileschi, the paper explores through visual analysis how each artist approached representing the gender issue within the biblical narrative in their artwork.  The biblical narrative is discussed and two well-disseminated published articles about gender roles are reviewed.  Additionally, how the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Church’s assertive stance for the purpose of art effects how images of Judith are painted. 

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