Narrative Conjuring or the Tales of Two Sisters? The Representations of Hannah and the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-489
Author(s):  
Matthew MiChael

The narrative of 1 Samuel opens graphically with the story of Hannah and also closes with the striking story of another woman, the ‘witch’ of Endor. These two women appear to occupy a significant place in the characterizations of 1 Samuel through the strategic locations of Hannah at the birth of Samuel, and the ‘witch’ at the death of Samuel. While past scholarship has described the individual importance of these two stories, the present study engages the intertextual connections between the two stories and the narrative importance of these two stories in the story world of 1 Samuel. Taking account of this intertextuality, the study underscores the hidden polemics inherent in their representations, especially in the staging of these two women in the same narrative space through the different literary echoes in the two stories that intertextually bind these women together as ‘literary sisters’ and mirrors of each other.

Author(s):  
Scott Mandelbrote

Scepticism and loyalty represent the poles of van Dale’s career. Two contexts have been mentioned as relevant here: the seventeenth-century attack on magic and superstition, and the circles of friendship that created a contemporary Republic of Letters. This chapter evaluates both contexts, as well as others that may throw light on his relatively neglected attitude to the text of the Bible. It brings into focus two important intellectual episodes: his treatment of the account of the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:3–25), and his engagement with Hellenistic sources relating to the text of the Old Testament, especially to the miraculous composition of the Septuagint. These issues brought van Dale to ask questions about God’s Word. The chapter explores the limits of his scepticism, the extent of his scholarship, and the role of friendship and isolation in his development. Finally, it draws attention to his place in contemporary Mennonite debates.


Phlebologie ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (06) ◽  
pp. 321-324
Author(s):  
F. Amsler ◽  
W. Blättler

SummaryAccording to population-based studies, the prevalence of feelings of heaviness, swelling and pain in the legs is around 50 %. These feelings are often not accompanied by clinically detectable changes, but are the inevitable and generally unrecognised consequences of the increase in leg volume caused by standing still. We assume that the physiological change is detected as part of the constant information about the internal milieu that is sent to the corresponding centres in the brain. This information is modified by many factors, including emotion and – depending on the situation – is either appropriately perceived as an unpleasant sensation of swelling or not even noticed. These feelings can result in an impairment of vitality and depression. In some cases, a thorough phlebological work-up can reveal an occult organic venous disease, so that the feelings can be traced to a somatic cause. Feelings have a psychological and a somatic component; they are not imaginary. It is up to the doctor to discern the individual importance of the two components and to draw the appropriate conclusions regarding treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-80
Author(s):  
Ulrich Lichtenthaler

The concept of digitainability has recently been suggested to underscore potential cross-fertilization effects between digitalization and sustainability, which have often been neglected. This article draws on an innovation-based view to develop a conceptual framework for combining digitalization and sustainability in firms’ strategic initiatives. It distinguishes four settings depending on whether firms pursue either digitalization or sustainability – or both or none of them to a strong degree. Beyond the individual importance of the two megatrends, their potential positive and negative interdependencies will gain further importance, and this article underscores the need for overcoming a potential dark side of digital solutions in terms of their carbon footprint and energy consumption to enable a sustainable digital transformation. In addition, digitainability offers the opportunity to move beyond optimization and cost savings due to digitalization and sustainability initiatives in order to capture the cross-fertilization potential of these two megatrends for innovation and new business development.


Author(s):  
M. Zaoborna

Based on literary studies, the article highlights the text of Ivan Franko's novel "Lel’ and Polel’" from the perspective of motif as a linguistic text category. In this respect, the motive is defined as linked with the personality of the author (narrator) impulse to create the text, related to the psychological aspect of text-creation and actualized by means of certain lingual signals. Understanding the motive as a text-creating category is expressed against the background of the stages of text generation that structure the trajectory of research considerations: situation → actualization of meanings → motive → intention → text concept → semantic organization of text. At the same time, given the presumption of modern French studies on the implicit autobiography of the writer's novels, the conceptual core of the study turns out to be the thesis of the personal senses of the author (narrator) as the basis for the motive. Thus, the effective summarizing positions of the analysis are centered around the linguistic signals associated with the individual consciousness of the sense-creating activity of the writer. In this respect, the intertextual field of the novel is determined to be relevant for grasping the sense, the basis for deriving the motive for creating the text "Lel’ and Pole’l". Intertextual connections, on the one hand, emphasize and maintain the effect of polarity in the text of the novel, and on the other hand, actualize the state of mental dichotomy that the writer experienced throughout his life. On this basis, an implicit presuppositional assessment of life in general and of the man in particular as dual phenomena has been derived, which correlates with the sense-being problem of Franko's life. As a result, the proposed theoretical construct of the logic of understanding the motivation of the text in relation to the novel "Lel’ and Polel’" has been concretized with the conclusive position: the spiritual and mental world of the writer → ambivalent evaluative sense as a basis for the formation of motive → motive, realized in the image of twin brothers → the intensity of explanatory psychology → textual concept as a logos of human destiny. Therefore, the dichotomous structure of the textual world of the novel "Lel’ and Polel’" is realized as a consequence of emanating the nature of the author's motive for the meaningful organization of the text. At the same time, the specificity of the figurative embodiment of the motive, which is consistent with the figurative-conceptual paradigm of text units formed on the basis of changing narrative strategies of the author, connected by means of associative cohesion, determines the centripetal nature of the text of this literary work.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Atar Livneh

Abstract Josephus’ rewriting of the account of Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16) consists of a lengthy juridical prayer/speech not attested in the biblical source in which a list of historical episodes is embedded. Moses’ representation as standing in court before God and the people and defending his leadership by recalling past events appears to derive from 1 Samuel 12. At the same time, however, the catalogue of historical incidents in A.J. 4.43–45 elaborates the “works” in Num 16:28, demonstrating that everything happens according to God’s will – including the granting of the priesthood to Aaron. An analysis of A.J. 4.43–45 evinces that it combines conventions from both biblical historical summaries and Hellenistic catalogues, the individual episodes (e.g., the Exodus) constituting a sophisticated reworking of Pentateuchal narratives and passages from Deutero-Isaiah and the Psalms.


2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Francesca Scalas ◽  
Herbert W. Marsh ◽  
Benjamin Nagengast ◽  
Alexandre J. S. Morin

The individually importance-weighted average (IIWA) model posits that the contribution of specific areas of self-concept to global self-esteem varies systematically with the individual importance placed on each specific component. Although intuitively appealing, this model has weak empirical support; thus, within the framework of a substantive-methodological synergy, we propose a multiple-item latent approach to the IIWA model as applied to a range of self-concept domains (physical, academic, spiritual self-concepts) and subdomains (appearance, math, verbal self-concepts) in young adolescents from two countries. Tests considering simultaneously the effects of self-concept domains on trait self-esteem did not support the IIWA model. On the contrary, support for a normative group importance model was found, in which importance varied as a function of domains but not individuals. Individuals differentially weight the various components of self-concept; however, the weights are largely determined by normative processes, so that little additional information is gained from individual weightings.


Author(s):  
Margaret Anne Brimble ◽  
Benjamin L Lu ◽  
Freda F Li ◽  
Inken D Kelch ◽  
Geoffrey M Williams ◽  
...  

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter K Tscheulin ◽  
Jörg Lindenmeier

Since the willingness to donate blood is not very high among large parts of the population, a better understanding of the determinants for the willingness to donate blood is of significant importance. This article is intended to contribute to higher uniformity of results in the context of research on blood donation behaviour. Exploratory factor analysis and non-parametric tests are used to accomplish this. Potentially important socio-demographic and motivation-related variables particularly affecting the willingness to donate blood are examined. As an addition to the existing literature, the influence of the individual importance of structural characteristics of blood donation facilities, such as the standard of the facility's medical equipment or the training of the facility's staff, will be tested for its effects on the willingness to donate blood. The analysis will also include the influence of direct or indirect personal involvement on the part of the respondent. The results of the study indicate that typical blood donors are young women or men who are studying or possess a higher level of education. Furthermore, potential blood donors can easily be attracted by pecuniary incentives and word of mouth. Unlike non-donors, potential blood donors are not idle, have no fear of infections due to the donation and want reasonable opening hours of blood donation facilities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45
Author(s):  
Matthew Michael

The people of ancient societies and modern times have continually had an unusual fascination for tall structures. In the Hebrew Bible, however, gigantic structures rarely feature in the plotting of its stories. In contrast to this literary norm, the narrator of Genesis places two elevated structures at the center of his story, namely the tower of Babel (Gen 11) and the heavenly staircase at Bethel (Gen 28). In these two locations, the narrator appears to have situated the two structures above all the characters and the architectural landmarks of Genesis. Consequently, the paper engages the theological elevation of these two high-level spots in the creative mapping of Genesis’ subtle representations of human-divine tensions. While past studies have diachronically described the individual significance of these two vertical representations in Genesis, the present paper underscores the intertextual/theological importance of these two elevated structures in the narrative space of Genesis.


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