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Author Brichto, Herbert Chanan.

Title The names of God : poetic readings in biblical beginnings / Herbert Chanan Brichto.

Publication Info. New York : Oxford University Press, 1998.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xvii, 462 pages) : illustrations
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Note Companion vol. to the author's Toward a grammar of biblical poetics, 1992.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 458-459) and index.
Summary In The Names of God, as in his previous study, Toward a Grammar of Biblical Poetics (OUP, 1992), Herbert Brichto continues to argue against the atomistic readings of the Hebrew Bible by the currently dominant schools of Biblical scholarship. He maintains, that despite the repetitions and self contradictions found in the Five Books of Moses, the Pentateuch possesses an aesthetic and ideological wholeness. Its harmonious blend of stories and structures inform one another as they give shape and meaning to the relationship and expectations between a benevolent God and recalcitrant humankind. In particular, Bichto focuses his "poetic" reading on the Book of Genesis. He uses the methods of contemporary literary criticism to examine one of the greatest inconsistencies within Genesis, the alternating use of Yahweh (the Lord) and Elohim (God) as names for the Deity. Often cited as the proof of multiple authorship, Brichto shows, instead, that this "inconsistency" serves as a device for a single author, using the specific name that is appropriate to each specific story.; Brichto then proceeds to overturn other multiple-author proofs, including variations in genealogies, eponyms, and chronologies. He shows that their variety, ingenuity, and imaginative whimsy serve a vital poetic function in the structure of the text as a whole. Finding a unity in this diversity of genres, styles, and devices, Brichto overturns many of the assumptions of current scholarship as he solidifies his thesis of single authorship.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Bible. Genesis -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Bible. Genesis.
Bible. Genesis -- Authorship.
Authorship.
Bible. Genesis -- Authorship -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Bible. Genesis.
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Other Form: Print version: Brichto, Herbert Chanan. Names of God. New York : Oxford University Press, 1998 0195109651 (DLC) 96010381 (OCoLC)34319781
ISBN 0585353166 (electronic book)
9780585353166 (electronic book)
1280453168
9781280453168
0195109651 (alkaline paper)
9780195109658