What Does Eve Do to Help? and Other Readerly Questions to the Old Testament (review)

Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 107 Reviews historians. Brueggemann himself is occasionally gUilty of just that, as when he writes a sentence such as: "This ingression explodes the fixity" (p. 31). Brueggemann is at his best in chap. 7, "Monopoly and Marginality." Here he reminds us of what liberation theologians have been saying for a long time. Biblical interpretation has been the enterprise of an elite class that has unconsciously or perhaps consciously shaped its interpretations to maintain its world. Brueggemann points out that the Bible is a subversive document. People on the margins are often in a better position to be sensitive to this characteristic of the biblical tradition. Theirs are the ears which can hear the Bible's passionate insistence that God's intention for justice and freedom should find fulfillment. People who appreciate Brueggemann's work will welcome this book. It is short and, by the author's own admission, provisional. He also characterizes it as a personal attempt to sort out some categories of interpretation. It is this personal dimension that makes his work so valuable. Brueggemann provides an extensive bibliography for what is a short book. There is also an index of authors and biblical references. Leslie J. Hoppe Catholic Theological Union Chicago, IL 60615 WHAT DOES EVE DO TO HELP? AND OTHER READERLY QUESTIONS TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. By David J. A. Clines. JSOTSup 94. Pp. 178. Sheffield: JSOT, 1990. Cloth, $28.50. In this collection of six essays plus introductory remarks, Clines demonstrates some benefits of a reader-response approach to biblical literature . Since "the creation of meaning arises at the intersection between text and reader" (p. 12), attention to the sequential nature of reading, to "writerly guiles" (p. 15) that would influence readers in strategic ways, and to the social location of readers can yield fresh, unanticipated literary and historical insights. The first essay, "What Does Eve Do to Help? and Other Irredeemably Androcentric Orientations in Genesis 1-3," is essentially Clines' refutation of attempts by "second-generation" feminists to discern latent egalitarian elements within the creation texts of Genesis. Genesis 2-3 are thoroughly Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 108 Reviews androcentric in orientation, he concludes, and Genesis 1 offers no foundation for constructing a program of sexual parity, for while the latter does not explicitly rule out such equality, the immediately following chapters mitigate against any such interpretation. Sequential readers of Genesis will conclude that Eve "helps" only by enabling the man to fulfill the divine mandate of Oen 1:28, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." For those modems who refuse to equate women's value with their reproductive capacities, such texts force the issue of biblical "authority." Chapter 2, "What Happens in Genesis," examines the import and function of certain textual clues for first-time readers of Genesis. Four Announcements (Gen 1:26-28; 12:1-2; 25:23, 27:27-29, 39-40; and 37:510 ) shape readers' expectations for the unfolding plot. But these expectations are by no means guaranteed fulfillment; indeed, divine announcements are no more reliable predictors of future events than human ones. If, by the end of Genesis, the expectations of readers have been frustrated or, at best, partially fulfilled, this only serves to presage a pattern that will continue through 2 Kings. Two essays into the book, I found myself asking, "Who is Clines' reader and what does he or she know?" The critical insight that reading narrative is a sequential and cumulative process has obviously enhanced his work, but what of other key components in a reader-response methodology? Does Clines attempt to read as would ancient Israelites, given what we know of their world view and extra-textual repertoire (including knowledge of literary conventions)? Or does he read as one member of a guild of sophisticated , literary-minded biblical scholars, his flip quip rhetoric encouraging us also to read the text with a modem, somewhat cynical, and oftentimes humorous eye (e.g., "...God himself is not too happy about the way the agenda is developing. So first he makes the snake slide around on the ground so that the dust will get into its mouth every time it tries to...