Amos in Song and Book Culture (review)

Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 338 Reviews Finally, del Barco’s claim that the position of the verb in the clause is determinative of its meaning (a view he shares with other discourse theorists, such as Niccacci) appears dubious (p. 159). For instance, he claims that a perfect (aspect) meaning is distinctive of the zero-qatal construction (i.e., clause initial qatal) (p. 158). However, the fact that qatal is clause initial appears to have nothing to do with the perfect meaning of the verb since examples may be found in del Barco’s database in which a non-clause initial qatal also has a perfect sense. Most notable is Mtofn in Amos 5:11, which del Barco correctly translates with a (subjunctive) perfect sense “aunque hayáis plantado” (although you have planted) (p. 157). Del Barco’s study provides important data for further research on the Hebrew verb, and he has rightfully challenged scholars to move beyond the comfortable domain of prose narrative. However, del Barco’s study exemplifies the difficulties associated with discourse studies of the Hebrew verb in general. Namely, without a semantic component (the traditional grammar approach ) discourse observations remain just that, observations and not explanations . Explanations require serious attention to the symbiotic relationship between verbal semantics and discourse contexts. Semantic and discourse approaches should not be presented as mutually exclusive options, but as complementary approaches whose explanatory powers mutually enrich each other. John A. Cook University of Wisconsin Madison, WI 53706 jacook@juno.com AMOS IN SONG AND BOOK CULTURE. By Joyce Rilett Wood. JSOTSup 337. Pp. 249. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Cloth, $80.00. £50.00. This is a revision of a 1993 Ph.D. dissertation completed at the Toronto School of Theology under the supervision of Brian Peckham. His influence is obvious and substantial at several key points, and Wood acknowledges this debt. For example, the origin of prophecy within the poetic tradition, the nature of the redaction of the prophetic books, and their literary analysis and dating find their source in Peckham’s work (cf. History and Prophecy: The Development of Late Judean Literary Traditions [ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1993]. He mentions this dissertation in a footnote on p. 222.). The foundational idea for the argument of the book is that Israelite prophecy began in the performing arts. The author’s goal is to demonstrate how the material that Amos wrote for live public performance was completely revised Hebrew Studies 45 (2004) 339 Reviews by a later editor as a historical and biographical document. The title reflects this hypothesis. In the Introduction, Wood concurs with much of what traditional criticism has identified as the authentic texts of the prophet, but, at the same time, disagrees at two other important points. First, she believes that there was a literary composition from the very beginning. Second, Wood argues that a twoedition theory is simpler and more adequate than those that contend that there was an initial oral stage followed by multiple redactions of the written material. The rest of the book explains the rationale and content of these two versions (chap. 1–2) and suggests the contexts for their production (chap. 3–4). The final chapter tries to demonstrate how other prophetic books developed Amos’s ideas and what sources the editor used in his expansions. In chapter 1, Wood argues that the initial edition consisted of seven distinct poems, which were all interconnected by the theme of the Day of the Lord and the demise of Israel. The second chapter contends that the subsequent editor preserved this original work intact but then updated it with new material to create a very different work that now had ten parts. The bulk of this chapter is dedicated to showing how and where the additions found their way into the text. With the substance of the two editions thus established, in the third chapter , the author moves into the methodological heart of her thesis. Using categories drawn from Northrop Frye’s archetypal criticism, she explains that the prophet’s libretto was a tragic poem of the North’s failures and the announcement of judgment that was designed to call his audience to reflect upon their own...