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7. Rewarding Aesthetic Excavation in a Biblical Literary Site
- University of Wisconsin Press
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Chapters and in Genesis give us the opportunity for an in-depth look, first of all, at an aesthetic-ideological study examining a variety of literary devices (associated mostly with composition and rhetoric) whose sole aim is to underline Abraham’s superior status both as God’s elected disciple and his herald. And second, we focus on a comparative analysis of Genesis and , where extended comparisons and analogies to his cousin, Lot, further enhance Abraham’s elevated status. From a structural point of view, Genesis is divided into two distinctive parts. One part focuses on a visit by three celestial harbingers who announce to Abraham and Sarah that they are about to conceive a long-awaited male heir, despite Sarah’s advanced age and her persistent barrenness. The other part focuses on Abraham’s (and the three celestial harbingers’) visit to the city of Sodom, where Abraham is informed by God that he has resolved to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as punishment for their iniquitous and abominable practices. It is here that Abraham engages in the famous bargaining argument with God in which he tries to convince the Creator to rescind the verdict and spare the city of Sodom for the sake of the ten righteous men who may be residing there. Why were two such dramatically different textual corpora welded together? The first corpus bespeaks of good tidings: the birth of a much-desired son. The second corpus also involves a visit, this time by Abraham himself, accompanied by God. But here the tidings are of gloom and 7 Rewarding Aesthetic Excavation in a Biblical Literary Site Are not you frightened of the circumcision plan? Are you not afraid to be circumcised and circumcised Until nothing shall be left of you Except a Jewish pain? — , “To a Convert” doom, foretelling the destruction of many lives. The juxtaposition of the two texts and the surprising contrast between the two chronicles have a significant thematic import. There is intervention from above in both stories, for the tidings in both cases are delivered by supernatural beings. In this respect, the analogy is direct and straightforward. In the first story, the tidings are positive and salutary, and given to a pair of excellent and deserving people: Abraham, God’s disciple, and Sarah, his wife. In the second story, however, the tidings carry a message of death and mass destruction to a sinful and wicked people whose evil ways have invoked God’s wrath. These compositional and rhetorical devices are put into deft and effective use, as the text draws an analogy between the two events and, at the same time, contrasts and juxtaposes them, bestowing a thematic unity without being schematic and overly rigid. The compositional device that unites the two divergent sections of the chapter also serves an ideological purpose. This is the case in the vast majority of the Hebrew Bible stories: the aesthetic-literary-poetic devices employed by the text are not there for their own sake but are, rather, mobilized and harnessed in the service of a particular message. The aesthetic devices, underscoring and reinforcing the ideology promulgated by the text, is an educational lesson imparted to the reader. And these devices, with their enticing poetic appeal, operate as “bait,” attracting the reader to the ideological content. A S The most significant event recounted in chapter is the announcement that Sarah is about to conceive a son. This long-awaited offspring will ensure the fulfillment of God’s earlier promise to Abraham (Gen. :) when God took Abraham outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and count the stars, if you be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” Thus, the prophecy of the birth of an heir is crucial to the existence of the Hebrew nation, God’s chosen people. Yet despite the paramount importance of these tidings, they constitute only a tiny fraction of the chronicle, which is devoted mostly to the narration of Abraham’s hospitality toward the three strangers (whose true identity as God’s messengers is unknown to him), to God’s decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and to the subsequent argument in which Abraham pleads with God to spare the doomed cities for the sake of a few righteous men. These latter events are presented to the reader in great detail and with much elaboration, while the most significant event in the chapter is singularly brief and...
