Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 363-378).

Thesis (M.A. in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2004. / Abstract. Thesis supervisor: Perry B. Yoder. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [123]-129).

In 1 Kings 1-2 King David’s impending death divides the monarchy over which of his two sons, Adonijah or Solomon, should be the future king. At this pivotal moment one might expect YHWH to reveal who should take over after David, as YHWH had done before (1 Sam 9:1-10:1; 16:1-13); however, YHWH is silent and the human characters take the lead. Nevertheless, YHWH has not disappeared completely from 1 Kings 1-2 because, as the narrative unfolds, YHWH is invoked twenty-four times. Although this language has drawn some attention, with scholars arguing that it either adds theological validation to the characters’ actions or re"ects a theological perspective that assumes that YHWH acts behind the scenes, there is more that might be said regarding its function in the narratives. In this study, I adopt narrative criticism to undertake a close reading of 1 Kings 1-2 that pays particular attention to how characters and the narrator use invocations of YHWH and the events in the plot that prompt or result from this language. I argue that invocations of YHWH have a number of functions in 1 Kings 1-2, with the function of characters’ invocations being particularly dependent on the identities of the characters, their relationships, and the narrative contexts in which they participate.

Though interpreters commonly neglect the masoretic accents in exegesis, this system clarifies and confirms the sense of the text through highly predictable patterns. This dissertation seeks to establish the presence of intentional Masoretic accent patterns that correspond to syntactic features of the text. After establishing the statistical consistency of the pattern in the book of Judges, each chapter examines various examples of the pattern and intentional divergence. Intentional divergence also serves to establish the premise that the patterns are indeed laid down in a systematic fashion. Various examples of divergence illustrate their usefulness by indicating points of semantic interest. The value of these regular patterns and divergent examples warrants greater attention in the exegetical process. Chapter 2 presents the pattern for Etnachta at the conclusion of mid-verse direct speech (e.g., Judg 1:3; 4:9; 6:20; 7:9–11; 8:20; 15:1). Chapter 3 examines the pattern for the interjection ועתה (ve‘atah) from Genesis to Kings (e.g., Judg 13:7; 15:18; 1 Sam 9:13; 2 Kgs 7:9). Chapter 4 opens up the pattern for framing conditional clauses (e.g., Judg 4:8; 6:17; 9:15; 9:19–20; 11:30–31; 13:16; 13:23; 14:13; Gen 18:3; 28:20–22). Chapter 5 investigates the use of Masoretic accents in contexts of contrast, specifically in the presence of the contrast structures vav + X + verb, and vav + לא + verb (e.g., Judg 1:27; 2:17; 10:13). The examination of these patterns forms the heart of the dissertation. At least three practical implications for exegesis emerge from this study: (1) confirmation of clause boundaries, (2) guidance in grouping clauses, and (3) indication of literary interest via accent patterns. The consistency and predictability of the accents benefits the interpreter in the course of regular Bible reading, and the intentional divergence from these patterns often signals a point of literary interest. Readers must know the typical patterns in order to spot divergence from them. The dissertation concludes with suggestions for future study related to Masoretic accent patterns.

Cette recherche porte sur l’analyse des problématiques des langues et des identités dans le roman composé en hébreu par des membres de la minorité palestinienne d’Israël – (Texte hybride selon Yassir Suleiman, 2013). Elle combine deux volets, l’un diachronique et l’autre analytique. D’une part, elle examine l’histoire du roman palestinien en hébreu, et les différents lieux dans lesquels l’hébreu et l’arabe, le Palestinien et le Juif israélien, minorité et majorité se rencontrent. D’autre part, l’approche comparative des œuvres d’Atallah Mansour (1935), d’Anton Shammas (1950) et de Sayed Kashua (1975) est proposée à partir de leur double appartenance, hébraïque et palestinienne. Elle envisage ces œuvres dans le cadre de la littérature mineure, de l’identité hybride postcoloniale et de l’espace tiers formulé par Mahmoud Darwich. L’enjeu est d’étudier les contours d’une narration palestinienne minoritaire engagée par des écrivains dans un processus de déconstruction, de reconfiguration et de correction de la représentation du personnage Palestinien dans la littérature hébraïque. / This research focuses on the analysis of the issues of language and identity in novels written in Hebrew by members of the Palestinian minority in Israel ("hybrid texts" according to Yassir Suleiman). It combines two components, one diachronic and one analytical. First, it examines the history of the Palestinian novel in Hebrew and the different fields where Hebrew and Arabic, Palestinian and Israeli Jew as well as minority and majority meet. Second, the analytical, comparative approach of the works of Atallah Mansour (1935), Anton Shammas (1950) and Sayed Kashua (1975) is examined from their dual, Israeli and Palestinian, affiliation. It sets these works in the context of Minor Literature, post-colonial hybrid identity and Mahmoud Darwich’s third space. The aim is to outline the Palestinian narrative initiated by minority writers as a process of deconstruction, reconfiguration and correction of the representation of the Palestinian character in Hebrew literature.

O conceito de sabedoria bíblica como corpus, tema ou estilo costuma ser aplicado livremente à leitura da Bíblia Hebraica. Ao mesmo tempo, estudiosos admitem a falta de precisão para a eleição daquilo que deveria ou não compor um tema ou estilo sapiencial, tanto para a análise do texto bíblico quanto para os estudos comparados. Este trabalho apresenta uma breve introdução às abordagens acadêmicas que pretenderam reconhecer a sabedoria bíblica como um gênero literário, enfatizando suas peculiaridades em termos de forma e conteúdo a fim de distingui-la de outros discursos encontrados na Bíblia Hebraica. Além disso, a pesquisa também expõe como os estudos comparados aplicaram os conceitos elaborados por biblistas para a compreensão da sabedoria no Antigo Oriente Médio. / Biblical Wisdom as a corpus, theme or style is frequently applied freely to the reading of the Hebrew Bible. At the same time, the academicians admits the lack of precision on the preference for what should be considered or not as a sapiential theme or style, both for the analysis of biblical texts and for comparative studies. The following research presents a short introduction to the academic approaches which intented to recognize biblical wisdom as a literary genre, enphasizing its peculiarities in terms of form and content in order to make a distinction betweem them from the other discourses found in the Hebrew Bible. Likewise, the research also presents how the comparative studies applied the concepts formulated by biblicists for a comprehension of wisdom in the Ancient Middle East.

Uma das características da língua hebraica, bem como das demais línguas semíticas, é sua construção a partir de uma raiz formada, em geral, por três consoantes principais. Para formar seus textos, serão aglutinadas a estas raízes consoantes afixas (prefixos/infixos/ sufixos), com funções de pronomes, preposições, e outras. Na tentativa de alcançar satisfatoriamente nosso objetivo, o ensino do hebraico língua estrangeira, propomos a utilização de uma metodologia de ensino que facilite a memorização, a busca do sentido contextualizado e o ensino de estruturas gramaticais com o mínimo de conteúdo léxico, preparando o aprendiz para conquistá-lo em tempo oportuno. Uma das possibilidades de facilitação do ensino do léxico hebraico pode ser observada nas características desta língua, quando baseada na estrutura formal dos pronomes pessoais e alguns elementos inseridos em diversas categorias gramaticais, que nela aparecem como afixos. Esses afixos hebraicos são elementos que dão conta do direcionamento textual bem como de quase todas as ações e temporalidades verbais. A função artigo exercida por estas consoantes será o fio condutor do nosso objetivo em demonstrar a permeabilidade da língua e estimular professores e pesquisadores na busca de elementos que facilitem o aprendizado ao utilizarem os afixos como ponto de partida para o entendimento do texto hebraico, especificamente o bíblico, como língua instrumental. / One of the characteristic of Hebraic language, just like other semitic languages, is its construction from a structure composed, in general, for three main consonants. To obtain their texts there will be agglutinated affix consonants (suffix/prefix) in these radicals with functions of pronouns, prepositions, among others. Trying to get satisfactionally our objective, which is teaching of Hebraic language, we propose a method of teaching that makes easier the process of memorizing, looking for a context that make sense and the teach of grammatical structures that have the minimum of lexicon content, preparing the learner to make the most of the Hebraic language. One of the possibilities of making easier the lexicon Hebraic teaching can be observed in the characteristic of this language, based in formal structure of personal pronouns and some elements introduced in other grammatical categories, which are affixes. These Hebraic affixes are elements that give textual direction of almost all actions and verbal temporality. The article function used by these consonants will be the guide of our objective in order to show the permeability of this language and stimulate teachers and scientists to search elements that become easier the learning using affixes as beginning to understand the Hebraic text, mainly the biblical one, as instrumental language.

Among a rich variety of studies in second language acquisition research, relatively few have investigated the role of textbooks for language teachers and learners, in spite of their nearly universal importance in language classrooms (Kramsch, 1988; Plews & Schmenk, 2013). This three-article dissertation examines this issue for the context of Hebrew as a less commonly taught language (LCTL), through considering the goals and identities of four types of teachers (Native, Ethnic Heritage Language [HL], Linguistic HL, and Foreign Language [FL]teachers)and three types of learners (Ethnic HL, Linguistic HL, and FL learners). In order to explore these diverse goals and identities, this research included a mixed-methods approach in three stages: (a) a nationally distributed survey that included 18 teachers and 36 students in first- and second-year Hebrew courses; (b) a case study involving surveys, observations, and select interviews with 65 students and 5 teachers at two universities in the US; and (c) an analysis of the content related to goals and identity within five commonly used Modern Hebrew textbooks. Due to this unique context and research focus, these instruments are partially homegrown and partially adapted from past related studies (e.g. Allen, 2008; Burns Al Masaeed, 2014; Ducar, 2006). The first article of this dissertation consisted of a general analysis of these Hebrew textbooks, the second article focused on portrayals of pronunciation within Hebrew textbook pronunciation guides and explanations, and the third article on multimedia that accompanies Hebrew textbooks. Each of these textbook areas was compared to the goals and identities of the Hebrew teachers and students involved in the study. Findings included a general consensus that Modern Hebrew textbooks were lacking in many ways as far as meeting these goals and identities, although diversity in motivations and backgrounds led to a range of responses. Results also present several implications to improve the contexts of Hebrew, LCTLs, and language teaching in general.

There is no consensus on why Ezekiel 20 differs so strongly from the other historical traditions and texts known from the Torah. Are the authors simply purposefully selective in their reuse of earlier ‘historical' material, or do they offer a synopsis of all the material available to them, inadvertently preserving a particular stage in the development of the pentateuchal material? Or, more likely, is the answer somewhere in between? It is these questions that the present study begins to answer. Part One offers an analysis of the general linguistic influences of the priestly, Holiness, and deuteronomic corpora on Ezekiel 20, demonstrating that the impact of all three has been overstated. Part Two, the core of the study, examines in detail four texts of the Torah which share a statistically significant number and type of locutions with Ezekiel 20: Numbers 13-14; Exodus 6.2-8; Exodus 31.12-17; and Leviticus 26. Across these texts, both unilateral and bilateral literary reuse of or by Ezekiel 20 is established, and the ramifications for the composition and rhetoric of both the Torah texts and Ezekiel 20 is explored in detail. Part Three synthesises these findings, confirming that, and describing how, Ezekiel 20 compositionally interacts with the priestly and Holiness writings, offering insight into the extent and nature of a stratified, likely independent P. Three prevailing models of the composition of the Torah are then examined for points of continuity and discontinuity with this picture, with the result that none of them are able to account for all of the data collected herein. In sum, it is no longer sufficient to consider the literary dependencies between Ezekiel 20 and the priestly or Holiness material, let alone Ezekiel and the Torah, as mono-directional.

What was the Old Greek translator’s literary and theological understanding of the book of Habakkuk? This is the central question of this thesis. The prophecy of Ambakoum (OG translation of “Habakkuk”) shows evidence of Greek rhetoric amidst numerous linguistic transformations. These features reflect part of the translator’s personal literary and translational style in the transformation process – an act of interpretation. The meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures was carried over into a new Greek text by a multi-lingual translator, working in Alexandria sometime in the second century B.C.E. The process of interpretation was affected by more than so-called literalism, but also by socio-historical, linguistic and theological considerations. When the translator was not literal his approach was not simply free or exegetical. A real challenge for the translator was not his comprehension of, or ability with, his Hebrew text, but his choice of words, syntax and grammar in his own language. Sometimes his knowledge of Aramaic, which was more familiar than Classical Hebrew, was a quicker or more logical recourse through which to make decisions when rendering his Koine text. An understanding of the translator’s style is derived from an examination of the linguistics (i.e. lexemes, morphosyntax, semantics, etc.) and literary shapes of the new target text. This provides a basis upon which to then derive the translator’s sense for his Hebrew Vorlage. It is the Greek translation that lays out his view(s). This thesis puts the translator’s style on display by providing studies on the different aspects of it. The shape of the target text highlights subtle differences that reveal the translator’s particular textual and thematic perspective. These studies answer the main question; they draw out and explain the translator’s approach, linguistic hurdles and inventions, Aramaic interference, and some subtle theological distinctions. Only by building upon a study of the Greek document can one then form a constructive response to this enquiry. This thesis contributes to the field by clearly presenting the translator’s adept ability with his own language, which was also marked with some Greek rhetorical devices. It also examines the concept of literalism in the Septuagint by drawing into focus the multi-faceted aspects of the translational, and therefore interpretational, process. And by reading Ambakoum as a religious and historical product, the theological differences with that of MT appear germane to the target text, unbound from our later readings of the source. The translator simply read his Hebrew text differently from the way we read ours; this thesis shows how.