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In this dissertation I focus on the fate of the unfavored within Israel: Judah in the Joseph cycle (Genesis 37-50), and Saul in the episode depicting his brief reign (1 Samuel 13-15). These two narratives contain segments that have long puzzled their readers: chapters 38 and 49 of Genesis, and the account of Saul’s first rejection in 1 Samuel 13:7b-15a seem awkward in their literary context. The bulk of my thesis consists of a thought experiment. I attempt to read these stories of Israel’s election first without and then with these intrusive segments, in order to see what the outcome might mean both in terms of hermeneutics and the notion of election.

Kingship is one of the important themes of Genesis. This study argues that the book as a whole intimates the advent of a royal descendant ofAbraham. The concept is inextricably associated with the overall message of Genesis and is introduced in the very first chapter when God commissions human beings to be his viceroys. Soon afterwards, howevG, the account of events in the garden ofEden highlight humankind's disobedience. This is, in part, qttributed to their failure to exercise dominion as God instructed them at creation. By doing the bidding ofthe serpent, the human couple abdicate their responsibility to God and, in doing so, transfer the authority entrusted to them over to God's enemy. In pronouncing judgement upon the serpent, God announces that one day the serpent will be overcome through a descendant (seed) ofthe woman. The concept of a future royal descendant is subsequently developed on the basis of this pronouncement through a number offeatures, including importantly the book's genealogical structure. The structure connects the woman's son, Seth with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Judah, forming a distinctive line. Genesis suggests that the distinctive line will become a royal line, from which a king will come, through whom the nations ofthe earth will be blessed. Genesis concludes by associating this future royal descendant with two separate lineages: one stems from Joseph and the other from Judah. While the book intimates that Joseph's lineage is given the priority to advance the promise of future royalty, it also hints that eventually Judah's lineage will supplant Joseph's lineage and the future royal descendant will be from the tribe ofJudah. This interpretation of Genesis finds support in the extended narrative that continues through the books of Exodus to Kings.

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Using primarily Yairah Amit's work on hidden polemics as a template, plus Ancient Near Eastern literature, this work argues for a hidden polemic in Genesis 2-3 against certain excesses in royal ideology and practice. The key themes of knowledge and life—as well as other terms and motifs that are related to knowledge and life—are examined in Genesis 2-3 in connection with those same themes in other parts of the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East. It is demonstrated that knowledge and life are common themes of royal ideology in the rest of the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East in general. This ideology is often treated in a way that is favorable to kings and their ideology. However, there are other views that are not so favorable. Such views often involve hidden polemics that seek to protect the authors as well as the readers and/or hearers of the polemics. These polemics also, by their hidden nature, tend to draw the reader/hearer into the stories.

Bringing God into history is Jacob's task. Jacob the patriarch, the one who breaks through, is a powerful biblical figure who may have been a role model for Jesus and was considered eldest of the angels during New Testament. Medieval church frescoes depict Jesus and Jacob together wearing halos. Unfortunately, as a survey of commentary will show, Post-Reformation Jacob becomes the typical Jew ruthlessly taking advantage of his brother, repulsive, a vile deceiver. Cardinal Ratzinger questioned whether Christians still can claim in good conscience to be the legitimate heirs of Israel's Bible: to a degree Jacob, his narrative, and a viable hermeneutic has been 'lost' to Christianity. Decisively breaking with more traditional and literary approaches, the oldest hermeneutic has been rearticulated and brought back into play: verbal performing art. It is this hermeneutic - more intuitional and more capable of capturing ephemeral poetic moments - that can efficaciously attend to the biblical text's heterogene vivacity. It is well suited to explore inherent textual ambiguity. Loosely set within an ethnographic context where both narrative and character demand serious attention, the Jacobean narrative is approached closely. Seeking Jewish perspectives as well as Christian, it listens carefully for possibly dominated voices. There in the textual gaps, evidence will be found of a more hidden transcript with trickster discourse. Primarily a theological endeavour attempting to build bridges to the Tanakh for Christian readers, the goal is to discover fresh presences of Jacob, uncover narrative coherence for his actions and establish theological significance. A return to the biblical text will reveal that between the formative time and Sinaiic time lies Jacobean time. As will be demonstrated, Jacob is blessed by God only after Jacob recognizes his own amporphous disruptive and subversive abilities. As has been said of others, Jacob shatters convention by mastering tradition. Jacob is the liminal figure who grasps the nature of perdurance and is therefore able to conceive a nascent Judaism and ensure that at Sinai the covenant will be set in Halakah. Jacob's narrative can be conceived as a tribute to sacred trickster.

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The present thesis offers a reading of the book of Exodus as a literary artifact. This is accomplished through the investigation of its main literary characters Yhwh, Moses and Israel. The text is understood to be part of a communicative situation between author and reader. This hermeneutical claim and the nature of Exodus itself entail certain consequences with regard to the method of enquiry. The method applied is a modified form of rhetorical criticism, which is understood to provide an interpretive perspective on the text. The particular focus is on the functional aspects of the text which direct the reading process and thus guide the reader. Given the difficulties in determining the circumstances of the origin of Exodus and the paucity of secured knowledge about early Israelite history, the `implied reader' is introduced as a key-term. It is assumed that this implied reader informed the inventio and dispositio of the book. Because of the book's central themes - identity and relationship -a careful investigation of the characters is a worthy avenue to pursue. Three characters have been chosen on account of their continuous involvement in the plot. The introduction of each character into the plot receives special attention. The developing portrayal of each character is closely linked to its paradigmatic qualities and to its influence on the reader. First, the portrait of God is discussed, especially in relation to the contributions of the narrative, poetic and legal parts of Exodus. The very important but often neglected legal characterisation of Yhwh in Exodus is a topic of special interest. Although the legal collections say much about their recipients, they also reveal deep insights into the law-giver's nature and concerns. Yhwh is identified as the king who justly claims obedience and service. A further focus is the possibility of the relationship between Israel and their king, Yhwh. Second, with regard to Moses there is a significant difference between his first appearance in Exod 2-5 and his later development. This remarkable tension in the Mosaic portrayal reveals interesting insights into the implied reader's preconceptions. Here we trace closely the argumentative strategy of the author in his attempts to convince this reader. Furthermore, it is necessary to discuss the paradigmatic qualities of the character Moses. Third, reader-identification is at the heart of the construction of Israel. Here the historical gulf between the Israel of the narrative and the one of the implied reader is bridged. The complexity of Israel is a central aspect of Exodus' rhetoric, urging its readers to comply with the ideal which the author sought to communicate in his book. The results of this study provide insights into the specific poetics of Exodus and its management of the reading process. Because of the proposed unity of form and content, it is possible to specify the message of the entire book by taking into account its intriguing mixture of different genres. An abstraction from modern reading-conventions in the encounter of ancient Hebrew texts is shown, and the possibility of reading the text on its own terms is explored.