Jump to navigation
You are here
Home
-
Browse
-
Catholic University of America
-
Research Repository
-
CU Dissertations and Theses
-
CU Dissertations
"According to All That You Demanded" (Deut 18:16): The Literary Use of Names and Leitworte as Antimonarchic Polemic in the Deuteronomistic History
Search Term
Description
Degree awarded: Ph.D. Biblical Studies. The Catholic University of America
In collections
CU Dissertations
Dissertations from the School of Theology and Religious Studies
Details
Title
"According to All That You Demanded" (Deut 18:16): The Literary Use of Names and Leitworte as Antimonarchic Polemic in the Deuteronomistic History
Type
Text Dissertation
Advisor
Begg, Christopher T
Other
Miller, Robert D Bosworth, David A
Accessioned
2014-06-20T15:48:46Z
Available
2014-06-20T15:48:46Z
Created
2014-01-01T00:00:00Z
Issued
2014-06-20T00:00:00Z
Abstract
The Deuteronomistic History (Dtr) is a story with a message for Israel in exile. It tells the story of Israel's leadership from its entry, under Moses and Joshua, into the land covenanted to its ancestors to its eventual expulsion from the land under monarchy. The story begins with the people's "request" for distance from Yhwh, a request granted in the form of intermediary prophetic leadership (Deut 18:15-22). Thereafter, Israel's deteriorating leadership situation results in further "requests." Human kingship, which Israel "demands" (1 Samuel 8-12) to remedy its leadership's failures, swiftly leads--except in rare instances--to even greater national apostasy. Israel, Judah, and their "demanded" monarchies' sins culminate in exile from the land. This study explores Dtr's thematic use of onomastic wordplay in his narrative evaluations of some of the principal figures involved in the rise and eventual fall of the monarchy in Israel and Judah, this in terms of the legislation of Deuteronomy.The names and biographies of Samuel and Saul are linked together by the Leitwort *sh'l("ask," "request," "beg," "demand"). The tragic arcs of David and his heir Solomon-Jedidiah's lives are told in terms of the Leitwort *'hb ("love") and its antonyms. The Leitwort *shlm/shalôm links David's sons Absalom and Yhwh and itself. Rather than enjoying eternal dynastic "peace" from Yhwh Solomon to Dtr's concern for Israel's loss of "peace" and "wholeness" with as boasted by Solomon (1 Kgs 2:33), David's house, including its "good" kings, experience a "peace" that fits Yhwh's program of "recompensing" Judah for its covenant violations. The fate of the priestly house of Eli is typological of the fate of Israel and Judah's royal houses as evident in Dtr's thematic play on the name "Ichabod" ("Where is the Glory?"). Dtr also plays on the names of Tiglath-pileser and Nebuchadnezzar, Israel and Judah's exilers and final despoilers, in terms of *glh (*gly) and 'ôtzar. Josiah's name is reinterpreted positively in terms of Deuteronomic "fire," but also recalling the proto-king Abimelech (Judges 9). The message to the exiles is one of warning about the nature of its "requests" from Yhwh, perhaps especially regarding Jehoiachin's son Shealtiel after the death of the former in exile.
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/16623
Local
Bowen_cua_0043A_10512
Stats
Viewed 89 times
Downloaded 40 times
Downloads
Download
Home
About
Browse
Search