Reanimating Qohelet's Contradictory Voices : Studies of Open-Ended Discourse on Wisdom in Ecclesiastes.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (256 pages)
- Biblical Interpretation Series ; v.166 .
- Biblical Interpretation Series .
Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Introduction The Contradictions in Ecclesiastes and Nonmonologic Unity -- Chapter 1 Modernist Approaches to Ecclesiastes and Beyond -- 1 Separating the Contradictions as Topical Units and Editorial Processes -- 2 Harmonizing the Contradictions or Explaining Them Away -- 3 Deconstructing the Modernist Approaches -- 3.1 On Contradictions -- 3.2 Contradiction as Cognitive Disturbance -- 3.3 Diversified Interpretations in Modern Approaches -- 4 The Progress -- Chapter 2 Bakhtinian Hermeneutics and Ecclesiastes -- 1 Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich Bakhtin -- 1.1 Bakhtin and Biblical Studies -- 2 Dialogue -- 2.1 The First Sense: Every Utterance is Dialogic -- 2.2 The Second Sense: Dialogue as Double-Voiced Discourse -- 2.3 The Third Sense: Shaping Consciousness through Dialogue -- 2.4 Ecclesiastes and Dialogized Interior Monologue -- 2.4.1 The Dialogic Dimension of Qohelet's Monologue -- 2.4.2 Suggesting a New Direction with the Help of Bakhtin -- 3 Unfinalizability -- 3.1 Ecclesiastes and Unfinalizability -- 4 Genre -- 4.1 Ecclesiastes and Bakhtin's Genre -- 4.1.1 Ecclesiastes and Unfinalized Genre -- 4.1.2 Ecclesiastes as a Polyphonic Fiction -- 5 Bakhtinian Reading of Qohelet's Contradictions -- Chapter 3 The Historical Scope of Qohelet's Dialogic Utterances -- 1 A Conventional Linguistic Delimitation of the Context of Ecclesiastes -- 1.1 The Problems of Solomonic Authorship and Terminus Post Quem -- 1.2 Qumran Manuscript and Terminus Ante Quem -- 2 Bakhtinian Reevaluation of the Language of Ecclesiastes -- 2.1 The Dialogic Life of Language -- 2.2 The Dialogic Life of LBH -- 2.3 The Dialogic Aspects of LBH in Ecclesiastes -- 2.3.1 The Problems of Aramaisms -- 2.3.2 The Problems of Matres Lectionis -- 2.3.3 The Problems of Mishnaism -- 3 Bakhtinian Reevaluation of the Possibility of the Third Century BCE. Chapter 4 A Larger Discursive Background of Qohelet's Utterances -- 1 Discursive Background Rather than Textual Sources -- 2 International Discourses -- 2.1 The Ancient Near East -- 2.1.1 The Dispute between a Man and His Ba -- 2.1.2 The Antef Song -- 2.1.3 Stela of Taimhotep -- 2.1.4 The Ancient Near Eastern Discourses and Qohelet -- 2.2 Hellenistic Philosophical Atmosphere -- 2.1.1 Cynicism -- 2.1.2 Stoicism -- 2.1.3 Epicureanism -- 2.1.4 Pyrrhonism -- 2.1.5 Hellenistic Philosophical Discourses and Qohelet -- 3 Domestic Environment -- 3.1 The Wisdom Tradition -- 3.2 The Rise of the Torah Tradition -- 3.3 The Rise of Apocalyptic Tradition -- 3.4 Domestic Intellectual Discourses and Qohelet -- 4 The Complexity of Qohelet's Dialogic Contact -- Chapter 5 The Voices in the Formation of Qohelet's Consciousness -- 1 The Voices in the Formation of Qohelet's Concept of Wisdom -- 1.1 The Father's Voice -- 1.1.1 Retributive Justice and Unconditional Pursuit of Wisdom's Way -- 1.1.2 The Subjectivity-Forming Function of the Father's Voice -- 1.1.3 The Call of the Father's Voice -- 1.2 The Voice of Rational Intellect -- 1.2.1 The Origin of the Voice of Rational Intellect -- 1.2.2 The Nature of the Voice of Rational Intellect -- 1.3 The Voices and Their Interpellations -- 1.3.1 The Dominant Ideology and Resistance of Minority Discourse -- 1.4 Submission and Open-Ended Search as Qohelet's Wisdom -- 2 The Voices in the Construction of Qohelet's Perspective on Social Justice -- 2.1 Historical Circumstances -- 2.2 The Voice of the Victims -- 2.2.1 The Voice of the Victims and Qohelet's Moral Consciousness as aSage -- 2.3 The Apocalyptic Voice -- 2.3.1 Literary Characteristics of the Apocalyptic Voice -- 2.3.2 Qohelet's Dialogic Conflicts with the Apocalyptic Voice -- 2.3.3 Qohelet's Partial Embrace of the Apocalyptic Voice -- 2.4 God and Justice for Qohelet. 3 Qohelet's Dialogized Interior Monologue -- Chapter 6 Qohelet's Dialogized Interior Monologue on Wisdom -- 1 Can Wisdom Bring Beneficial Consequences? -- 2 Is Wisdom Superior to Folly in an Absurd World? -- 3 Is Wisdom Better than Pleasure? -- 3.1 The Father's Voice in the Rational Qohelet's Promotion of Pleasure -- 4 Qohelet's Contradictory Discourse of Wisdom's Accessibility -- 4.1 Dialogic Emergence of Qohelet's Denial of Wisdom's Accessibility -- 4.2 Qohelet's Misogynistic Language in a Wisdom's Accessibility Discourse -- 5 Concluding Remarks -- Closing Without Finalizing -- Bibliography -- Index of Ancient Sources -- Index of Modern Authors.
Ecclesiastes is a text filled with contradictions. In Reanimating Qohelet's Contradictory Voices, Jimyung Kim, drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's insights, offers a reading that embraces the contradictions as they stand instead of harmonizing them or explaining them away.
9789004381063
Bible.-Ecclesiastes-Criticism, interpretation, etc.