What do you think?
Rate this book
The Death of Jacob: Narrative Conventions in Genesis 47.28-50.26
In The Death of Narrative Conventions in Genesis 47.28-50.26 Kerry Lee investigates the deathbed story of the patriarch Jacob and uncovers the presence of a variety of conventional structures underlying its composition, especially a conventional deathbed story or type scene also found in numerous other texts in the Hebrew Bible and non-canonical Jewish literature. Finding fault both with traditional diachronic approaches as well as more recent synchronic studies, Lee uses an eclectic but coherent blend of contemporary methods (drawn from narratology, linguistics, ritual theory, legal theory, assyriology, and other disciplines) to show that despite its probably composite pre-history the last three chapters of Genesis have been intentionally and artfully structured by the hand predominately responsible for their final form.
284 pages, Hardcover
First published October 19, 2015
1 person is currently reading
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 4, 2019
This book was a Ph.D. dissertation that was published. It talks about literary conventions used in the Old Testament by the final editors. The primary convention that he covers is the deathbed stories. He compares good deaths and shameful deaths of various characters while using Jacob's deathbed narrative as the prime example of the good death convention.
Even though this book breaks ground on new methods of identifying conventions, I was personally touched by the discussion on the ideal death. Apparently, the pre-exilic Jews thought a peaceful death in old age and surrounded by family was the ideal way to go. This is in contrast to the Roman ideas about martyrdom and death in battle being the most ideal. The post-exilic Jews adopted this idea. Today, we tend towards the Roman ideal as well.
Dr. Lee discusses the different parts of the ideal death of Jacob and his passing on of his will. The book is technical and delves into the original language of the text, but I think it is worth reading. He expounds on the so many facets of Jacob's death that most commentator gloss over or attribute to multiple source material. His argument is that the final editor put this together in an intentional way to convey a message about God's blessing in the final hours of the patriarchs and heroes of the Old Testament.
Even though this book breaks ground on new methods of identifying conventions, I was personally touched by the discussion on the ideal death. Apparently, the pre-exilic Jews thought a peaceful death in old age and surrounded by family was the ideal way to go. This is in contrast to the Roman ideas about martyrdom and death in battle being the most ideal. The post-exilic Jews adopted this idea. Today, we tend towards the Roman ideal as well.
Dr. Lee discusses the different parts of the ideal death of Jacob and his passing on of his will. The book is technical and delves into the original language of the text, but I think it is worth reading. He expounds on the so many facets of Jacob's death that most commentator gloss over or attribute to multiple source material. His argument is that the final editor put this together in an intentional way to convey a message about God's blessing in the final hours of the patriarchs and heroes of the Old Testament.
Displaying 1 of 1 review