About the Book
This book addresses intertextual connections between Lamentations and texts in each division of the Hebrew Bible, along with texts throughout history. Sources examined range from the Dead Sea Scrolls to modern Shoah literature, allowing the volume's impact to reach beyond Lamentations to each of the 'intertexts' the chapters address.
By bringing together scholars with expertise on this diverse array of texts, the volume offers a wide range of exegetical insight. It also enables the reader to appreciate the varying intertextual approaches currently employed in Biblical Studies, ranging from abstract theory to rigid method. By applying these to a focused analysis of Lamentations, this book will facilitate greater insight on both Lamentations and current methodological research.
Table of Contents:
Introduction, Brittany N. Melton (Palm Beach Atlantic University, USA) and Heath A. Thomas (Oklahoma Baptist University, USA)
Part One: Lamentations in Dialogue with the Torah
1. Exodus 32-34 and Lamentations: A Comparison of Sin, Punishment, and Confession, Alison Lo (Bethel Seminary, USA)
2. 'Away! Unclean! Do not Touch!': Defiled and Defiling Priests in Lamentations, Samuel E. Balentine (Union Presbyterian Seminary, USA)
3. The Ostrich and the Sword: Reading the City-Lament of Lamentations Intertextually with the Wilderness Wanderings of the Book of Numbers, Richard S. Briggs (Durham University, UK)
4. Chaos and Order: Lamentations and Deuteronomy as Responses to Destruction and Exile, Elizabeth Boase (University of Divinity, Australia)
Part Two: Lamentations in Dialogue with the Prophets
5. Out of Sight, but not out of Mind (2 Kings 23:27): Reading 1-2 Kings with Lamentations, J. Andrew Dearman (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA)
6. 'I am He, Your Comforter': Second Isaiah's Pervasive Voice as Intertextual 'Answer' to Lamentations' Divine Silence, Katie M. Heffelfinger (Church of Ireland Theological Institute, the Republic of Ireland)
7. The Afflicted Man in Lamentations 3 as Comrade to Jeremiah, Christl M. Maier (Philipps University of Marburg, Germany & Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
8. The Sound and the Fury: Women and Suffering in Ezekiel and Lamentations, Amy Kalmanofsky (Jewish Theological Seminary, USA)
9. Zechariah's Intertextual Reversal of Lamentations, Michael R. Stead (Moore Theological College, Australia)
Part Three: Lamentations in Dialogue with the Writings
10. Models for Prayer in Lamentations and Psalms, John Goldingay (Fuller Theological Seminary, USA)
11. Verse and Voice in Lamentations 3 and Psalm 119, David Reimer (University of St Andrews, UK)
12. Debating Suffering: The Voices of Lamentations Personified in Job's Dialogue, Will Kynes (Samford University, USA)
13. All is Decay: Intertextual Links between Lamentations 5 and Ecclesiastes 12:1–7, Katharine J. Dell (University of Cambridge, UK)
14. Conspicuous Females and an Inconspicuous God: The Distinctive Characterization of Women and God in the Megilloth, Brittany N. Melton (Palm Beach Atlantic University, USA)
Part Four: Lamentations in Dialogue Beyond the Hebrew Bible
15. Lamentations at Qumran, Gideon R. Kotzé (North-West University, South Africa)
16. From Anonymity to Biography: Jeremiah as a Character Memorizing the Past in LamLXX, Antje Labahn (North-West University, South Africa and Privatdozentin at College of Theology Wuppertal/Bethel, Germany)
17. 'Let us Test and Examine our Ways, and Return to the Lord': Josephus' Interpretations of Lamentations, Honora Howell Chapman (California State University, Fresno, USA)
18. Jesus and Jerusalem: Christological Interpretation and Lamentations in the Church, Robin A. Parry (Wipf & Stock Publishers, USA)
19. The Rabbis Talk Back Through the Prophets: Intertextuality, Lamentations, and Divine Mourning, Heath A. Thomas (Oklahoma Baptist University, USA)
20. Reading Lamentations After the Shoah: A Mandate to Question, Hemchand Gossai (Northern Virginia Community College, USA)
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Heath A. Thomas is President and Professor of Old Testament at Oklahoma Baptist University, USA.
Brittany N. Melton is Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University, USA, and Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa.
Review :
After a helpful essay on the significance of intertextuality, the editors present the essays in accord with the divisions of the Hebrew Bible (Torah, Prophets, and Writings). A fourth group of essays studies Lamentations in dialogue with postbiblical Jewish, Christian, and Islamic words. A final essay describes reading Lamentations after the Shoah. Both senior and junior biblical scholars will appreciate this collection.
[A] stimulating collection of papers that help to bring Lamentations more into the mainstream of OT studies while also showing the fruitfulness of an expressly intertextual stance.
Each chapter will increase the reader's understanding of Lamentations and its position within the Bible and within the Jewish and Christian traditions. It is inevitable that different readers will wish to focus on their own areas of interest, and most readers will certainly find much of interest.
Intertextuality of any type has the potential to open a side door for the exegete of the basic text and to afford him or her with a new understanding of it in some respect, thus revealing the relevance of other texts. It is to be hoped that this series will continue to challenge readers with fresh insights to assess.
