Title: FIGURING IT AND FIGURING IT OUT: THE HISTORICAL IMAGINATION AT WORK IN AND ON JUDGES 19-21
Abstract:In the final article in the series, Judges 19-21 is used to illustrate the role of imagination in historical accounts and historical study. Historical accounts, being linguistic representations of the...In the final article in the series, Judges 19-21 is used to illustrate the role of imagination in historical accounts and historical study. Historical accounts, being linguistic representations of the past, necessarily use figuration, but in assessing the account, the rhetorical critic also has to figure things out. This requires imagining the scenario in which the account made sense. The rhetoric of Judges 19-21, which is anti-Saulide and pro-monarchic, suggests that the narrative was loosely based on a historical conflict. This is shown by comparing the views of Wellhausen and Eissfeldt and by expanding the latter view. The rhetorical critic has to take both the literary aspects of the text and the historical context into account - even if the conclusion is that the text is fictional. The conclusion that is reached in this way is never certain, but it is based on reasonable argumentation and is therefore not mere fantasy.Read More