Closure in Biblical Narrative

Susan Zeelander, Ph.D.,University of Pennsylvania, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (2010), lectures at academic conferences and for lay groups, primarily on narrative in the Hebrew Bible. She is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.

• PrefaceNotes on Translation, Transliteration, and Documentary Source Attribution 1. Introduction1.1. Introduction 1.2. The Narrative Endings1.3. Narratives in the Study1.4. Closural Devices in the Cain and Abel Story1.5. The Phenomenon of Ritual as a Closing Device1.6. Popular and Academic Interest in “Closure”1.7. Relevant Literary Studies 1.8. How this Book Is Organized1.9. Appendix to Chapter 1: Narratives in this Study2. Issues and Methods2.1. Overview2.2. Delimiting a Narrative, Using Narratology2.2.1. Defining a Narrative. 2.2.2. The Beginning and End-Points of a Narrative, and Its “End-Section”.. . 2.2.3. Causal Steps in a Plot—The Kafalenos Approach2.2.4. The Kafalenos Paradigm2.2.5. Equilibrium as a Marker of Beginning and End2.2.6. Using the Kafalenos System to Delimit Gen 23, Abraham’s Purchase of a Burial Site2.2.7. Finding an Embedded Narrative Using the Kafalenos System: Gen 2–3, The Creation and Adam and Eve. 2.2.8. What Happens after the Transformation2.3. Alternate Approaches for Delimiting a Narrative2.3.1. Yairah Amit and Robert Alter2.3.2. Masoretic Tradition2.4. Artistic and Didactic Strategy in a Biblical Narrative Ending 2.4.1. Moshe Greenberg and Robert Alter: Close Reading of a Biblical Text2.4.2. Shimon Bar-Ephrat and Closing Formulas.2.4.3. Aharon Mirsky and Modified Syntax2.4.4. Isaac B. Gottlieb and the Ends of Biblical Books2.4.5. Adele Berlin and “Time-Bridges”2.5. The Documentary Sources2.5.1. J and P Endings in the Flood Story: Gen 6–92.5.2. Effect of a Source Insertion on the Next Narrative’s End: Gen 122.5.3. Addition of an Altar Ritual to a P-Source Narrative: Gen 35:9–15……..3. Repetition3.1. Introduction3.2. Study of Repetition in Biblical Narrative3.3. Repetition: What It Is and Why It Works3.3.1. Repetition Defined3.3.2. Precision3.3.3. Time3.4. How Repetitions Contribute to Closure3.4.1. Truthfulness and the Integrity of the Narrative3.4.2. Natural Ending Places3.4.3. Remembering3.4.4. Iteration: A Type of Repetition3.4.5. Frames: A Repetitive Structure3.4.6. Repetition that Does Not Lead to Closure3.5. Closural Repetitions in End-Sections of the Genesis Narratives3.5.1. Closural Repetition and the New EquilibriumThematic Repetition • Key Word Repetition3.5.2. Integrity and TruthfulnessRepeated Statement • Repeated Action3.5.3. Stopping the Forward Momentum of a Narrative by ‘Heaping Up’ 3.5.4. Revealing the Author’s Didactic Interests3.5.5. Aesthetic Repetitions, Including Poetry, and Readers’ Enjoyment3.6. Conclusion4. Linguistic Devices4.1. Introduction4.2. Summaries: Recapitulation and Didactics4.2.1. Summaries in Epilogues4.2.2. Summaries from Different Documentary Sources4.2.3. Single-Word Summaries4.3. Unqualified Assertions4.3.1 Absolute Words4.3.2. Hyperbole4.4. Tone of Authority4.5. Natural Stopping Points and Their Linguistic Motifs4.5.1. The Motif of Goal Completed4.5.2. The Motif of Death and Departure and Language Associated with It4.5.3. Corollaries to Departure: A Return to Someplace; Remaining SomeplaceChart: : y.š.b (remain, dwell) and š.w.b (turn back, return)4.5.4. Words and Motifs that Mean “End” or “Conclusion”5. Etiologies and Proverbs5.1. Introduction5.2. Etiologies5.2.1. Introduction to Etiologies in Genesis5.2.2. Biblical Etiologies: ScholarshipIdentification and Forms of Etiologies • Rhetorical Role of Etiologies • 5.2.3. Closural Aspects of EtiologiesAdding Truthfulness • Authoritative Verification • Objective Affirmation • Prior Knowledge Reaffirmed • Puns and Literary Etymologies • Summary5.3. Proverbs 5.3.1. Proverbs in the Genesis Narratives5.3.2. Proverbs: Scholarship Theoretical Foundations and 1 Sam 10:12 • Biblical Scholarship on Proverbs5.3.3. Closural Aspects of Proverbs in the End-Sections of Narratives5.3.4. Proverbs as Closural Devices: A Summary5.4. Summary6. Rituals at the Ends of Narratives6.1. Introduction6.2. The Term “Ritual” and Its Use in Biblical Scholarship6.2.1. Overview6.2.2. Milgrom and Others6.2.3. Biblical Ritual Using Categories Designated by Catherine BellThe Process of Ritual • Hierarchy • Verbal Component • Elevation of a Mundane Act 6.3. Literary Function of Ritual in Texts: Studies from the Ancient Near East and Classical Greece6.3.1. Wright and Ritualized Feasts6.3.2. Roberts and Culturally Constructed Burial Rituals6.4. Rituals in this StudyChart: Narratives with Rituals in Their End-Sections • List: Narratives Where a Ritual Is Not in the End-Section6.5. How Rituals Are Closural in Their Narratives6.5.1. Closural Effects of Transformative RitualsTreaty Rituals that are Transformative in Their Narratives • Other Rituals that Are Transformative in Their Narratives6.5.2. Closural Effects of Non-Transformational Rituals6.5.3. Closural Effects When Rituals Establish HierarchiesInternational Hierarchies • Patriarchs and the Prerogatives of Monarchy 6.5.4. Closural Effects When the Divine Is Invoked in a Ritual6.5.5. Closural Effects of the Ritual Discourse: Specific Language and Other Markers6.6. Rituals That Are Not at the End of Their Narratives6.7. Summary6.7.1. Narrative Functions6.7.2. Stability and Balancing Accounts6.7.3. Natural Stopping Places7. Closure and Anti-Closure: Philosophical, Psychological, Experiential, and Psycho-Linguistic Components7.1. Introduction7.2.. Closure as a Process7.3.. Closure and the Integrity of the Narrative7.4. The Expectation of Closure—Familiarity and Integrity7.5. The Expectation of Closure7.5.1. Metaphysics and Psychology7.5.2. Gestalt Psychology and Its Temporal Implications7.6. Anti-Closure7.6.1. Overview7.6.2. Closed Narratives that Have Anti-Closural Elements7.6.3. Anti-Closure in the Dinah Story (Gen 34)7.6.4. The Akedah and Its Unspoken Disquietude7.7. Closure in the Face of Anti-Closure7.8. Openness as a Function of the Larger Context of the Genesis Narratives8. Conclusion and Epilogue8.1. Introduction8.2. Conclusion8.2.1. Closural Conventions8.2.2. Rituals and Etiologies 8.2.3. Repetition and Other Linguistic Devices8.2.4. Methodology8.3 Narrative Poetics and Historical Criticism8.4. The Question of Intentional Use of Conventions and Closural Devices8.5. Further StudyBibliographyAddendaI. Index of Biblical Narratives, Post-Biblical, and Ancient Near Eastern TextsII. Index of SubjectsIII. Index of Kafalenos ParadigmsIV. Index of Authors Cited