How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 SamuelThis book marries the several elements: a given text (1 Samuel), a focal character (King Saul), a spacious and creative theorist (Mikhail Bakhtin), a historical context (the collapse of monarchic Israel and the moment for return. The dilemma for the exile community is to return with royal leadership or without it); a reading challenge is: can a character be a cipher for a corporate experience (Saul represent the whole monarchic experience)? The author argues that the narrative of 1 Samuel may be read as a riddle propounding the complex story of Israel/Judah's experience with kings as an instruction for those pondering leadership choices in the sixth century. The work is an extended reflection on what went wrong with kings and why new leadership must be attempted. The extended riddle of Saul works to show how the life of the king is fundamentally destructive, not because any is malicious but because of many factors of weakness and inadequacy that will be familiar to readers. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... Israel . I declare ' off the table ' , at least for present purposes , the topic of discerning or distilling reliable information from 1 Samuel about the early days of Israel in its presumed shift from a segmentary society toward more ...
... Israel . I declare ' off the table ' , at least for present purposes , the topic of discerning or distilling reliable information from 1 Samuel about the early days of Israel in its presumed shift from a segmentary society toward more ...
Page 4
... . Linville gets at something similar when he queries whether ' Imagined Israel ' is a map , a mask , or a house of mirrors ( 1998 : 99-107 ) . an exile community as struggling to decide the role of How Are the Mighty Fallen ?
... . Linville gets at something similar when he queries whether ' Imagined Israel ' is a map , a mask , or a house of mirrors ( 1998 : 99-107 ) . an exile community as struggling to decide the role of How Are the Mighty Fallen ?
Page 9
... Israel's experience with kings.11 My reading of Saul , then , counts on the sense that the text is not reporting accurately on an early figure but draw- ing a lone figure into which to distill communal experience — not so easy a thing ...
... Israel's experience with kings.11 My reading of Saul , then , counts on the sense that the text is not reporting accurately on an early figure but draw- ing a lone figure into which to distill communal experience — not so easy a thing ...
Page 11
... Israel and operative in Israel for many generations ( 1996 : 329-37 ) ; that DH held it fundamentally wrong seems most unlikely . But my sense of the DH assessment of royal leadership from the exile is that it went fundamentally wrong ...
... Israel and operative in Israel for many generations ( 1996 : 329-37 ) ; that DH held it fundamentally wrong seems most unlikely . But my sense of the DH assessment of royal leadership from the exile is that it went fundamentally wrong ...
Page 12
... Israel's transformation into its exilic self , the notion that the bond with YHWH persists even in the failure of exile ( Linville 1998 : 251 ) . On the other hand , that some kings did well slows us from presuming that DH is wholly ...
... Israel's transformation into its exilic self , the notion that the bond with YHWH persists even in the failure of exile ( Linville 1998 : 251 ) . On the other hand , that some kings did well slows us from presuming that DH is wholly ...
Contents
1 | |
55 | |
CHRONOTOPIC REPRESENTATION OF THE ARK 1 SAMUEL 47 | 116 |
THE AUTHORING OF A KING AND A HERO 1 SAMUEL 812 | 163 |
THE FIRING OF KING SAUL 1 SAMUEL 1315 | 223 |
SAULS DISCOURSES OF DESIRE 1 SAMUEL 1619 | 262 |
PURSUIT AND ESCAPE SURPLUS AND SURVIVAL 1 SAMUEL 2023 | 323 |
LOOPHOLE LANGUAGE AND THE STALKING OF SAUL 1 SAMUEL 2426 | 367 |
THE DEATH OF KING SAUL AND THE ARCHITECTONICS OF HIS CHARACTERIZATION 1 SAMUEL 272 SAMUEL 1 | 411 |
CONCLUSION | 447 |
Bibliography | 468 |
Index of References | 481 |
Index of Authors | 490 |
Other editions - View all
How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel Barbara Green Limited preview - 2003 |
How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel Barbara Green Limited preview - 2003 |
How Are the Mighty Fallen?: A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel Barbara Green No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Abishai Achish Ahimelech Amalek Amalekite anointed answer asked authoring Bakhtin battle Beth Shemesh biblical text bring Chapter characterizes choice chronotope Clark and Holquist clear communication construction context death deed deity Deuteronomistic History dialogism direct discourse discussion divine drawing dynastic Edelman Elides Elqanah ephod episode exile fact father Fokkelman 1986 genre Gibeah God's Hannah hear hero Hophni and Phinehas human insight Israel Israelites Jabesh Jehoiachin Jobling Jonathan Keilah king king's kingship Kiriath-jearim language least linked loophole māšāl matter McCarter Michal Mikhail Bakhtin Miscall monarchy Morson and Emerson moves Nabal narrative narrator narrator's offered Peninnah perhaps Philistines polyphonic Polzin position possible present priest problem prophet question readers reading relation relationship response role royal Samuel Saul's scene scholars seems sense Shiloh simply sons speak specifically speech spirit story struggle suggests talk thing tion utterance words YHWH YHWH's