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The Signs of Jonah

Reading and Rereading in Ancient Yehud

Ehud Ben Zvi author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:1st Nov '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Signs of Jonah cover

In this new and refreshing approach to the story, Ben Zvi starts with the premise that Jonah, like most books, was written to be read. He therefore concentrates on intended and unintended readership(s) of Jonah and the network of messages that they were likely to derive through their reading and rereading. He starts with the historical and social matrix of the production and reading of the book in antiquity, analyzes its self-critical approach and its metaprophetic character as a comment on the genre of prophetic books and on prophets. How does the historical fact of Nineveh's destruction acually shape the reading? Or the perception of Jonah as a runaway slave?Ben Zvi demonstrates the malleability of interpretation of the Book of Jonah and its limitations, as attested in different communities of readers. He asks why certain messages are easily accepted by particular historical communities, whereas others are not raised at all.

"The strength of Ben Zvi's approach lies in the understanding of the ‘sea of multivocality' conveyed by the book of Jonah, wherein more than one reading is possible within the discourse of its intended and primary readerships. Through a careful study and a nuanced approach, Ben Zvi called our attention to a number of important issues, including especially how the story of Jonah allowed and encouraged it's readers and re-readers to understand the book from more than one perspective and in more than one way." - Kenneth M. Craig, Lees-McRae College, Review of Biblical Literature, July 2004 -- Kenneth M. Craig * Review of Biblical Literature *

ISBN: 9780567222930

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 282g

208 pages

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