An Education in Prayer: Historical Recital in Second Temple Judaism Restricted; Files Only
Buster, Aubrey (Fall 2018)
Abstract
This dissertation examines the role of historical recital in post-exilic Judean texts in the Hebrew Bible and Dead Sea scrolls as a strategy of creating, confirming, and transmitting a shared functional memory. Using theoretical tools and paradigms drawn from the study of cultural and social memory, it analyses poetic recitals of Israel’s history in Psalms, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Chapter 1 outlines the paradigms of cultural memory and historical poetics and introduces a functional distinction between the extended histories of Israel as memory and the role of abbreviated performed master narratives. Chapter 2 examines the historical psalms as a resource for functional memory, while chapters 3-4 examine the role of this functional memory in communal ceremonies represented within narrative texts in 1 Chron 16:8-36 and Neh 9:5b-37 respectively. Both of these performances of poetic recitals within narratives highlight their function as public texts designed to create or reinforce a basic functional memory among the populace. Chapters 4 and 5 shift from the biblical literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls in order to examine a new type of evidence for the development of the social practice of historical recital in Second Temple Judaism. The scrolls found at Qumran provide manuscript evidence for the role of historical recital and the description of the ideal participant in this recitation as well as formal and text-critical markers of communal engagement. Finally, chapter 5 analyses 4QDibre Hameʿorot, an extended historical recital from Qumran that not only provides further evidence for the practice of reciting history and its development, but also demonstrates how the practice of reciting history itself becomes a mark of communal identity.
This dissertation demonstrates how models adapted from cultural and social memory studies illuminate the communal function of biblical and post-biblical recitals of history. It seeks to both refine the application of models drawn from memory studies to ancient texts and to demonstrate the development of Judah’s speech about their past across the Second Temple period. Therefore, in addition to contributing insights into how the practice of reciting history developed over the course of the Second Temple period, this research also demonstrates how the study of ancient texts contributes to ongoing conversations about the formation of social memory.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: THE PRAYING OF HISTORY IN SECOND TEMPLE JUDAISM ... 1
Overview of Interpretation of Historical Recital in Ancient Israel 4
Cultural Memory and Historical Poetics 13
Historical Poetics 22
Hebrew Bible and Israel’s Functional Memory 30
Scope of the Dissertation 31
Terminology 33
Overview of Chapters 35
CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL PSALMS AS CULTURAL MEMORY……………………….39
Introduction 39
Recent Scholarship on Historical Psalms 43
Historical Psalms as Cultural Memory and Social Strategy 47
Psalm 78: The Sense of Ephraim’s Ending 51
Excursus: The Destruction of Shiloh and the Constitution of a Historical Symbol 75
Psalm 105 78
Excursus: The Cloud as a Covering 95
Psalm 106 97
Psalms 135 and 136 111
Conclusion 127
CHAPTER 3: 1 CHRONICLES 16:8–36: PSALMS AS SOCIAL STRATEGY…………….132
Introduction 132
Chronicles and/as Social Memory 134
Outline of Chapter 140
Psalms as Public Texts in Chronicles 141
Historical Knowledge Network in Chronicles 149
1 Chronicles 16:8–36 as Social Strategy 165
Social Strategy and Cultural Literacy 170
Conclusion 175
CHAPTER 4: PRAYING IN THE WILDERNESS (NEH 9:5B–37)……………………….. 177
Introduction 177
Critical Issues 178
Memory in/as Literature 186
Memory’s “Participatory Structure” 189
Nehemiah 8–9, the Festival of Booths, and the Education of the People 198
Excursus: Festival of Booths in Neh 8:13–18 199
Excursus: Cultural Memory, Possessed or Created? 206
Constructing a Community in the Wilderness 207
Excursus: Solomon’s Temple Prayer as an Inspiration for Neh 9:5b–37? 213
Conclusion: History, Participation, and Genre in Neh 9 231
CHAPTER 5: THE RECITAL OF HISTORY IN THE QUMRAN PSALMS SCROLLS….. 234
Introduction 234
Material Features of Psalmody at Qumran 237
Historical Psalms at Qumran 246
Critical Issues in 11QPsa 247
Liturgy as Dicourse 257
Historical Psalms in 11QPsa 261
Signs of Oral-Written Variation 291
Conclusion 294
CHAPTER 6: 4QDIBRE HAMEʿOROT (4Q504–506): HISTORY AS LITURGY…………. 297
Introduction 297
Introduction to the Text 301
History as a Source of Paradigms 305
Adam in Dibre Hameʿorot 308
Wilderness as Site of Education 319
Moses as Paradigm 336
Historical Discourse 347
Conclusion 353
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….. 355
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………….. 360
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