"He Kept the Measurements in His Memory as a Treasure": The Role of the Tabernacle Text in Religious Experience Open Access
Robertson, Amy Helen Cooper (2010)
Abstract
Abstract
"He Kept the Measurements in His Memory as a Treasure":
The Role of the Tabernacle Text in Religious Experience
By Amy H.C. Robertson
This study examines the literary idiosyncrasies of the biblical
description of the
tabernacle (Exod 25-31 and 35-40) using categories and insights
borrowed from ritual and
literary theory. It makes the case that the very features of
activity that cause anthropologists to
identify a particular activity as ritualized are not only present
in literary form in the tabernacle
text, but form the foundation of its character as literature.
Building upon this observation, it
considers the question of the reader experience supported by this
text, ultimately making the
case that the experience of an absorbed reader of this text can be
fruitfully compared to the
experience of an individual who participates in a ritual. Insights
about the effects of specific
features of ritualized activity on participants are applied, here,
to the profound repetition,
formalism, sensory appeal, and ambiguity in this literature.
Furthermore, because the tabernacle
text includes significant lacunae alongside its repetition and
formalism, the experience of reading
this text is ultimately compared to ritualized mandala
construction, whose texts evince a similar
juxtaposition of detail and gaps, and whose ritual is, primarily,
imaginative. In a final chapter
devoted to the communication of implicit messages through ritual,
in conversation with the field
of art history and religious philosophy, this study discusses
several messages that are suggested
by the literary form of the tabernacle text, but which are left
outside the realm of discourse. The
conclusion sketches the application of this methodology to
the
Temple Text.
"He Kept the Measurements in His Memory as a Treasure"
The Role of the Tabernacle Text in Religious Experience
By
Amy H.C. Robertson
B.A., Rice University, 1999
M.T.S, Harvard Divinity School, 2003
Advisor : David L. Petersen, Ph.D.
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the
James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the
Graduate Division of Religion, Hebrew Bible
2010
Table of Contents
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction: A Context for Engaging the Tabernacle Text 1
Responding to Literary "Strangeness" in the Canon 1
Introduction to Exodus 25-40 5
Delimiting the Tabernacle Text 8
Meaning Beyond Origin 9
Types of Content 10
Stories Peripheral to the Tabernacle Text 10
Information Peripheral to Tabernacle Construction 13
Tabernacle Texts Sometimes Identified as Secondary 14
Capturing the Academic Imagination 15
The Relationship Between Exod 25-31 and Exod 35-40 21
New Approaches to the Literature 25
Outline of the Present Study 29
Chapter 2: Form, Meaning, and Experience: A Theoretical Framework 32
Reading and Experience, Reading as Experience 35
Is All Reading Experiential? 37
"Meaning" and Experience in Ritual Performance 44
The Problem of Separating Medium and Referent in Ritual 48
The Unstable Nature of Symbols Over Time 48
The "Snapshot" Meaning of Symbols 51
Tying Form and Meaning: The Index 54
Ritual and Literature; Ritualized Literature 59
The Ritual Form: Characteristics of Ritual 60
Formalism 62
Formality in Text 65
Invariant Repetition 67
Repetition in Text 70
Repetition and the Perception of Time 70
Transcending the Bounds of Discursive Communication 71
Performance 73
Performative Aspects of Literature 74
Authenticity in Ritual Experiences 75
Authenticity in Reading Experiences 76
Ritualization and the Sum of the Parts 77
The Tabernacle Text and Difference 78
Temple Texts in the Ancient Near East 70
The Priestly Work: Narrative and Instruction 90
Concluding Question: Where Does Meaning Reside? 96
Chapter 3: Distant Literary Patterns: Formality, Familiarity, and the
Work of Orientation 100
Repetition 100
A Survey of Distant Repetition 102
Variation in Distant Repetition 107
Orality and Variation 111
Aid and Challenge in Recognizing Repetition 112
Aid, Challenge, and Reader Involvement 114
The Effects of Distant Repetition in this Text 118
Familiarity 118
Permanence and Control 119
Directionality and relationships 121
Formalism 122
The Order of Detail 122
Excursus: The Problem of the Incense Altar 125
Rules Surrounding the Accounts of Each Item 126
Punctuating Statements, Repetition, and Formalism 127
Punctuating Statements, Meaning, and Ambiguity 129
Conclusion: Constructing the Tabernacle in Meditatio135
Excursus: Revisiting the Problem of the Incense Altar 139
Chapter 4: Proximal Literary Patterns and the Process of Discovery 142
Proximal Patterns of Repetition 143
Illustrative Repetition 145
Centering Repetition 152
The Priority of Form 163
Mismatch of Form and Content 163
Framing the Reader Experience in Terms of Form 169
Repetition and Visual Experience 170
The Visual Experience and the Absence of Repetition 173
Another Discovery: Non-Visual Aspects of Reader Experience 179
Vision in Ezekiel and the Visual in Exodus 182
Conclusion: The Discovery of Images and Priorities 184
Chapter 5: Messages and Meanings 187
Meaning and Ekphrasis 188
Ekphrasis, Ritual, and Rhetoric 191
Four Messages 193
The Inherent Value of Divine Details 194
Divine Knowledge as an End in Itself 197
The Timelessness of Israel's Relationship with God 204
The Priesthood as an Extension of the Tabernacle Itself 206
The Work of Visualization and the Transformation of the Reader 211
Conclusion: Doings and Ambiguity 215
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Engaging Literature as a Living Tradition 218
Summary of the Present Study 220
Continuing the Conversation 228
Engaging New Texts: The Temple Scroll 229
Religious Studies 235
Conclusion: Envisioning Religion 237
Bibliography 240
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