Description
Book SynopsisSeeking to build upon recent scholarship based on Biblical women, Joseph McDonald uses a character-centered literary approach to read the story of Sarah as it was told and retold in the Second Temple period. McDonald offers an alternative to the usual approaches to rewritten Bible narratives, which often emphasize near-context, synoptic comparison of retold stories and their scriptural precursors, arguing that examination of retold narratives as narratives reveals important aspects of their internal literary effects, that may otherwise go unnoticed. Taken together, McDonald suggests that such readings reveal one of Sarah's trans-narrative or deep traits, as a curious, multi-faceted resemblance to the character of Abraham. The richness of her images, however, shows that this resemblance is not the ultimate distillation of Sarah, but a symptom of the kind of restriction that she consistently faces in this literature. McDonald concludes that creative readings of the narrativ
Trade ReviewM. provides a model for the investigation of the image of other biblical figures in later literature. * Journal for the Study of the Old Testament *
A unique contribution to the study of Sarah in the literature of MT, LXX, Genesis Apocryphon, and Josephus’s Antiquities. * Review of Biblical Literature *
Table of ContentsPreface Abbreviations Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Sarah in the Masoretic Text 3. Sarra in the Septuagint 4. Sarai in the Genesis Apocryphon 5. Sarra in Josephus 6. Conclusions, Contributions, and Prospects Bibliography
Index
