Browsing by Author "Giffone, Benjamin D."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    From time-bound to timeless : the rhetoric of lamentations and its appropriation
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) Giffone, Benjamin D.; Jonker, Louis C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study postulates a unifying rhetorical function for the book of Lamentations during the Persian period. After the destruction of the temple in 587 BCE, the people of Judah were geographically scattered and religiously and culturally fragmented. Lamentations, with its ahistorical, timeless character, its acrostic form, its posture of protest, and its totalizing references to all the different classes and groups of Judahites, became a rallying point for Jews seeking restoration after the exile, as well as a perpetual reflection on YHWH’s role in human suffering for oppressed Jews in many places and at many times through history. The historical component of this study seeks to establish the fragmentation of Judah and the goals of the various Judahite groups during the Persian period. The literary component attempts to demonstrate Lamentations’ suitability as a portable, timeless expression of suffering before YHWH, and as a source of imagery and motivation for Jewish restoration hopes. This study contributes to the understanding of the formation of Jewish identity, which since the destruction of the first temple has been shaped by minority status in nearly every cultural context, and by the evolution of a portable, textual religion. This study concludes that the preservation of the book of Lamentations was both a reflection of and a contribution to these two aspects of Jewish identity. This study also contributes to the interpretation of Lamentations—and the genre of communal lament—as literature and liturgy. It also explores the possibility of literary connections between Lamentations, Isaiah 40-55, and the genre of penitential prayers.
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    The (ir)relevance of biblical scholarship? : a challenge, and an opportunity
    (Department of Old and New Testament, Stellenbosch University, 2021-10-28) Giffone, Benjamin D.
    Has biblical scholarship become irrelevant to modern secular societies? Are the threats to the viability of biblical scholarship of the same nature as the threats to other areas of the humanities (history, philosophy, literature), or is there a qualitative difference? What about the role of technology in biblical research and biblical education? What is the future of the institutions of biblical scholarship such as universities, seminaries, journals, and academic presses? What is the role of biblical scholars in secular and post-secular societies, as contrasted with scholars in/from emerging communities? This essay argues that the problem of “validation” lies at the heart of biblical scholarship’s irrelevancy within the broader secularity of modern world and that this problem is even more evident in the scholarly discourse coming from regions like Eastern Europe and South Africa. However, the loss of authority of biblical scholarship more generally represents an opportunity for these communities. Rather than becoming enamoured of validation from the North Atlantic world, Bible-reading communities must cultivate their own forms of validation based in their unique histories with the Bible, and the affinities between their own histories/cultures and the cultures that produced the Old and New Testament texts.
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    Israel's only son? the complexity of Benjaminite identity between Judah and Joseph
    (Old Testament Society of South Africa, 2019) Giffone, Benjamin D.
    Several studies in recent years have sought to articulate the significance of the tribe of Benjamin for historical and literary studies of the Hebrew Bible. This paper suggests that the received text of Genesis 35-50 both reflects and illumines the complexities of Israelite identity in the pre-exilic, Babylonian, and Persian periods. The fact that Benjamin is the only son born to "Israel" (other sons are born to "Jacob") points to Israel's origins in the land that came to be called "Benjaminite." Between Josephites to the north and Judahites to the south, Benjaminites preserved a unique identity within the polities of Israel, Judah, Babylonian Yehud, and Persian Yehud. In Genesis 35 and 42-45 in particular, the silent character Benjamin finds himself in the middle of a tug-of-war between his brothers, particularly his full-brother Joseph and his half-brother Judah. The conciliatory message of the narrative of Genesis 35-50 for later communities comes into sharper focus when we see the compromise between tribal identities embedded in the text.
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    Sit at my right hand : the Chronicler’s portrait of the tribe of Benjamin in the social context of Yehud
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Giffone, Benjamin D.; Jonker, Louis C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The book of Chronicles is a form of consensus-building literature. The Chronicler’s portrayal of Benjamin in relation to Judah reflects an inclusive vision of “all Israel” that walks a fine line: simultaneously valuing Benjamin as an equal partner with Judah (as his “right hand”), yet still protecting the primacy of David as YHWH’s chosen ruler, the Levites as the priestly tribe, and Jerusalem as the proper cultic center. Chronicles’ portrait of Benjamin differs from that of the Deuteronomistic History, which portrays Benjamin’s relation to Judah as varied and complex. The Chronicler attempts to smooth over these difficulties by highlighting the historically close relationship between the two tribes. In this regard his goals and strategy differ from that of the Deuteronomist, who presents both the high and low points of Judah-Benjamin relations. The Chronicler’s reconstrual of the Judah-Benjamin relationship reflects the socio-political situation of late Persian Yehud, in which the relatively poor Jerusalem cult struggled to gain material support from landed nobility in the region. Material evidence indicates that the historically Benjaminite regions prospered during the Neo-Babylonian and early Persian periods. The Jerusalem cult competed with historically Benjaminite and Josephite cultic locations for the support of wealthier Benjaminite landowners. The Chronicler rewrote Israel’s narrative partly in order to garner Benjaminite support for the Jerusalem cult. This study attempts to synthesize both literary and historical observations: demonstrating a literary phenomenon—the divergent portraits of Benjamin in the Deuteronomistic History and Chronicles—and situating that phenomenon within the historical context of Persian Yehud. The study contributes to the understanding of Yehud during this period, elaborates an important motif in these two sections of the Hebrew Bible, and furthers the investigation of the so-called “Benjaminite substratum” in the Hebrew Bible.