Creation conjures emotion and thereby shapes how we think and act. People fear snakes and enclose... more Creation conjures emotion and thereby shapes how we think and act. People fear snakes and enclosed spaces, and delight in well-watered landscapes. Language about nature evokes these emotional meanings and their consequences. We may construe nature as a mother to enhance love of creation and motivate care for our common home. Mother nature becomes a caregiving source of life rather than an inert resource. Alternatively, we may focus on the dangers or uselessness of a swamp so that we may drain it and plant crops. Creation and the ways we speak about it reflect and shape emotion and influence behavior.
Every reference to the natural word in biblical literature involves some emotional resonance. Any animal might have intruded into the paradise of Eden, but the biblical narrative gives this role to a snake. The serpent elicits ominous foreboding because snakes evoke fear and fascination. Isaiah amplifies the joy of Israel's restoration by depicting deserts transforming into fertile fields and creation itself rejoicing. Biblical authors draw on human emotional responsiveness to creation to express and elicit emotions.
David A. Bosworth analyzes how biblical texts use creation to conjure emotion. He draws on the science of emotion, including research on human emotional responsiveness to nature. Ancient texts correlate with contemporary research on how human environments shape emotion and behavior. The chapters unfold how specific emotions emerge from biblical references to aspects of creation.
David A. Bosworth draws on scientific research on weeping to understand references to a petitione... more David A. Bosworth draws on scientific research on weeping to understand references to a petitioner’s tears in biblical and other ancient Near Eastern prayers. Drawing from Hebrew and Akkadian texts, Bosworth illustrates how weeping reflects helplessness and being overwhelmed with emotion as well as how tears often motivate others to help. Because people turn to prayer at times of extreme distress, weeping and prayer may reinforce one another as strategies to move the deity to offer assistance. For example, when prayers that mention weeping assume that the deity is angry, tears function as part of calming divine wrath. Bosworth’s substantive engagement with the sciences demonstrates how scientific scholarship can enhance humanities research and vice versa.
--A theory of prayer drawn from scientific studies of emotion regulation --Corpus-based research that permits analysis of the distribution of the weeping motif in diverse genres --Substantive comparisons between biblical and Mesopotamian prayers without treating either as secondary or collapsing their differences
Those who have spent time within earshot of a crying baby know the stress this sound can induce. ... more Those who have spent time within earshot of a crying baby know the stress this sound can induce. Considerable scientific research has been devoted to the causes and consequences of infant crying because it is a public health concern implicated in parental frustration and infant abuse. Infant Weeping seeks to draw on the extensive research on infant crying in order to understand better the motif of infant weeping in ancient literature. The present book contributes to the growing interest in correlating scientific and humanities scholarship.
Scientific research can help bridge the cultural distance that separates modern readers from ancient texts. For example, the Akkadian incantations for soothing infants may appear to be strange magical texts from a foreign world (which they are), but they also reflect common human realities that have been part of the parent-infant relationship in all times and cultures. The incantations reflect and evoke emotions and responses familiar to anyone who has cared for a baby. Fuller understanding of the dynamics of the parent-child relationship can help us see commonalities across differences and make foreign texts more interesting and relevant.
David Bosworth draws on the natural sciences to develop a theory for analyzing infant weeping in literature. He then analyzes ancient Akkadian magical incantations for soothing crying babies as well as portions of the Babylonian Creation and Flood stories; in the Hebrew Bible, he explores two infant abandonment stories (Genesis 21 and Exodus 2) and the many parallels between them that have been overlooked; finally he examines a select corpus of Greek infant abandonment stories, including stories found in Herodotus, Sophocles, and Diodorus, among other authors. He ultimately places these textual corpuses in comparison with one another.
Biblical narrative employs various kinds of repetition and analogy, and this work concerns the sp... more Biblical narrative employs various kinds of repetition and analogy, and this work concerns the specific device called the mise-en-abyme. A mise-en-abyme is a device in which the part duplicates the whole, as in the play within the play in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Genesis 38, 1 Samuel 25, and 1 Kings 13 are examples of mise-en-abyme within the narratives in which they occur. The first chapter lays out the theory of the mise-en-abyme in some detail, and each of the following chapters argues that the biblical passages reduplicate the narratives in which they are embedded. Scholars have noted that each of these passages seems to be a distraction from the main story line in which they appear, but this is an expected feature os a mise-en-abyme. The conclusion correlates the biblical evidence with the wider theory of the mise-en-abyme.
THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apo... more THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apology has had unfortunate consequences for the reputation of King David. David has long been a controversial figure, and the interpretive tradition has generally been admiring. Modern scholarship, however, has taken a critical turn. The Enlightenment philosopher Pierre Bayle's article on David in Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697) concentrated on David's moral failures and challenged the traditional interpretation of David as a hero. In recent forms of this modern trend, David has been presented as a bloodthirsty tyrant or terrorist. In the present article I will review some recent scholarship on David in light of long-standing problems concerning his evaluation and suggest that the evaluation of David has less to do with David than with prior ideas about the nature of the biblical narrative. Both traditional and critical reconstructions of David have suffered from a selective reading of the text and have offered portraits of David that lack nuance and imagination. I. The Problem Biblical scholars in the twentieth century have characterized David in one of two seemingly contradictory ways. The traditional version characterizes David as a pious shepherd who rises to become the king of Israel. The critical version presents David as a cunning usurper who murders and schemes his way to a throne not rightfully his. The first characterization arises from a "naïve" or "straightforward" reading of the biblical text. The second arises from a "hermeneutic of
The present article seeks to re-present Karl Barth's exegesis of 1 Kings 13 with additional s... more The present article seeks to re-present Karl Barth's exegesis of 1 Kings 13 with additional support that Barth neglected to include. Changes in biblical scholarship over the past few decades have resulted in an environment in which Barth's interpretation may not be as readily rejected as it was in the past. Barth's exegesis of 1 Kings 13 was not accepted among biblical scholars for several reasons. He was thought to be an enemy of historical criticism whose exegetical work was not a serious contribution to biblical studies. Furthermore, he interpreted the chapter holistically at a time when scholars were preoccupied with analytical questions concerning sources and composition. Barth related the chapter to the whole history of the divided kingdom by suggesting that the man of God and the old prophet represent the kingdoms from which they come and that the relationship between the two prophetic figures mirrors the relationship between Israel and Judah as told in Kings. Thi...
Are all warriors who have killed somehow polluted and prevented from an intimate relationship wit... more Are all warriors who have killed somehow polluted and prevented from an intimate relationship with God? This essay seeks to answer this question both affirmatively and negatively by correlating biblical literature, psychology, and the experience of veterans. Although killing in war defiles soldiers with bloodguilt and mars their relationship with the divine and with humans, ritual acts of purification in conjunction with appropriate psychological and pastoral care may cleanse this bloodguilt and restore relationships.
Scenes involving weeping in biblical and Homeric literature can be correlated with each other an... more Scenes involving weeping in biblical and Homeric literature can be correlated with each other and with modem scientific studies of weeping. Seen through the lens of attachment theory, weeping expresses a need for relationship and caregiving arising from pain or sorrow. But so-called tears of joy shed at moments of emotional reunion appear at first not to fit with this understanding. On closer examination, however, moments o f reunion involve emotional memories of loss, grief, and helplessness. Consequently, tears shed at reunions appear consistent with an attachment-theoretical perspective on weeping. The present article applies this modem scientific understanding of tears of reunion to an analysis o f the motif o f weeping as deployed in recognition scenes in Genesis and the Odyssey. The two literatures show striking correspondences in their use o f the motif o f weeping in scenes o f recognition that tend to confirm an attachment-theoretical perspective on weeping and its utility in textual analysis. Indeed, the Homeric literature often explicitly identifies the emotional pain present in recognition scenes. The two corpora also evince significant and illuminating differences, particularly in the level o f narrative detail and emotional language.
This article examines the image of deities in Hebrew and Akkadian prayers through the lens of att... more This article examines the image of deities in Hebrew and Akkadian prayers through the lens of attachment theory. Attachment theory describes how infants form attachments with their caregivers, and how caregivers form reciprocal bonds to their children. Children form mental representations of their “attachment figures” or caregivers that help them develop a sense of self, others, and relationship that persists into adulthood. Research in the psychology of religion indicates that believers often understand the deity they worship as an attachment figure. This essay draws on this research and extends it to investigate ancient Hebrew and Akkadian prayers to determine how extensively these texts reflect the image of deity as an attachment figure. This analysis permits an enhanced understanding of deities as parent-like figures that is not limited to texts that explicitly use parental imagery of the deity. It also grounds the study of ancient prayer texts in a well-developed modern theory that can inform further research.
The instances of weeping in the book of Jeremiah are so vivid that Jeremiah is known as “the weep... more The instances of weeping in the book of Jeremiah are so vivid that Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet,” but God weeps more frequently in the book. However, many commentators displace this weeping onto Jeremiah rather than God. The paper examines the divine weeping in Jeremiah and its function in the context of the book.
Scientists have developed a significant body of empirical research and theoretical constructs tha... more Scientists have developed a significant body of empirical research and theoretical constructs that can significantly inform the study of lament. Briefly stated, researchers find that people share their emotional experiences with others and that this sharing facilitates reformulating shattered beleif systems, engaging empathy, activating help, shaping common memories, and thereby restoring relationships. Lament may be understood as a form of emotional sharing for the purpose of recreating community. This sharing of emotions, however, does not have the "cathartic" effect normally attributed to it. In other words, the emotional burden of an experience is not alleviated by recollecting and narrating it. Even decades after a painful experience, sufferers recounting their experience typicaly reexperience the intense emotions involved with the memory. People communicate their emotional experiences not for the sake of any "catharsis," but for the benefits that acrue from emotional sharing. However, most scholars and laypersons continue to operate with a Freudian model of catharsis that has been discredited by a range of studies. As a result, the function and value of lament has been misunderstood.
The motif of weeping in the Psalter has not been a subject of previous study. Scientific study of... more The motif of weeping in the Psalter has not been a subject of previous study. Scientific study of weeping indicates that crying is a behavior motivated by the need for relationship and care-giving and that tears generate powerful reactions in those who witness them. In the Psalms, speakers draw on the powerful non-verbal eloquence of weeping by mentioning their tears in the contexts of their prayers in order to motivate God to help. This article describes how the motif of weeping functions in the Psalms and analyzes its distribution in the Psalter.
In press: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Weeping is a powerful non-verbal behavior by which people signal their pain and distress, and com... more Weeping is a powerful non-verbal behavior by which people signal their pain and distress, and communicate a need for comfort and assistance. The book of Lamentations verbalizes the phenomenon of weeping to describe the tears of ‘daughter Zion’ and the empathetic tears of the narrator who addresses her in chap. 2. Thus, the eloquence and power of the poetry is augmented by verbal descriptions of a non-verbal behavior. In Lamentations 1–2, the motif of weeping is inextricably bound up with the personification of Zion as both a daughter and as the mother of the people. This article examines the personification of Jerusalem and its functions within the poetry in order to understand the expression ‘daughter Zion’ and how ‘daughter Zion’ heightens the emotional impact of the poetry and becomes a source of comfort in the midst of deep despair. As a daughter, Zion stands in solidarity with the suffering children of Lamentations, and as the mother of the community, she intercedes on their behalf and weeps for her suffering and missing children. All the instances of weeping occur with reference to the death of children.
David’s enthusiasm for killing “this uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Sam 17:26, 36) contrasts with J... more David’s enthusiasm for killing “this uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Sam 17:26, 36) contrasts with Jether’s refusal to kill Zebah and Zalmunah (Judg 8:20). David’s victory over Goliath lives in cultural memory as a famous victory of youth over experience and weakness over strength. Jether’s reluctance to kill is almost entirely forgotten. The widespread celebration of the youthful David’s heroics overlooks aspects of the text that characterize David negatively. The present essay will contrast David and Jether and correlate their narratives with information about child soldiers in ancient Israel and the modern world.
THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apo... more THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apology has had unfortunate consequences for the reputation of King David. David has long been a controversial figure, and the interpretive tradition has generally been admiring. Modern scholarship, however, has taken a critical turn. The Enlightenment philosopher Pierre Bayle's article on David in Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697) concentrated on David's moral failures and challenged the traditional interpretation of David as a hero. In recent forms of this modern trend, David has been presented as a bloodthirsty tyrant or terrorist.
Creation conjures emotion and thereby shapes how we think and act. People fear snakes and enclose... more Creation conjures emotion and thereby shapes how we think and act. People fear snakes and enclosed spaces, and delight in well-watered landscapes. Language about nature evokes these emotional meanings and their consequences. We may construe nature as a mother to enhance love of creation and motivate care for our common home. Mother nature becomes a caregiving source of life rather than an inert resource. Alternatively, we may focus on the dangers or uselessness of a swamp so that we may drain it and plant crops. Creation and the ways we speak about it reflect and shape emotion and influence behavior.
Every reference to the natural word in biblical literature involves some emotional resonance. Any animal might have intruded into the paradise of Eden, but the biblical narrative gives this role to a snake. The serpent elicits ominous foreboding because snakes evoke fear and fascination. Isaiah amplifies the joy of Israel's restoration by depicting deserts transforming into fertile fields and creation itself rejoicing. Biblical authors draw on human emotional responsiveness to creation to express and elicit emotions.
David A. Bosworth analyzes how biblical texts use creation to conjure emotion. He draws on the science of emotion, including research on human emotional responsiveness to nature. Ancient texts correlate with contemporary research on how human environments shape emotion and behavior. The chapters unfold how specific emotions emerge from biblical references to aspects of creation.
David A. Bosworth draws on scientific research on weeping to understand references to a petitione... more David A. Bosworth draws on scientific research on weeping to understand references to a petitioner’s tears in biblical and other ancient Near Eastern prayers. Drawing from Hebrew and Akkadian texts, Bosworth illustrates how weeping reflects helplessness and being overwhelmed with emotion as well as how tears often motivate others to help. Because people turn to prayer at times of extreme distress, weeping and prayer may reinforce one another as strategies to move the deity to offer assistance. For example, when prayers that mention weeping assume that the deity is angry, tears function as part of calming divine wrath. Bosworth’s substantive engagement with the sciences demonstrates how scientific scholarship can enhance humanities research and vice versa.
--A theory of prayer drawn from scientific studies of emotion regulation --Corpus-based research that permits analysis of the distribution of the weeping motif in diverse genres --Substantive comparisons between biblical and Mesopotamian prayers without treating either as secondary or collapsing their differences
Those who have spent time within earshot of a crying baby know the stress this sound can induce. ... more Those who have spent time within earshot of a crying baby know the stress this sound can induce. Considerable scientific research has been devoted to the causes and consequences of infant crying because it is a public health concern implicated in parental frustration and infant abuse. Infant Weeping seeks to draw on the extensive research on infant crying in order to understand better the motif of infant weeping in ancient literature. The present book contributes to the growing interest in correlating scientific and humanities scholarship.
Scientific research can help bridge the cultural distance that separates modern readers from ancient texts. For example, the Akkadian incantations for soothing infants may appear to be strange magical texts from a foreign world (which they are), but they also reflect common human realities that have been part of the parent-infant relationship in all times and cultures. The incantations reflect and evoke emotions and responses familiar to anyone who has cared for a baby. Fuller understanding of the dynamics of the parent-child relationship can help us see commonalities across differences and make foreign texts more interesting and relevant.
David Bosworth draws on the natural sciences to develop a theory for analyzing infant weeping in literature. He then analyzes ancient Akkadian magical incantations for soothing crying babies as well as portions of the Babylonian Creation and Flood stories; in the Hebrew Bible, he explores two infant abandonment stories (Genesis 21 and Exodus 2) and the many parallels between them that have been overlooked; finally he examines a select corpus of Greek infant abandonment stories, including stories found in Herodotus, Sophocles, and Diodorus, among other authors. He ultimately places these textual corpuses in comparison with one another.
Biblical narrative employs various kinds of repetition and analogy, and this work concerns the sp... more Biblical narrative employs various kinds of repetition and analogy, and this work concerns the specific device called the mise-en-abyme. A mise-en-abyme is a device in which the part duplicates the whole, as in the play within the play in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Genesis 38, 1 Samuel 25, and 1 Kings 13 are examples of mise-en-abyme within the narratives in which they occur. The first chapter lays out the theory of the mise-en-abyme in some detail, and each of the following chapters argues that the biblical passages reduplicate the narratives in which they are embedded. Scholars have noted that each of these passages seems to be a distraction from the main story line in which they appear, but this is an expected feature os a mise-en-abyme. The conclusion correlates the biblical evidence with the wider theory of the mise-en-abyme.
THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apo... more THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apology has had unfortunate consequences for the reputation of King David. David has long been a controversial figure, and the interpretive tradition has generally been admiring. Modern scholarship, however, has taken a critical turn. The Enlightenment philosopher Pierre Bayle's article on David in Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697) concentrated on David's moral failures and challenged the traditional interpretation of David as a hero. In recent forms of this modern trend, David has been presented as a bloodthirsty tyrant or terrorist. In the present article I will review some recent scholarship on David in light of long-standing problems concerning his evaluation and suggest that the evaluation of David has less to do with David than with prior ideas about the nature of the biblical narrative. Both traditional and critical reconstructions of David have suffered from a selective reading of the text and have offered portraits of David that lack nuance and imagination. I. The Problem Biblical scholars in the twentieth century have characterized David in one of two seemingly contradictory ways. The traditional version characterizes David as a pious shepherd who rises to become the king of Israel. The critical version presents David as a cunning usurper who murders and schemes his way to a throne not rightfully his. The first characterization arises from a "naïve" or "straightforward" reading of the biblical text. The second arises from a "hermeneutic of
The present article seeks to re-present Karl Barth's exegesis of 1 Kings 13 with additional s... more The present article seeks to re-present Karl Barth's exegesis of 1 Kings 13 with additional support that Barth neglected to include. Changes in biblical scholarship over the past few decades have resulted in an environment in which Barth's interpretation may not be as readily rejected as it was in the past. Barth's exegesis of 1 Kings 13 was not accepted among biblical scholars for several reasons. He was thought to be an enemy of historical criticism whose exegetical work was not a serious contribution to biblical studies. Furthermore, he interpreted the chapter holistically at a time when scholars were preoccupied with analytical questions concerning sources and composition. Barth related the chapter to the whole history of the divided kingdom by suggesting that the man of God and the old prophet represent the kingdoms from which they come and that the relationship between the two prophetic figures mirrors the relationship between Israel and Judah as told in Kings. Thi...
Are all warriors who have killed somehow polluted and prevented from an intimate relationship wit... more Are all warriors who have killed somehow polluted and prevented from an intimate relationship with God? This essay seeks to answer this question both affirmatively and negatively by correlating biblical literature, psychology, and the experience of veterans. Although killing in war defiles soldiers with bloodguilt and mars their relationship with the divine and with humans, ritual acts of purification in conjunction with appropriate psychological and pastoral care may cleanse this bloodguilt and restore relationships.
Scenes involving weeping in biblical and Homeric literature can be correlated with each other an... more Scenes involving weeping in biblical and Homeric literature can be correlated with each other and with modem scientific studies of weeping. Seen through the lens of attachment theory, weeping expresses a need for relationship and caregiving arising from pain or sorrow. But so-called tears of joy shed at moments of emotional reunion appear at first not to fit with this understanding. On closer examination, however, moments o f reunion involve emotional memories of loss, grief, and helplessness. Consequently, tears shed at reunions appear consistent with an attachment-theoretical perspective on weeping. The present article applies this modem scientific understanding of tears of reunion to an analysis o f the motif o f weeping as deployed in recognition scenes in Genesis and the Odyssey. The two literatures show striking correspondences in their use o f the motif o f weeping in scenes o f recognition that tend to confirm an attachment-theoretical perspective on weeping and its utility in textual analysis. Indeed, the Homeric literature often explicitly identifies the emotional pain present in recognition scenes. The two corpora also evince significant and illuminating differences, particularly in the level o f narrative detail and emotional language.
This article examines the image of deities in Hebrew and Akkadian prayers through the lens of att... more This article examines the image of deities in Hebrew and Akkadian prayers through the lens of attachment theory. Attachment theory describes how infants form attachments with their caregivers, and how caregivers form reciprocal bonds to their children. Children form mental representations of their “attachment figures” or caregivers that help them develop a sense of self, others, and relationship that persists into adulthood. Research in the psychology of religion indicates that believers often understand the deity they worship as an attachment figure. This essay draws on this research and extends it to investigate ancient Hebrew and Akkadian prayers to determine how extensively these texts reflect the image of deity as an attachment figure. This analysis permits an enhanced understanding of deities as parent-like figures that is not limited to texts that explicitly use parental imagery of the deity. It also grounds the study of ancient prayer texts in a well-developed modern theory that can inform further research.
The instances of weeping in the book of Jeremiah are so vivid that Jeremiah is known as “the weep... more The instances of weeping in the book of Jeremiah are so vivid that Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet,” but God weeps more frequently in the book. However, many commentators displace this weeping onto Jeremiah rather than God. The paper examines the divine weeping in Jeremiah and its function in the context of the book.
Scientists have developed a significant body of empirical research and theoretical constructs tha... more Scientists have developed a significant body of empirical research and theoretical constructs that can significantly inform the study of lament. Briefly stated, researchers find that people share their emotional experiences with others and that this sharing facilitates reformulating shattered beleif systems, engaging empathy, activating help, shaping common memories, and thereby restoring relationships. Lament may be understood as a form of emotional sharing for the purpose of recreating community. This sharing of emotions, however, does not have the "cathartic" effect normally attributed to it. In other words, the emotional burden of an experience is not alleviated by recollecting and narrating it. Even decades after a painful experience, sufferers recounting their experience typicaly reexperience the intense emotions involved with the memory. People communicate their emotional experiences not for the sake of any "catharsis," but for the benefits that acrue from emotional sharing. However, most scholars and laypersons continue to operate with a Freudian model of catharsis that has been discredited by a range of studies. As a result, the function and value of lament has been misunderstood.
The motif of weeping in the Psalter has not been a subject of previous study. Scientific study of... more The motif of weeping in the Psalter has not been a subject of previous study. Scientific study of weeping indicates that crying is a behavior motivated by the need for relationship and care-giving and that tears generate powerful reactions in those who witness them. In the Psalms, speakers draw on the powerful non-verbal eloquence of weeping by mentioning their tears in the contexts of their prayers in order to motivate God to help. This article describes how the motif of weeping functions in the Psalms and analyzes its distribution in the Psalter.
In press: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
Weeping is a powerful non-verbal behavior by which people signal their pain and distress, and com... more Weeping is a powerful non-verbal behavior by which people signal their pain and distress, and communicate a need for comfort and assistance. The book of Lamentations verbalizes the phenomenon of weeping to describe the tears of ‘daughter Zion’ and the empathetic tears of the narrator who addresses her in chap. 2. Thus, the eloquence and power of the poetry is augmented by verbal descriptions of a non-verbal behavior. In Lamentations 1–2, the motif of weeping is inextricably bound up with the personification of Zion as both a daughter and as the mother of the people. This article examines the personification of Jerusalem and its functions within the poetry in order to understand the expression ‘daughter Zion’ and how ‘daughter Zion’ heightens the emotional impact of the poetry and becomes a source of comfort in the midst of deep despair. As a daughter, Zion stands in solidarity with the suffering children of Lamentations, and as the mother of the community, she intercedes on their behalf and weeps for her suffering and missing children. All the instances of weeping occur with reference to the death of children.
David’s enthusiasm for killing “this uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Sam 17:26, 36) contrasts with J... more David’s enthusiasm for killing “this uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Sam 17:26, 36) contrasts with Jether’s refusal to kill Zebah and Zalmunah (Judg 8:20). David’s victory over Goliath lives in cultural memory as a famous victory of youth over experience and weakness over strength. Jether’s reluctance to kill is almost entirely forgotten. The widespread celebration of the youthful David’s heroics overlooks aspects of the text that characterize David negatively. The present essay will contrast David and Jether and correlate their narratives with information about child soldiers in ancient Israel and the modern world.
THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apo... more THE TENDENCY TO CONSIDER the Books of Samuel as didactic literature, propaganda, ideology, or apology has had unfortunate consequences for the reputation of King David. David has long been a controversial figure, and the interpretive tradition has generally been admiring. Modern scholarship, however, has taken a critical turn. The Enlightenment philosopher Pierre Bayle's article on David in Dictionnaire historique et critique (1697) concentrated on David's moral failures and challenged the traditional interpretation of David as a hero. In recent forms of this modern trend, David has been presented as a bloodthirsty tyrant or terrorist.
This Excel spreadsheet collects and codes all the nominal references to the natural world in the ... more This Excel spreadsheet collects and codes all the nominal references to the natural world in the book of Isaiah.
The spreadsheet has multiple columns tracking multiple variables for analysis. The heading for ea... more The spreadsheet has multiple columns tracking multiple variables for analysis. The heading for each column begins with "a" so that these headings remain at the top of the spreadsheet even if it is reorganized according to another column. Below is a brief description of each column.
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Books by David Bosworth
Every reference to the natural word in biblical literature involves some emotional resonance. Any animal might have intruded into the paradise of Eden, but the biblical narrative gives this role to a snake. The serpent elicits ominous foreboding because snakes evoke fear and fascination. Isaiah amplifies the joy of Israel's restoration by depicting deserts transforming into fertile fields and creation itself rejoicing. Biblical authors draw on human emotional responsiveness to creation to express and elicit emotions.
David A. Bosworth analyzes how biblical texts use creation to conjure emotion. He draws on the science of emotion, including research on human emotional responsiveness to nature. Ancient texts correlate with contemporary research on how human environments shape emotion and behavior. The chapters unfold how specific emotions emerge from biblical references to aspects of creation.
--A theory of prayer drawn from scientific studies of emotion regulation
--Corpus-based research that permits analysis of the distribution of the weeping motif in diverse genres
--Substantive comparisons between biblical and Mesopotamian prayers without treating either as secondary or collapsing their differences
Scientific research can help bridge the cultural distance that separates modern readers from ancient texts. For example, the Akkadian incantations for soothing infants may appear to be strange magical texts from a foreign world (which they are), but they also reflect common human realities that have been part of the parent-infant relationship in all times and cultures. The incantations reflect and evoke emotions and responses familiar to anyone who has cared for a baby. Fuller understanding of the dynamics of the parent-child relationship can help us see commonalities across differences and make foreign texts more interesting and relevant.
David Bosworth draws on the natural sciences to develop a theory for analyzing infant weeping in literature. He then analyzes ancient Akkadian magical incantations for soothing crying babies as well as portions of the Babylonian Creation and Flood stories; in the Hebrew Bible, he explores two infant abandonment stories (Genesis 21 and Exodus 2) and the many parallels between them that have been overlooked; finally he examines a select corpus of Greek infant abandonment stories, including stories found in Herodotus, Sophocles, and Diodorus, among other authors. He ultimately places these textual corpuses in comparison with one another.
Papers by David Bosworth
Every reference to the natural word in biblical literature involves some emotional resonance. Any animal might have intruded into the paradise of Eden, but the biblical narrative gives this role to a snake. The serpent elicits ominous foreboding because snakes evoke fear and fascination. Isaiah amplifies the joy of Israel's restoration by depicting deserts transforming into fertile fields and creation itself rejoicing. Biblical authors draw on human emotional responsiveness to creation to express and elicit emotions.
David A. Bosworth analyzes how biblical texts use creation to conjure emotion. He draws on the science of emotion, including research on human emotional responsiveness to nature. Ancient texts correlate with contemporary research on how human environments shape emotion and behavior. The chapters unfold how specific emotions emerge from biblical references to aspects of creation.
--A theory of prayer drawn from scientific studies of emotion regulation
--Corpus-based research that permits analysis of the distribution of the weeping motif in diverse genres
--Substantive comparisons between biblical and Mesopotamian prayers without treating either as secondary or collapsing their differences
Scientific research can help bridge the cultural distance that separates modern readers from ancient texts. For example, the Akkadian incantations for soothing infants may appear to be strange magical texts from a foreign world (which they are), but they also reflect common human realities that have been part of the parent-infant relationship in all times and cultures. The incantations reflect and evoke emotions and responses familiar to anyone who has cared for a baby. Fuller understanding of the dynamics of the parent-child relationship can help us see commonalities across differences and make foreign texts more interesting and relevant.
David Bosworth draws on the natural sciences to develop a theory for analyzing infant weeping in literature. He then analyzes ancient Akkadian magical incantations for soothing crying babies as well as portions of the Babylonian Creation and Flood stories; in the Hebrew Bible, he explores two infant abandonment stories (Genesis 21 and Exodus 2) and the many parallels between them that have been overlooked; finally he examines a select corpus of Greek infant abandonment stories, including stories found in Herodotus, Sophocles, and Diodorus, among other authors. He ultimately places these textual corpuses in comparison with one another.