Chapter Two. A Rhetorical-Critical Approach To The Problem

Abstract

This chapter undertakes a rhetorical-critical analysis of the Hezekiah-Sennacherib narrative. The first task of this rhetorical analysis is a structural analysis which delineates the limits of the Hezekiah narratives. It employs various rhetorical-critical methods in an attempt to delimit the textual boundaries and discern the structure(s) of the Hezekiah macro-narrative in 2 Kings. The analyses of the structure of the Hezekiah-macro narrative demonstrate how the narrative is organized and ordered in various ways. Detailed analysis of the Hezekiah-Sennacherib narrative reveals: syntactical integrity of the pericope, discernable units within the narrative linked to temporal progression, symmetry in spatial structure, coherent scene progression, and a plot structure perhaps based on a type-scene. The rhetorical analysis has ramifications for a source-critical analysis of the Hezekiah-Sennacherib narrative. The critique of the Stade-Childs hypothesis left us with little solid ground to support these source-critical conclusions.Keywords: Hezekiah macro-narrative; Hezekiah-Sennacherib narrative; rhetorical-critical analysis; Stade-Childs hypothesis