Abstract
In recent decades several scholars have argued for the coherence of Judges 13–16 based on its multiple internal thematic and structural parallels. Yet previous generations of scholars considered Judges 13–16 to be a loose cycle of stories. Exploration of the narrative’s closural mechanisms suggests two primary reasons that the episodes strike readers as disconnected: powerful closural devices at the ends of some individual units, particularly evident in 15:17–20, and a relative lack of cohesive ties between units, especially with regard to consistently-portrayed supporting characters and references to Samson’s hair. Samson’s redactors chose to build elaborate webs of thematic and structural connections rather than make a few simple changes that would enhance readers’ perception of a continuous plot. One plausible reason is that the redactors prioritized structural unity—specifically, a large-scale if atypical ring composition—over a coherent plot, with verse 15:20 enhancing, not hindering, the reader’s sense of coherence.
Highlights
Long considered a series of “loosely connected and grossly editorialized traditions” about the hero Samson,[1] Judges 13–16 has been seen as increasingly unified in recent decades, with studies arguing for the coherence of its structure, theme, and even plot.[2]
The journal is archived by Library and Archives Canada and is accessible for consultation and research at the Electronic Collection site maintained by Library and Archives Canada
A 1974 essay by James Crenshaw extols the narrator’s skill at achieving a unified composition organized around a universal theme, “the conflict between filial devotion and erotic attachment.”[3]. Cheryl Exum’s series of articles published between 1980 and 1983 reveals structural and thematic webs connecting scene to scene, episode to episode, and cycle to cycle, many of them lifting up the theological message that despite his strength Samson is utterly dependent on the Lord for life and death.[4]
Summary
Long considered a series of “loosely connected and grossly editorialized traditions” about the hero Samson,[1] Judges 13–16 has been seen as increasingly unified in recent decades, with studies arguing for the coherence of its structure, theme, and even plot.[2]. 7. In this paper I describe how an imaginary reader of Samson might experience closure at the end of the narrative as well as at the end of each of its constituent units. I argue that if Judg 3:2–16:31a fails to strike the reader as a unified story, the reason lies with overlystrong literary devices closing its units, together with too-weak connective ties linking the whole, in the domains modern Westerners prize: plot and character development. At the end of the paper I propose a few rather small redactional changes that would have united the episodes more strongly, and hazard a guess or two as to why the redactor or redactors refrained from their use. My hope is that this paper will provide a step toward the development of a poetics of closure within biblical narrative
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