Disputed Temple: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Book of Haggai by John Robert Barker

Abstract

Reviewed by: Disputed Temple: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Book of Haggai by John Robert Barker Matthew Seufert john robert barker, Disputed Temple: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Book of Haggai (Emerging Scholars; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2017). Pp. xvii + 295. $79. To give a sense of the extent and value of John Barker’s work: pp. 261–88 are bibliography. Twenty-eight pages at roughly fifteen items per page gives 420 books, journal articles, essays, and reference works that went into the production of this one book of six chapters (one introductory chapter; one text-critical, redaction-critical; one historical; two rhetorical-critical: one on Haggai 1 and one on Haggai 2; one summary) written on one slight prophetic book of two brief chapters of thirty-eight verses, B.’s translation of which is exhausted in less than three pages. Barker’s first chapter calls attention to the hole his study fills: “Despite the recognizably rhetorical character of the book of Haggai, it has been subjected to only limited rhetorical analysis” (p. 7), “[t]hus a full-length exploration of the book of Haggai specifically as a persuasive text is still needed” (p. 10). His exploration goes beyond previous rhetorical studies of Haggai by analyzing the whole of, rather than only a part of, the text itself (the literary aspect of rhetorical criticism). A special focus of his work is “the milieu in which the text was formed and to which it contributes” (the sociohistorical aspect), which some earlier studies have neglected; this latter extratextual consideration plays an “organic part” in the analysis” and, for B., distinguishes rhetorical criticism from literary criticism (p. 14). B.’s belief in the importance of the situation of the rhetorical document finds expression in his substantial third chapter (about seventy pages), which details pertinent historical information gleaned from both biblical (e.g., Ezra, Zechariah, and Isaiah 66) and extrabiblical sources (e.g., the Cyrus Cylinder) in order to provide insight into the specific obstacles faced by Haggai’s contemporaries to the rebuilding of the temple. “A main argument of this study is that all of the prophet’s speeches, not just the first one, were intended to urge the Yehudites to work on the temple” (p. 12). Even more, the framework [End Page 106] within which the speeches were placed, and so the book itself, contributed to the “specific policy dispute” in favor of rebuilding the temple, countering prevailing objections. Barker establishes the text of Haggai in his thorough second chapter on text- and redaction-critical issues. While acknowledging several text-critical challenges, “[with] few exceptions the MT reading was accepted” (p. 253). By and large, then, it is the MT text that addresses the ill of Haggai’s community, the cause of the ill, the remedy for the ill, and the consequences; these make up the “stock issues” of a policy dispute, “a subgenre of deliberative speech” (p. 17). “These stock issues provide a helpful framework for understanding the persuasive aim, strategies, and dynamic of the HN [i.e., Book of Haggai], as reflected in the reported oracles of the prophet and the narrative additions of the composer” (p. 143). The ill of the community “depicted in v. 6 [of chap. 1] . . . serve[s] rhetorically as both evidence of a need for a new policy and motivation to adopt that policy immediately” (p. 164; italics original); this ill “is the inability to meet basic needs despite all efforts” (p. 165): the people have sown much but brought in little, eaten without fullness, drunk without inebriation, dressed without warmth, and earned wages for a bag of holes. The cause of these ills is the unbuilt temple; the remedy, naturally, is to “build the house” (Hag 1:8). The remainder of Haggai, says B., addresses “the potential disadvantages to adopting the proposed policy,” which are the consequences (p. 142), the final component of the official policy dispute. “By urging his fellow Yehudites to rebuild the temple, Haggai was engaging, in effect, in a political campaign or policy debate to influence the outcome of a public decision” (p. 6). Barker views and analyzes Haggai not primarily as “a theological document with some ‘rhetorical’ features” but as “a...