Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis: Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text eds. by Elizabeth R. Hayes and Karolien Vermeulen

Abstract

Reviewed by: Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis: Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text eds. by Elizabeth R. Hayes and Karolien Vermeulen Bill T. Arnold elizabeth r. hayes and karolien vermeulen (eds.), Doubling and Duplicating in the Book of Genesis: Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016). Pp. xiv + 209. $59.50. The essays collected here were presented at a joint session of the International Society of Biblical Literature (Stylistics and the Hebrew Bible program unit) and the European Association of Biblical Studies ("Literary Figures"—Fact or Fiction section) in Vienna in 2014. After a six-page introduction on the "Stylistics of Genesis" by one of the editors (Vermeulen), the volume offers eleven essays in three parts. Part 1 centers on doubling at the micro-text level and contains the following five essays under the title "Formal Doubles and the Whole": George Savran, "Doubled Request and Doubled Refusal: The Verb in Biblical Narrative"; Jonathan Grossman, "The Expulsion of Ishmael Narrative: Boundaries, Structure, and Meaning"; Samuel Hildebrandt, "The Proof-and-Play of Quoted Speech in the Joseph Story (Genesis 37–50)"; Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé and Jacobus A. Naudé, "The Intersection of Orality and Style in Biblical Hebrew: Metapragmatic Representations of Dialogue in Genesis 34"; and Gary A. Rendsburg, "Alliteration in the Book of Genesis." Part 2 contains three essays under the title "Thematic Pairs": Michaela Bauks, "One, Two, or Three … ? The Confusion of the Trees in Genesis 2–3 and Its Hermeneutical Background"; Karolien Vermeulen, "The Art of Blessing and Cursing in Genesis 1–11: Stylistic Patterns and Their Ideological Motivation"; and Zvi Shimon, "Distinguishing Abraham from the 'Terahides': The Ideology of Separation behind Etiology." Part 3 takes up duplicates on the level of the plot or story and contains the following three essays under the title "Doubling Plots and Duplicating Stories": Elizabeth R. Hayes, "Whose World? Whose Time? A Text World Theory Examination of the Style and Message of Genesis 1:1–2:25"; Karalina Matskevich, "Double-Plotting in the Garden: Stylistics of Ambiguity in Genesis 2–3"; and Urmas Nõmmik, "Inclusio in Genesis 28 and 32: Synchronically and Diachronically." The volume concludes with two indexes: ancient and modern authors, and Scripture references. The introduction by Vermeulen explains the methodology tying these disparate contributions together. She clarifies the use of "stylistics" in a particularly helpful discussion, refining a methodological conviction that the period of literary approaches in our discipline is not, in fact, coming to an end. Whether these approaches are termed "synchronic" or "narratological" (focusing on characterization, point of view, themes, and motives), I agree with Vermeulen's assessment that we are now witnessing the maturation of such approaches, made possible by the convergence of the insight of this kind of work with traditional approaches, as well as hybrid methods bringing the insights of literary analysis together with source criticism, redaction criticism, and others. Taken from the use of "stylistics" in applied linguistics, Vermeulen argues that it may serve to denote what is needed today in our discipline: "In all cases, the central question is why the text takes the form, shape, or formulation as we have it. Stylistics is concerned with this: the why of the form and its impact on the reading process and the consequent interpretation(s) of a text" (p. 2). Thus, the contributions in this volume "focus on the form of the book of Genesis—that is, on its use of language and formulation," and most especially on recurring dualities of the book, hence "doubling and duplicating," transcending individual units or stories (p. 3). While the [End Page 163] subtitle of the book, "Literary and Stylistic Approaches to the Text" may confuse the issue by suggesting "literary" is distinct from a hybrid "stylistics" approach, I nonetheless welcome the clarification brought to bear on the discipline by formalizing a convergence of synchronic approaches with traditional historical-critical investigation. The individual chapters each make a contribution to a reading of certain passages or units of Genesis. The value of reading the book in toto is the contribution it makes to a "stylistics" methodology. One observes, however, that the degree to which each contribution fully buys into...