Framework and Discourse in the Book of Judges

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.) The period of the judges is depicted as a desperate time calling for exceptional leaders. It is a time dominated by conflicts. A lasting peace, almost reached at the end of Joshua, is again far away. The stories of the central figures, the judges, offer a diverse portrayal. There is no image of an ideal judge but several individual characters sharing only one activity: they fight for their people. The judges are presented as heroes, although not without flaws, but they do not achieve sustained success. Hence the book ends with an even stronger desire for exceptional leaders. Most of the stories in Judges 3-16 are linked by a framework presenting them as episodes of Israel's failure to observe Yhwh's covenant, of punishment and rescue. A varying number of recurring elements uphold the schema. In this respect, the framework is more than a loose bond between the stories.1 What makes the framework of Judges special (compared to other biblical frameworks, for example, in the books of Kings) is the preface in Judg 2:11-19. These verses present a distinct perspective on the period of the judges.2 As a preface, it could be read as an introduction to the framework as well as the stories, providing an insight into the correlation between the activities of the people, their failure to observe God's covenant, and an evaluation and reaction by God. When one looks at the stories in Judges through the lens of the theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, the dialogue between different voices becomes obvious. The voice of the introduction with its strong valuation is the first voice to be clearly noticed. Before the stories start, this voice offers an authoritative evaluation of the period of the judges. After the judgmental anticipation, this voice is continued in the framework. In the course of the narrations, the framework forms a prominent voice within the stories of individual judges that starts a dialogue with all the other voices and joins them in a double-voiced discourse. In doing so neither the framework nor the individual stories remain unaffected; rather they have an impact on each other.3 In this process, however, the once authoritative voice loses its explanatory status. The unfolding of the book of Judges can be described as a dialogue4 between the voice of the introduction and the voice of the individual stories. The development of the quarreling voices reaches its climax in the story of Samson, where the interpretation of the introduction, as well as the schema upheld by the framework, dissolves into a carnivalesque presentation of events. I. PREFACE AND FRAMEWORK Continuing the stories about conquering the promised land in the book of Joshua, Judges 1 summarizes the military problems encountered by the Israelites, and, subsequently, Judges 2 offers a religious perspective on this situation.5 Before the stories of the judges unfold, 2:8-10 refers back to the death of Joshua and the people of his generation, contrasting them to the Israelites of the present, who do not know Yhwh anymore. What has been achieved is lost; the community, whose first task it is to bear God, his deeds, laws, and promises in remembrance-as Deuteronomy formulates it-has failed to do so. The retrospect challenges the continuity of the people and their relationship to Yhwh. The question whether Israel will remain loyal to Yhwh, or whether anybody will be able to guide Israel, is raised quite urgently. Judges 2:11-19 presents a short description of the era of the judges evaluated in a strongly negative tenor. The sequence of events corresponds, approximately, to the structure of the individual stories. Some elements of this preface are repeated to frame these stories, connecting the preface and its perspective to the stories of the judges. The Preface (Judges 2:11-19) The focus of the preface is the evaluation of the whole period,6 and God's point of view is used as an authoritative perspective to sum up the era. …