The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Narrative

Abstract

Comprised of contributions from scholars across the globe, The Oxford Handbook to Biblical Narrative offers critical treatments of both the Bible’s narratives and topics related to the Bible’s narrative constructions. The volume’s fifty-one chapters fall into five sections: The first section covers the general work of biblical narrative, the history of biblical narrative criticism, the socio-historical influences on biblical narrative, and issues of narrative genre. The second section focuses on the biblical narratives themselves, from Genesis to Revelation, providing both overviews of literary-critical treatments of individual biblical books and innovative readings of biblical narratives informed by a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks. The third section targets how various kinds of bodies are constructed in biblical narrative. The fourth section explores the natural, social, and conceptual landscapes of biblical story worlds. The final section raises questions of reading, particularly the relationship of culture to biblical interpretation and the ethical responsibilities of readers. The volume as a whole combines literary sensitivities with the traditional historical and sociological questions of biblical criticism and puts biblical studies into intentional conversation with other disciplines in the humanities. It reframes biblical literature in a way that highlights its aesthetic characteristics, its ethical and religious appeal, its organic qualities as communal literature, its witness to various forms of social and political negotiation, and its uncanny power to affect readers and hearers across disparate time-frames and global communities.