The Voice of Jacob (review)

Abstract

Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 109 Reviews as such tend to be, and the Hebrew texts are often marred by misprints, as also tends to happen in books of this kind, but the provision of such a corpus of texts and translations is nevertheless a real service to scholars, who will know how to detect such errors where they appear. Several particular details in the volume can be questioned: Page 74: It is incorrect to say that "one can write up to two letters [on the Sabbath] which do not make a word...... The point is rather that such an act would not oblige one to bring a sin-offering to the Temple. Page 76: Correct the translation to "the western lamp was not still burning...:' Page 106: The date at the head of the Hebrew text does not agree with the date in the translation. Page 121: Correct the translation to '''in the evening' has no other meaning than 'when the day has turned.,.. The translation in the text misconstrues the idiom 'en ... 'ela. In general, however, the volume makes a solid contribution, and students of ancient Judaism or ancient exegesis of Scripture will now be able to consult it with profit. Robert Goldenberg SUNY at Stony Brook Stony Brook. NY 11794 THE VOICE OF JACOB. By Leslie Brisman. pp. xx + 122. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. The explosion of so-called literary studies of biblical narrative over the past two decades has, like every other movement in scholarship and politics, left casualties in its wake. One, often noted, is a tendency to ignore or belittle the findings of philological and historical research; another, also fairly universal, is taking itself too seriously. Against this background Leslie Brisman's playful study of "composition in Genesis" is a breath of fresh air. Brisman, a rare bird among literary Bible critics-an English professor (at Yale) who has a thorough command of both the Hebrew text of the Bible and rabbinic and medieval exegesis--has given the reader in this short book the opportunity to dwell in an admittedly imaginary scenario of the creation of Genesis with great profit. He proposes that we allow ourselves to Hebrew Studies 35 (1994) 110 Reviews conceive of what biblical scholarship calls "1" (here standing for "Jacobic") as essentially a creative and compelling reaction to a pre-existent "E" text (which, in a nice stroke, he terms "Eisaacic"-since "Esauic" might have presented too adversarial a picture). Brisman is quick to admit that this model may have no grounding in the actual history of the text; he feels, however, that such a reading is most fruitful for "understanding the competition of theologies, the agon of literary voices" (p. xv) in Genesis. And he makes an attractive case. It is difficult to read The Voice ofJacob without seeing in it a reaction to the work of another Yale English scholar, Harold Bloom's The Book ofJ. Whereas Bloom has portrayed J as a squelched or even betrayed work of iconoclastic genius, Brisman here outlines a possible development for Genesis that reveals a similarly sophisticated and ironic J, but one who makes "of a retelling the occasion for newness, so that he endlessly renews himself as he renews the challenge to the given text" (p. 113). For him, the J writer is endlessly creative (especially in his use of wordplays) and is particularly taken with the concept of struggle. The earlier E, in contrast, is static and centers around the conventional piety of a transcendent God. This reversal of the usual chronology according to adherents of the Documentary School need not be belittled. Although most biblical scholars see J as the product of the Davidic dynasty in the tenth or ninth century B.C.E., it is equally compelling to read the narratives of Genesis as a response to eighth to sixth century concerns. (Brisman, by the way, does not extend his analysis past Genesis, feeling that Exodus and Numbers do not fit this scheme as well.) I have called The Voice ofJacob playful, and it contains a number of wry observations. For example, Brisman likens conventional commentators on the "drunkenness of Noah" story in Genesis 9 to Shem...