Narrative Analogy in the Hebrew Bible ─ Battle Stories and Their Equivalent Non-Battle Narratives

Berman (Bible, Bar-Ilan U., Israel) begins by introducing and explaining narrative analogy and the metaphor plot and how those concepts are manifested and analyzed in biblical studies. Then he takes as case studies six pairs of biblical narratives, one about battle and the other not. For each pair, he identifies initial elements of analogy and suggests a hypothesis; then proceeds to find further analogical elements, to refine the initial hypothesis in light of them, and to explore different shades of its meaning. Among the examples he cites are the second battle at Ha-Ai (Josh 8:1-29) and the trial of Achan (Josh 7L10-26), and two days of feasting (Esth 5:1- 8) and two days of fighting (Esth 9:1-16). He appends a glance at the Near Eastern battle report as comparison and context. The study was his Ph.D. dissertation for an institution he does not name. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Joshua A. Berman Ph.D. (2002) is a Lecturer in the Department of Bible at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His scholarly focuses are upon the literary analysis of biblical narrative with a penchant for interdisciplinary approaches to the biblical text. He has published several articles and is also the author of The Temple: Its Symbolism and Meaning Then and Now (Jason Aronson, 1995).