Book Reviews -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 08:1 (NA 1998)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous


Book Reviews

Reliable Characters in the Primary History: Profiles of Moses, Joshua, Elijah and Elisha. By Paul J. Kissling. JSOTSup 224. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996. 220 pp. Hardback.

This Ph.D. dissertation, written under the supervision of David Clines at the University of Sheffield, examines four characters found in the Primary History (= Deuteronomistic History) with a view to examining their reliability. Kissling defines reliability by the following example: “When a character’s speech and/or actions always represent the narrator’s point of view and always have the narrator’s moral and ideological approval, that character is said to be a thoroughly reliable character” (p. 20). In reader-response fashion, Kissling identifies the narrative’s reader in this case as a postexilic, pre-Christian Jew who reads fluent Hebrew and uncritically accepts the supernatural elements of the biblical teaching. Throughout the book he makes a distinction between the impression given to the first-time reader of the text and that given to the second-time reader of the Deuteronomistic History. While it is of interest to establish a particular reader, it is not clear what effect this actually has on the argument of the work. Similar conclusions might be reached if the reader were medieval or modern, Christian or atheist. Further, the distinction between first- and second-time readers could also be expressed as the difference between surface reading and a deeper study of the text.

Briefly, Kissling argues that Moses is a basically reliable figure although there are elements of his words and actions that show a lack of reliability. For example, in Deuteronomy, Moses’ retelling of the Ten Commandments alters some of the words found in the original presentation of them in Exodus 20. Again, Moses’ criticism of the people whose sin he blames for not allowing him to enter the Promised Land (Deut 1:37; 3:26; 4:21) contrasts with God’s statement that pins the blame on Moses and his own actions (Deut 32:48-52). In these and a few other examples, Moses tends to magnify his own person at the expense of the truth. Joshua, on the other hand, appears to Kissling a thoroughly reliable character. Incidents such as Rahab and the Gibeonites, in which there is an apparent violation of the command to kill everyone in Canaan, reflect the flexibility of the application of the “ban.” This flexibility is one that even God recognizes, as the policy of total extermination of everything at Jericho changes to one of selective destruction at Ai and elsewhere.

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