Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 75:2 (Fall 2013)
Article: A Dialogic Study Of Psalm 78 And Isaiah 1
Author: Dickson J. N. Kungu

A Dialogic Study Of Psalm 78 And Isaiah 1

Dickson J. N. Kungu

Abstracts Of Recent WTS Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the ideological debate between Ps 78 and Isa 1 by means of a Bakhtinian dialogic approach. Other approaches such as form criticism, rhetorical criticism, and intertextuality have contributed toward a deeper understanding of texts. Form criticism investigates the form and Sitz im Leben. Rhetorical criticism studies the stylistics of specific texts. Intertextuality discerns links among texts. Each of these approaches has shortcomings. Form criticism has traditionally overlooked the specificity of a text in search of the typical aspects. The Sitz im Leben has been illusive especially since texts can be used in different contexts. Rhetorical criticism reduced to stylistics ignores ideology. Intertextuality has been limited by remaining at the level of the text. Dialogism accepts the contributions of these approaches but avoids their shortcomings. It identifies genres and genre manipulation in specific texts. It seeks both the style and the ideology of the speaker. It uses intertextual links as a means of understanding dialogic relationships.

Since intertextual links may be an indication of dialogic links, this study investigates priests and prophets in the ancient Near East and the Bible as the most likely speakers in psalms and prophetic texts. It applies a dialogic approach to Ps 78 and Isa 1. It demonstrates that Ps 78 promotes the royal and temple ideology of Judah in the eighth century b.c. while criticizing the northern kingdom of Israel. Isaiah 1 critiques both the royal and temple ideology of Judah in the eighth century b.c. The two passages therefore reveal the ideologies of their speakers. When read in juxtaposition, they contribute to a cultural dialogue taking place in Judah in that historical period.

The study has shortcomings in that it assumes the historicity of ideological texts and attempts to discover speakers and contexts behind the texts we now have. The study will appear speculative to readers who demand extra-biblical verification. However, available data from the ancient Near East confirm the biblical picture of eighth-century Judah sufficiently so that the study escapes charges of pure speculation and circular reasoning.