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In The Death of Jacob: Narrative Conventions in Genesis 47.28-50.26 Kerry Lee investigates the deathbed story of the patriarch Jacob and uncovers the presence of a variety of conventional structures underlying its composition, especially a conventional deathbed story or type scene also found in numerous other texts in the Hebrew Bible and non-canonical Jewish literature. Finding fault both with traditional diachronic approaches as well as more recent synchronic studies, Lee uses an eclectic but coherent blend of contemporary methods (drawn from narratology, linguistics, ritual theory, legal theory, assyriology, and other disciplines) to show that despite its probably composite pre-history the last three chapters of Genesis have been intentionally and artfully structured by the hand predominately responsible for their final form.
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The Death of Jacob
Biblical Interpretation Series Editors in Chief Paul Anderson (George Fox University) Yvonne Sherwood (University of Kent) Editorial Board A.K.M. Adam (University of Oxford) Roland Boer (University of Newcastle, Australia) Colleen M. Conway (Seton Hall University) Jennifer L. Koosed (Albright College, Reading, USA) Vernon Robbins (Emory University) Annette Schellenberg (Universität Wien) Carolyn J. Sharp (Yale Divinity School) Johanna Stiebert (University of Leeds, UK) Duane Watson (Malone University, USA) Ruben Zimmermann ( Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
VOLUME 138
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bins
The Death of Jacob Narrative Conventions in Genesis 47.28–50.26 By
Kerry D. Lee, Jr.
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lee, Kerry D. The death of Jacob : narrative conventions in Genesis 47.28-50.26 / by Kerry D. Lee, Jr. pages cm. — (Biblical interpretation series, ISSN 0928-0731 ; VOLUME 138) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-30302-7 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30303-4 (e-book) 1. Bible. Genesis, XLVII, 28-L—Criticism, Narrative. 2. Jacob (Biblical patriarch)—Biblical teaching. I. Title. BS1235.52.L44 2015 222’.11066—dc23
2015029551
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Contents Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations x 1 The Study of Conventions in Genesis 47–50 1 Setting the Stage 1 The Scholarly Context 5 Biblical Studies 5 The Strengths and Weaknesses of Synchronic Approaches 13 Literary Criticism, Folklore, and Vladimir Propp 16 Similarities to and Differences from Propp 19 Summary 22 The Plan for What Follows 22 Summary 24 2 The Conventional Hebrew Deathbed Story 25 Preliminary Remarks 25 Discovering the Deathbed Story 25 The Elements of the Deathbed Story 29 The Selection of the Worthy Successor 35 The Examples