Allusive Soundplay in the Hebrew Bible

Ancient Israel and Its Literature #28

by Jonathan G. Kline

The first study to focus exclusively on the use in the Hebrew Bible of soundplay to allude to and interpret earlier literary traditions This book focuses on the way the biblical writers used allusive soundplay to construct theological discourse, that is, in service of their efforts to describe the nature of God and God's relationship to humanity. By showing that a variety of biblical books contain examples of allusive soundplay employed for this purpose, Kline demonstrates that this literary device played an important role in the growth of the biblical text as a whole and in the development of ancient Israelite and early Jewish theological traditions.

166 pages, Hardcover

Published October 14, 2016

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I disagree with the author's less conservative views of authorship on some OT books e.g. third Isaiah, deutero-Isaiah, he provides some excellent principles and analysis of paronomasia, and how it applies to Hebrew word plays and OT intertextuality. This is the author's published dissertation, and he does not transliterate the Hebrew, so you cannot fully appreciate the analysis provided if you cannot read the Hebrew script and don't have a basic understanding of Hebrew grammar as well. The last several chapters build off of the methodology and trace different themes such as theodicy, judgment, and salvation via paronomasia, wordplays, and how they are employed by various OT authors in weaving together intertextual relationships to create theological motifs.

Although this book is brief it provides a crucial step forward in giving some categories and rubrics for evaluating potential paronomasia, which is an important element of Hebrew wordplays and is a necessary tool for OT intertextuality.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

An illuminating and thought-provoking study founded on a helpful model for identifying, evaluating, and categorizing (possible) examples of allusive paronomasia in the Hebrew Old Testament.