Discourse Analysis of Biblical Literature: What It Is and What It Offers.

• Author: Vanderhooft, David
• Position: Review

Edited by WALTER R. BOVINE. Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies. Atlanta: SCHOLARS PRESS, 1995. Pp. x + 264. $44.95 (cloth); $29.95 (paper).

The studies in this volume seek to show how the linguistic discipline of discourse analysis (also called text linguistics) can aid in understanding biblical literature, specifically the Hebrew Bible. In his opening essay, Bodine briefly introduces discourse analysis. It presupposes that linguistic investigation must focus on units larger than the sentence, the traditional object of linguistic analysis; such larger units are termed discourses (or texts). Bodine summarizes the theories of several leading practitioners. There is some jargon to decipher, as in the discussion of discourse levels beyond background and foreground, where Bodine illustrates with examples from Totonac. Jargon aside, when he outlines "Tasks That Require a Discourse Approach" within biblical studies (pp. 10-11), he offers no rationale for why discourse analysis might prove helpful in the analysis of, e.g., "the use of locative and temporal expressions." Nevertheless, Bodine illuminates the conditions within biblical studies that now make the discipline appealing. Literary critical methods have become prominent, as atomistic analytic methods (e.g., source and redaction criticism) yield to concerns with the text as it stands. Discourse analysis is similarly oriented (also see Lowery, pp. 103-7).

Robert Longacre identifies Exod. 25:1-30:10 as an "instructional discourse." A pioneer in discourse analysis, Longacre argues that "instruction" is a distinct discourse type. This thesis depends on his earlier generic analyses of discourse types. There is also some unwieldy jargon, as when he says that "the peak" of Exod. 29:38-46 - a "discourse" - is "not necessarily a discrete area, but rather a zone of turbulence and excitement" (p. 34). The greatest potential for application of discourse methods may be in the analysis of verb sequences: Longacre argues that the onset of major sections in Exod 25:1-30:10 is signaled by an imperative and/or what he calls a "cleft sentence" (zeh/ elleh [null] [null verb in nominal clause] X aser + verb). Attention to the syntax of the verb in discourses is a common and productive concern of several of the papers in this volume.

David Carr argues that Isa. 40:1-2 and 6-8 are "meta-communicative statements" that "play a critical role in setting the stage for the text in 40:9ff." (p. 62). His...