Dynamics of Diselection: Ambiguity in Genesis 12-36 and Ethnic Boundaries in Post-Exilic Judah.

• Author: Smith, Mark S.
• Position: Book Review

By R. CHRISTOPHER HEARD. The Society of Biblical Literature Semeie Series, vol. 39. Atlanta: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, 2001. Pp. xii + 212. $29.95 (paper).

This work explores the literary presentation of ethnicity in Genesis 12-36. Here election (or ethnic inclusion) is understood as a corollary of "diselection" (or ethnic exclusion). Election and diselection are played out on the literary level through the presentation of the paired figures of Abraham/Lot, Isaac/Ishmael, Jacob/ Esau and to some degree Jacob/Laban. The Genesis narratives convey diselection through episodes of differentiation and separation of the diselect from the elect. This literary presentation is situated against the historical backdrop of the Persian period, in particular Yehud's relations with its neighbors. Chapter one sets out the course of the book as a project that combines what the author calls "literary-aesthetic" readings, feminist advocacy interpretations, and sociological-ideological approaches to interpreting the Hebrew Bible. Valuable for looking at Genesis from different perspectives, these approaches are briefly described. (This project includes little broader consideration of either ethnicity or ideological criticism.)

Historical context is a crucial issue for this book. With some so-called "minimalists" in mind, the author argues well against locating the production of Genesis in the Hellenistic period. Instead, he speaks of Genesis as produced in its final form in the Persian period (p. 9). On the face of it, this view sounds reasonable, and this issue has received renewed attention. Elsewhere Heard regards Genesis as produced in this period, without any qualifications added regarding the book's final form. This is not the same claim. Moreover, the author does not consider the historical possibility that the narratives were produced largely before the Persian period. Those interested in a reading of Genesis that combines diachronic and synchronic issues (also with a theory about the text's final form as essentially achieved in the Persian period), would be well advised to look at David M. Carr's book, Reading the Fractures of Genesis: Historical and Literary Approaches (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1996). Unfortunately, Carr's final treatment is absent from Heard's discussion. Other important related issues such as the linguistic evidence for or against a Persian-period date for Genesis go unexamined. Instead of posing the issue in...