Rewriting Moses: The Narrative Eclipse of the Text (Gender, Culture, Theory 14) (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 402) - Softcover

Britt, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0567080870 ISBN 13: 9780567080875

Publisher: T&T Clark, 2004

Synopsis

Exalted for centuries as a hero and author of the Bible, Moses is inseparable from biblical tradition itself. Moses is also an inherently ambiguous figure and a perennial focus of controversy, from ancient disputes of priestly rivalry to modern issues of class, gender and race.

In Rewriting Moses, Brian Britt analyses elements of polemic and ideology in the Moses of the Bible, of film, novel, visual art and scholarship. He argues that the biblical Moses lives within writing, while the post-biblical Moses lives more often in biography. Yet later rewritings of Moses refract biblical traditions of writing in surprising ways. Rewriting Moses provides an original account of the Freudian insight that traditions preserve what they repress.

This is volume 14 in the Gender, Cutlure, Theory series and is volume 402 in the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplements series.

About this title

About the Author

Brian Britt received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and is currently Associate Professor and Director of Religious Studies in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Review

employs an eclectic mix of traditional historical methods with recent hermeneutical and ideological approaches...Readers will gain fresh insight into the variety and profundity of the biblical and post-biblical traditions about Moses. Britt is a skilled critic and moves seamlessly between film, art, literature, and the biblical text itself. (Brian D Russell, Asbury Theological Seminary, Florida Expository Times)

"...Britt's decision tomove in chronological reverse succeeds admirably. Rewriting Moses carries the reader back through two and a halfmillennia of tradition about Moses and finds a strange and elusive being whosehidden birth and hidden death frame a life that struggles with the hiddennessof lonely mountaintops and a veiled face. This book manages to bring togethermodern cultural analysis and rich, creative biblical exegesis in a complexityworthy of the character for which it searches."- Mark McEntire, The Society of Biblical Literature, December2005

Review ~ International Review of Biblical Studies, vol 51, 2004/05

"...this book offers the persistent reader a different way of looking at biblical tradition, one that does not attend exclusively either to the text or the interpretation of it but rather the complex patterns playing across both."- David M. Carr, 68, 2006 (Catholic Biblical Quarterly)

'This volume serves multiple functions for diverse readers. Anyone interested in modern representations of Moses will appreciate the chapters on Moses in novels and films, and Britt provides a helpful overview of modern biblical scholars' approach to "legend" and "history" in the biblical stories about Moses...fascinating.'~ R. Christopher Heard, Pepperdine University, Interpretations, July 2006 (R. Christopher Heard Interpretation)

This is a gem of a book! Britt is a superb reader of Scripture. He keeps the reader interested and engaged. Be warned, however: chapters six and seven are not easy reading. The book is not a text for undergraduates. For biblical scholars who are interested in postmodern approaches (especially Derridian) to the Bible, this is a must read; it will probably become a classic." (The Bible and Critical Theory Vol. 3)

mentioned in Biblica (Steven Weitzman)

employs an eclectic mix of traditional historical methods with recent hermeneutical and ideological approaches...Readers will gain fresh insight into the variety and profundity of the biblical and post-biblical traditions about Moses. Britt is a skilled critic and moves seamlessly between film, art, literature, and the biblical text itself. (Sanford Lakoff Expository Times)

“...Britt’s decision tomove in chronological reverse succeeds admirably. Rewriting Moses carries the reader back through two and a halfmillennia of tradition about Moses and finds a strange and elusive being whosehidden birth and hidden death frame a life that struggles with the hiddennessof lonely mountaintops and a veiled face. This book manages to bring togethermodern cultural analysis and rich, creative biblical exegesis in a complexityworthy of the character for which it searches.”- Mark McEntire, The Society of Biblical Literature, December2005

'This volume serves multiple functions for diverse readers. Anyone interested in modern representations of Moses will appreciate the chapters on Moses in novels and films, and Britt provides a helpful overview of modern biblical scholars' approach to "legend" and "history" in the biblical stories about Moses...fascinating.'~ R. Christopher Heard, Pepperdine University, Interpretations, July 2006 (Sanford Lakoff Interpretation)

Edition details

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0567080870
• ISBN 13: 9780567080875
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256