Nahum (Readings: A New Biblical Commentary) - Softcover

O'Brien, Julia M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841273007 ISBN 13: 9781841273006

Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2002

Synopsis

In its wanton celebration of violence, the book of Nahum poses ethical challenges to the modern reader. O'Brien offers the first full-scale engagement with this dimension of the book, exploring the ways in which the artfulness of its poetry serves the book's violent ideology, highlighting how its rhetoric attempts to render the Other fit for annihilation. She then reads from feminist, intertextual and deconstructionist angles and uncovers the destabilizing function of the book's aesthetics. Finally, she demonstrates how mining Nahum's ambiguities and tensions can contribute to an ethical response to its violence.

About this title

About the Author:

Julia M. O'Brien is Professor of Old Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary

Review:

" (Religious Studies Review)

"Julia O'Brien's commentary on Nahum offers an evocative new reading of this 'oracle' also identified as 'the book of vision'. It moves beyond existing feminist readings that focus on Nineveh the prostitute in Nahum 3 by analysing the gender roles developed by the rhetoric of the three chapters read as a whole....I could literally not put it down. O'Brien has developed a style in writing an academic monograph that provides the reader with hints about what is coming so that the reader becomes engaged with the arguments as intently as with a book of suspense.... compelling new insights into the meanings of Nahum. O'Brien's book is an excellent example of a study that advances biblical study by changing the focal point from the intentions of authors, as do complex redactional histories, to the text as constructed with an intention to communicate — even though a text like Nahum is a disturbing read. I recommend it highly as fresh commentary on Nahum in an innovative series." — The Bible and Critical Theory, Vol. 1 No. 3, 2005

"Julia O’Brien’s commentary on Nahum offers an evocative new reading of this 'oracle’ also identified as 'the book of vision’. It moves beyond existing feminist readings that focus on Nineveh the prostitute in Nahum 3 by analysing the gender roles developed by the rhetoric of the three chapters read as a whole....I could literally not put it down. O’Brien has developed a style in writing an academic monograph that provides the reader with hints about what is coming so that the reader becomes engaged with the arguments as intently as with a book of suspense.... compelling new insights into the meanings of Nahum. O’Brien’s book is an excellent example of a study that advances biblical study by changing the focal point from the intentions of authors, as do complex redactional histories, to the text as constructed with an intention to communicate – even though a text like Nahum is a disturbing read. I recommend it highly as fresh commentary on Nahum in an innovative series." – The Bible and Critical Theory, Vol. 1 No. 3, 2005

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1841273007
• ISBN 13: 9781841273006
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 225