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Hannah at Pentecost on Recognizing Spirit Phenomena in Early Jewish Literature

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Hannah at Pentecost on Recognizing Spirit Phenomena in Early Jewish Literature journal of pentecostal theology 27 (2018) 245-258 brill.com/pent Hannah at Pentecost On Recognizing Spirit Phenomena in Early Jewish Literature Reed Carlson1 Harvard University, Cambridge, usa [email protected] Abstract This essay argues that Hannah’s story in 1 Samuel 1–2 is an example of a ‘spirit phenom- enon’ in the Hebrew Bible. The story displays an uncanny sensitivity to Hannah’s psy- chological state, which is consistent with how spirit language is used as self-language in biblical literature. Hannah describes herself as a ‘woman of hard spirit’ (1 Sam. 1.15) and engages in a kind of trance, which is disruptive enough to draw the attention of Eli. Through inner-biblical allusion and intentional alterations in the Old Greek and Dead Sea Scroll versions of 1 Samuel, Hannah comes to be associated with other prophetic women in biblical literature. Several Second Temple Jewish interpreters read Hannah as a prophetess and as a practitioner of spirit ecstasy, culminating in Philo’s associa- tion of Hannah with Bacchic possession and in Hannah’s experience at Shiloh serving as a model for Pentecost in the book of Acts. Keywords spirits – possession – ecstasy – prophecy – Philo – intertextuality For readers of a certain temperament, there are few stories in the Hebrew Bible that engender as much pathos as that of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1–2. Its brevity and terseness seem devised specifically to emphasize Hannah’s own feelings of insecurity, isolation, and desperation. In contrast to the sweeping narratives of national conflict that will follow in the books of Samuel, Hannah’s struggle is conspicuous for its plainness and universality. Her plight resonates not only 1 Reed Carlson (ma, Luther Seminary) is a doctoral candidate in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Harvard University, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, usa. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/17455251-02702005Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 06:50:12PM via free access <UN> 246 Carlson with other instances of the barren woman motif in the Hebrew Bible but also with readers who have witnessed or experienced a struggle with infertility and who might find in the figure of Hannah a kindred spirit. This essay will argue that the emotional sonority in Hannah’s story is com- posed intentionally as a means to tap into a much wider theological complex involving ‘spirit phenomena’ in the Hebrew Bible. This thesis is confirmed when we investigate the textual transmission and interpretive reception of this story in Second Temple Jewish literature, which tends to emphasize its ‘spiritu- al’ overtones. In biblical literature, ‘spirit phenomena’ include the use of spirit language, descriptions of spirit possession events, and myths about spirits. It is often through spirit phenomena that biblical texts articulate and cultivate conceptions of the self, of spirit possession and trance practices, and of the unseen forces that cause communal unity, charismatic heroism, and personal suffering. At first glance, Hannah’s story may seem, at best, only tangentially related to such a complex but I contend that, as with so many other instances of inner-biblical resonance in these first two chapters of Samuel, the narrative makes the connection with expert subtly. Indeed, commentators of various ideological persuasions have long noted that Hannah’s story is uncommonly dense with inner-biblical allusion and intertextuality. Before diving further into my thesis, it will be helpful to summarize some of the most recognizable intertextual resonances in this narrative. 1 Inner-biblical Allusions and Motifs in 1 Samuel 1–2 To begin, it is a recurring rhetorical strategy of biblical literature, that we are first informed that Samuel will be an outstanding man precisely because his mother is no ordinary woman.2 This is true despite the fact that she is intro- duced by means of her relationship to her husband and her story is told to us in a book that bears her son’s name. Indeed, Hannah’s extraordinary conse- quence is signaled almost immediately. For hearers whose ears still reverber- ate with Israel’s ancestor stories, the narrative’s simple descriptors may sound like echoes: Elkanah has two wives: Penninah who has children and Hannah who does not. Further, although she is barren, Elkanah favors Hannah with a 2 Jochebed/Moses and Mary/Jesus are perhaps the most obvious participants in the paradigm. We may also point to Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel. Later Jewish traditions would innovate similar stories for other mothers in biblical literature, including those of Noah, David, and others. See Reed Carlson, ‘The Boy Who Lived: Transformation of a Theological Motif in Biblical Tradition’, Word and World 36.3 (2016), pp. 276–84. journal of pentecostal theologyDownloaded from 27 Brill.com09/26/2021 (2018) 245-258 06:50:12PM via free access <UN> Hannah At Pentecost 247 double portion of his sacrifices.3 Like so many stories of election in the Hebrew Bible, we do not know why one is favored over the other, but we do see the consequences.4 Additionally, we are told that Penninah antagonizes Hannah, which only adds to the suffering of the barren woman. These kinds of connections continue throughout Hannah’s story. On pil- grimage, Hannah enters the shrine at Shiloh and vows in weighty tones that in exchange for the birth of a son, she will ‘give’ the child to the Lord (v. 11).5 As (נתן) ’Jon D. Levenson has suggested, this particular articulation with ‘give evokes the language of child sacrifice, a ‘mythic-ritual complex’ that is pre- served and transformed throughout biblical literature.6 In agony, Hannah prays and is approached by the priest, Eli, who, after a conspicuous and drawn out misunderstanding, instructs Hannah to go in peace, ‘May the God of Israel your petition which you have asked from him’ (v. 17b). In ([יתן] ’grant (‘give characteristic terseness and in formulaic language, the conception, birth, and naming of Hannah’s son progress quickly. Hannah returns to Shiloh to offer a sacrifice and to deliver the now weaned Samuel to Eli. Fittingly, the episode concludes with a song (1 Sam. 2.1–10), one that has implications beyond its im- mediate context. Like similar poems (e.g. Miriam’s song in Exodus 15 or Debo- rah’s song in Judges 5), Hannah’s song is prophetic and alludes not just to her personal triumph but also to God’s cosmic victory. Positioned as it is, the song is an overture for the continuing saga of Israel and of her son, Samuel’s, pivotal part within it.7 Commentators have also noted resonances in Hannah’s story with other family narratives in the Hebrew Bible. We may note, for example, that on one 3 For at least one ancient translator, the connection to the matriarch Rachel was so obvious that an explicit construction for Hannah’s barrenness was borrowed in 1 Sam. 1.5 from Gen. .(מן קדם יי אתמנע מנה ולד) ’Tg. Ps.-J.: ‘Before the Lord, offspring was withheld from her .30.2 See Eveline van Staalduine-Sulman, The Targum of Samuel (sais 1; Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 190–91. 4 This theme of theological election in the Hebrew Bible is fleshed out in Joel Kaminsky, Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007). 5 Following convention, this essay renders the tetragrammaton as ‘the Lord’. 6 Jon D. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 48. 7 Like other poems set within the narratives of the Bible, Hannah’s song is positioned at a seam in the wider enneateuchal story. Martin Beck, ‘Messiaserwartung in den Geschichtsbüchern? Bemerkungen zur Funktion des Hannaliedes (1 Sam 2,1–10) in seinem diversen literarischen Kontexten (vgl. Ex 15; Dtn 32; ii Sam 22)’, in M. Beck and U. Schorn (eds.), Auf dem Weg zur Endgestalt von Genesis bis ii Regum: Festschrift Hans-Christoph Schmitt zum 65. Geburtstag (bzaw 370; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2006), pp. 231–52. journal of pentecostal theology 27 (2018) 245-258Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 06:50:12PM via free access <UN> 248 Carlson level, Elkanah’s oafish question reads with a kind of dark irony: ‘Am I not bet- ter to you than ten sons?’ (v. 8b).8 Yet on another level, the husband’s ignorant words are a dim foreshadowing of hope, for they evoke the plight of anoth- er bereft woman, Naomi, in the book of Ruth. On the cusp of embracing her grandson, an ancestor of David, Naomi’s neighbors exclaim to her: ‘For your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him’ (Ruth 4.15b).9 These connections are not just allusions for the sake of allusion, however. They betray cognizance of wider and intersecting sets of concerns. The contest between Hannah and Penninah, for example, is not only reminiscent of Rachel and Leah but also a participant in the broader theme of sibling rivalry and elected children in the Hebrew Bible, another mythic-ritual complex that concerns – among other things – the theological significance of progeny, inheritance, and sacrifice.10 In this way, the particularities of Hannah’s story become both a commentary and a primary text for these and other ongoing theological discussions across the traditions and eras of biblical literature.11 2 ‘Spirit Phenomena’ in Biblical Literature I take the space above to summarize some of the more prevalent examples of intertextual allusion in 1 Samuel 1–2 in order to demonstrate how numerous 8 ‘Hannah is not recorded as responding to her husband Elkanah here, and some readers will not wonder why’.
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